Principal Service Designer

Salary: $167165.0k - $201105.0k p.a.

Principal Service Designer

• Full-Time (35hpw) Temporary to September 2027
• Salary Range $167,165 - $201,105pa + super
• Sydney City, Parramatta or Gosford with hybrid working arrangements (1-2 office days)

About the team
Digital Services sits at the heart of the customer experience at Service NSW. We design, build and operate the digital products, platforms and services that help millions of people access government services quickly, easily and securely.
We are a multidisciplinary team bringing together product, design, engineering, delivery, cyber security, data and business professionals. Our culture is collaborative, inclusive and outcome focused, with a shared commitment to delivering high-quality services that make a genuine difference for customers across NSW.

You will work on Unify, a strategically important platform that supports Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to deliver government services. As Unify scales to accommodate a growing range of transactions and hundreds of use cases, we have an opportunity to place the CSR experience at the centre of service design for the first time.

About the role
As Principal Service Designer, you will lead the design of a simpler, more connected and scalable experience for the people delivering government services every day.
You will build a deep understanding of how frontline teams work by visiting service centres, observing CSRs and mapping their end-to-end experience across customer interactions, processes, systems and technology. Your work will identify opportunities to reduce the time and effort required to serve customers, minimise switching between systems, and improve how Unify integrates with other technology.
This is a significant design leadership role. You will bring clarity to a complex environment, progressively shape an experience that can support hundreds of use cases, and help shift our design culture from optimising individual transactions to optimising the experience of the people who use and deliver the service.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end service design of the CSR experience across Unify.
• Spend time in service centres observing, researching and understanding how frontline teams serve customers.
• Map CSR journeys across customer interactions, systems, processes, channels and technology to identify pain points and opportunities.
• Design a coherent, intuitive and scalable experience that can support hundreds of transaction types and use cases.
• Identify opportunities to reduce handling time, duplication, manual effort and unnecessary switching between systems.
• Explore where Unify can integrate with other technology and platforms to create a more seamless end-user experience.
• Lead complex discovery, research, journey mapping, service blueprinting, co-design and future-state design activities.
• Use systems thinking and evidence to translate complexity into practical, prioritised service improvements.
• Partner with product, engineering, operations, policy, design and agency stakeholders to translate insights into deliverable outcomes.
• Influence senior stakeholders, product strategy and prioritisation using evidence from frontline users and operational insights.
• Champion human-centred, accessible and inclusive design across digital, assisted and operational touchpoints.
• Provide strong design leadership, uplift service design practice and help teams adopt a user-over-transaction mindset.

About you
You are an experienced service design leader who is energised by complexity rather than overwhelmed by it. You can take a large service challenge, create clarity and break it into practical opportunities for improvement.
You combine strategic thinking with high empathy and genuine curiosity about how people work. You are willing to get close to the problem, spend time with frontline teams and understand the realities behind a process before moving to a solution.
You understand how customer needs, staff experience, operational processes, policy and technology come together to create an end-to-end service. You can lead through influence, build alignment across diverse stakeholders and help shift teams from designing for a transaction to designing for the people who use and deliver the service.

To be successful in the role you will demonstrate:

• Extensive experience in service design or a closely related discipline, ideally across complex enterprise or multi-channel environments.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating discovery, research, journey maps, service blueprints, operating models, service concepts and delivered outcomes.
• Experience designing scalable services or platforms that support numerous user journeys, use cases or operational scenarios.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct contextual research and observation with frontline or operational users.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to connect user needs with operational, policy, business and technology considerations.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives involving multiple teams, agencies or stakeholder groups.
• Exceptional facilitation, stakeholder management, communication and storytelling skills.
• Experience working with senior executives and influencing strategic, product, service or operational decisions.
• Strong understanding of accessibility, inclusive design and evidence-based design practice.
• Experience working in agile multidisciplinary delivery teams and supporting organisational change.
• Tertiary qualifications in design or a related discipline, and/or equivalent industry experience

Essential Requirements
To be considered for roles in the NSW public sector, applicants must:

• Be NSW residents or in the process of relocating to NSW
• Hold appropriate working rights for the type of employment offered - Fixed Term roles require valid work rights for the full duration of the role

Why join Service NSW?
You'll be part of an organisation that:

• Delivers services that genuinely impact millions of people
• Invests in modern technology, ways of working and professional growth
• Supports flexible, hybrid working and inclusive practices
• Values collaboration, purpose and continuous improvement

If you're motivated by scale, complexity, and the opportunity to shape meaningful digital outcomes, we'd love to hear from you!

How to apply
Please submit your resume and cover letter as a single document. Your application should highlight your skills, experience, and why you're the perfect fit for this role.
Please also attach a summary of your portfolio showcasing your design work
Our recruitment and assessment process is merit based. For this recruitment we will be conducting a minimum of three interview and assessment stages that form a comparative process. This will include a minimum:

1. Panel behavioural interview
2. Work Task (walkthrough and presentation)
3. Cognitive Assessment
4. Reference checks

Support office roles will be headquartered across McKell, Parramatta or Gosford . We will consider role headquarters outside of the above locations where the role can reasonably be performed from that location taking into consideration the operational, financial and customer requirements of the role, and an ability to attend a NSW Government workplace as required. At the point an employee is notified of our intention to assign them to a role, the relevant leader will discuss headquarter options.

Click Here to access the Role Description . For enquiries relating to recruitment please contact Alyssa Shearman via Alyssa.Shearman@customerservice.nsw.gov.au.

Visit the Capability Application Tool to prepare for the recruitment process by accessing practice application and interview questions based on the focus capabilities listed in the role description.

A talent pool may be created as part of this recruitment process and will be valid for up to 18 months. The talent pool may be used to fill future ongoing or temporary vacancies of the same or similar role.

Closing Date: Tuesday 17th November 2026 at 9:59am

Careers at Department of Customer Service
A career at the Department of Customer Service (DCS) gives you the opportunity to help improve government services and be part of reform that benefits people across NSW. We are focused on delivering excellent customer service, digital transformation, and regulatory reform. Come join us and influence the future of our great state.

Belong in our diverse and inclusive workplace
The strength of our workforce lies in its diversity and embracing difference, while the key to our success is leveraging the contributions of employees with different backgrounds and perspectives.

You can view our full diversity and inclusion statement here.

We provide adjustments to the recruitment process for candidates, including individuals with disability. If you require an adjustment during the recruitment process, including alternate formats or have questions about the support available, please contact Talent Operations on 02 8276 8130 or csrecruitment@customerservice.nsw.gov.au.

For more information, please visit
Information on some of the different types of disabilities
Information on adjustments available for the recruitment process