Lead Product Designer

About us

The Department of Government Services (DGS) was established on 1 January 2023 to improve everyone's experience of doing business and interacting with the Victorian government. We bring important day-to-day services together in one department to make things easy and seamless for Victorians and businesses. We are doing this by connecting and digitising our systems and platforms across state and local government as well as streamlining our corporate and procurement services.

About the role

The Product and Design division is responsible for defining, scoping and delivering user-centric solutions that meet both customer needs and business goals. The product team focuses on strategy, roadmap, and feature prioritisation, while the design team ensures intuitive, engaging, and accessible user experiences across all touchpoints. The division also leads website content creation to ensure clear, consistent, and easy to read information is presented across our digital products and platform.

Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Delivery, Policy, and Design leaders to create compelling, personalised experiences that support and empower all Victorians with low/no touch, effortless interactions which follow universally accessible patterns. You will have the exciting and rare opportunity to lead the design of initiatives, building modern and innovative government services.

Key Accountabilities

• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Delivery, Policy, and Design leaders to create compelling, personalised experiences that support and empower all Victorians with low/no touch, effortless interactions which follow universally accessible patterns.
• Design and validate innovative solutions, working with stakeholders to understand and balance customer, business, technical and regulatory requirements.
• Work with our leaders to develop strategy, contribute to the roadmap and support the impact we want to make as an organisation.
• Ensure our products deliver on our organisational goals, meet quality benchmarks andare regularly released.
• Mentor and manage a small team of UX designers and help them grow and do their best work
• Inspire other members of our team to think about Human Centred Design and the advancement of our design function within the organisation.
• Present compelling stories and craft strategies with a variety of stakeholders, bringing them along the journey.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of design systems, style guides, and interaction patterns to ensure consistency and coherence across our digital platforms
• Plan and participate in user research activities to gain insights into user behaviours, preferences, and pain points, and use this knowledge to inform and validate design decisions through usability testing
• Design and facilitate workshops for alignment, ideation, and iteration - for small and large groups - either remotely and or in-person.
• Initiate and maintain effective relationships, consulting and negotiating with internal and external stakeholders at peer or senior levels. Relying on formal and informal communication channels to achieve goals and engage stakeholders to help them identify areas and opportunities for improvement
• Actively present design decisions for review and buy-in, provide justifications, and incorporate feedback from stakeholders both within and outside the digital team and department.

Key Selection Criteria:

• Demonstrates experience in people management and acting in a leadership role, contributing to team culture, coaching and mentoring other designers, developing strategy and working toward organisational goals.
• Demonstrates a deep understanding of end-to-end product design - from discovery and research through to prototyping, testing, and validation with users and data.
• Provides evidence of crafting and presenting compelling stories and strategies with a variety of stakeholders, bringing them along the journey.
• Has a proven track record of successfully influencing outcomes with design partners and stakeholders
• Demonstrates a high level of craft proficiency with product design tools including using Figma to produce high fidelity UI designs, Figjam for collaboration, research tools and platforms, understanding of and contributions to design systems, knowledge of HIG and Material guidelines, strong understanding of responsive web designs, Android and iOS platforms.

How to apply

Apply before the advertised closing date 11:59pm on 16th September. All applications should include:

• a resume; and
• a cover letter which addresses the key selection criteria (within three pages)

Other relevant information

The department is committed to providing and maintaining a working environment which is safe and without risk to the health of its employees and clients and consistent with the department's obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OH&S Act), to support this DGS has a COVID-19 Vaccination policy which strongly recommends all DGS employees be fully vaccinated.

Preferred candidates will be required to complete a Pre-employment Declaration and Consent Form. Employment of successful candidates will be subject to a National Police Check.

DGS actively promotes diversity, inclusion and an equal opportunity workplace. We welcome applicants from all diverse backgrounds, including people with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. All roles at DGS can be worked flexibly, however it may differ from role to role.