Public Sector DesignOps Lead

Want to help build a world that works better for everyone? Kin + Carta is a global digital transformation consultancy that makes a difference to the billions who now use government services, work, play, shop, communicate and share online.

Join 1,600 curious and diverse minds in connecting people, data and technology to produce amazing experiences for critical government services, and for some of the world’s most influential companies. Become a maker, builder or creator as we explore the possibilities of sustainable digital technology, helping clients to rapidly innovate, modernise their systems, enable their teams, and optimise for continued growth.

We focus on tech but we’re a proudly inclusive business with trust and human connection at its heart. People, the planet, and profit matter equally to us which is why we’re a certified B Corporation in the United States and Europe.

Kin + Carta are looking for an experienced highly motivated, entrepreneurial and dedicated DesignOps Lead to join our growing Public Sector delivery team. Based out of a new K+C office, this role will bring expertise from working within government organisations to help us blend K+C's ways of working with government standards and codes. It will form part of our core public sector team within K+C, helping to refine what we are doing already within government, and extending our reach so we can help more public sector organisations build a better world for everyone.

This senior role comprises a mix of leadership across varied and sometimes complex agile projects and programmes and helping to build public sector business and capability within K+C.  Our Lead DesignOps work with our expert in-house teams of developers, designers and testing engineers to deliver innovative, high-quality software. Our government client list includes Test and Trace, the Home Office, Trade Remedies Authority, DLUHC, MoJ, National Crime Agency, GDS and the Planning Inspectorate, and is growing rapidly.

• Will help our designers and public sector clients manage programs of work, making sure we deliver effective design solutions.
• Will be client facing, bringing great communication skills and clarity to your team and stakeholders.
• Have experience planning and managing designers workload in the public sector, making sure the team has capacity to deliver.
• Help teams understand dependencies and connections across the end-to-end and use past experiences to reconcile them
• Experience working with the Service Manual and/or GOV.UK standards and working practices
• Familiarity with the GOV.UK design system and prototyping kit
• Collaborate with teams/designers across government to identify and design scalable, cross-government design patterns and standards
•  Influencing and assuring the quality of design delivery across programmes and services using tools such as peer reviews, design critiques and service review.
• Have a deep understanding of design systems and how they enable teams to deliver scalable products.
• Establish team rituals that ensure long term health and a cohesive working environment 
• Communicate and align with stakeholders to keep them informed on the team’s progress and goals
• Will build and evolve efficient processes and structure for client and internal projects.
• Have the opportunities to impact how our internal DesignOps function evolves as we scale.

• You have experience leading and supporting high-performing, collaborative design teams in the Public Sector with experience in within two separate programs of work, ideally in more than one government organisation, during your career in Design Operations.
•  You can demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users through agile ways of workings, iterative design and continuous research
• You have detailed knowledge and understand the expectations of Public Sector design teams. This will include GDS ways of working, team structure and how design work flows through existing government processes.
• This knowledge of Public Sector work gives you the confidence to apply but also challenge existing ways of working with your team. 
• You are the glue of a happy team and can manage a project autonomously from kick off to delivery.
• You're highly organised, with a passion for helping others to be organised.
• You have an understanding of design processes and frameworks and know what designers need to thrive in the workplace.
• You love amplifying and selling the impact that designers have on others around them and the wider business.