Lead - Service Design

About us

The Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT) takes a long-term view of how New Zealand’s towns, cities and regions grow and change. We work across housing, transport, the environment, urban development, infrastructure and investment, and partner closely with local government. MCERT is leading the implementation of the Planning System Transformation Programme .

We are seeking an experienced Service Designer to join our programme and lead complex, large-scale change planning and delivery across multiple internal and external stakeholders About the role Reporting into the People Readiness and Change Team , y ou will be part of the Programme Design Function working alongside other designers and working across policy, digital, data, implementation, change, communications and other specialist teams.

This is a hands-on role working alongside priority initiatives. You will help teams understand user needs, bring research and evidence into decisions, make sense of complex information, test assumptions, and connect work across the system. This role is a fixed term / secondment to 30 June 2028. Your focus will be on helping initiatives apply user-centred practice from early planning through to implementation, while building a coherent understanding of how decisions, services and experiences connect across the wider system.

You will be comfortable working with complexity and ambiguity, using research, analysis, facilitation and design methods to help people make better decisions about how the future planning system will work in practice. Depending on the need, you might synthesise existing research, plan targeted user research, map an end-to-end journey, create blueprints, facilitate a cross-functional workshop, develop prototypes, or test whether a proposed approach can be understood and used.

You will also work both independently and collaboratively, taking ownership of key pieces of work from start to finish while contributing to shared design challenges across the programme.

What you will do

Work with priority initiatives to frame problems, understand users and connect decisions across the end-to-end experience. Bring together user research, readiness findings, implementation learning and system evidence, and turn it into practical implications for decisions. Plan and deliver proportionate research, participatory design, prototyping and testing with relevant users and stakeholders.

Create user journeys, blueprints, scenarios and visual artefacts that bring complex information and future-state concepts to life. Help teams understand connections, dependencies and impacts across initiatives, workstreams and the wider system. Identify assumptions, evidence gaps, implementation risks and potential unintended consequences early enough for teams to act on them.

Facilitate collaborative problem-solving across disciplines and help teams translate insight into action Lead and deliver defined pieces of work, taking accountability for the quality, usefulness and effectiveness of outputs. Coach initiative teams and develop reusable methods and examples that strengthen user-centred practice across the programme.

Bring te ao Māori perspectives and Te Tiriti o Waitangi considerations into the approach, evidence, participation and outputs.

What you will bring

We are looking for someone who combines strong service design capability with the ability to work collaboratively in a complex transformation programme. You will ideally have: Significant experience delivering service design, user experience or human-centred design work in complex settings. Practical experience in user research, evidence synthesis, journey mapping, service modelling, prototyping and testing.

The ability to make complex systems, information and relationships clear, visual and usable for different audiences. Strong facilitation, relationship management and influencing skills, with confidence working across multidisciplinary teams. Strong sense-making and systems thinking capability, including the ability to identify patterns, dependencies, risks and opportunities across complex environments.

The judgement to choose methods that are proportionate to the problem, risk and decision. Excellent written, verbal and visual communication skills. Knowledge or understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te ao Māori, and a commitment to growing your cultural capability. Why join us? This role offers the opportunity to contribute to one of the most significant reform programmes currently underway.

You will work alongside experienced programme , change and transformation professionals and play a key role in shaping workforce outcomes that will support long-term system change. Salary range Salary range for this role is $121,414to $147,455 pa . Appointment within this range will be based on skills and experience. Apply now Apply directly by completing the online application form and submit your CV and cover letter.

Note: your cover letter will be a key part of our assessment process, so please highlight how your experience relates to the key skills required for this role. Location: Wellington, other major centres considered for the right candidate. Applications close: Sunday 18th October 2026