Strategic Design Director

On behalf of Defra we are looking for a Strategic Design Director (Inside IR35) for an initial 18 month contract with potential for extension. Hybrid working with very frequent travel required, initially to Dartmoor and London, and in 2027 to Cumbria as well. Supporting England's uplands to flourish England's uplands are some of our most important landscapes.

They are home to communities, farming businesses and internationally important natural environments, yet they face complex and interconnected social, economic and environmental challenges. The Flourishing Uplands project is pioneering a new approach to rural change. Working with communities in Dartmoor and then Cumbria we are exploring how government can create lasting social, economic and ecological flourishing by working alongside people in place to create new systems and policies.

Commissioned following the review led by Dr Hilary Cottam OBE, this work is testing new ways of listening, collaborating and building change on the ground. By placing nature, people and place on a par, we aim to create thriving landscapes, thriving rural economies and thriving communities. This role is an opportunity to help shape a new model of place-based change intended to shape the future of rural policy and the way government works.

About the Role

We are seeking an exceptional strategic design leader to shape the next phase of Defra’s flagship place based system change programme. Following 18 months of research and co design with rural communities, the Uplands project is entering a pivotal implementation and learning phase across Dartmoor and then in Cumbria. You will sit at the heart of this work.

You will be entrepreneurial, a natural builder, able to help others to take their ideas from early concept into delivery, ensuring that interventions are both systemic in nature and responsive to local realities. You will be adept at keeping in mind the robust evidence required for long term policy and system reform, and the local detail that ensures genuine participatory working.

Working closely with the Head of Place and Implementation and Head of Policy, you will be responsible for establishing and leading local teams in place to deliver. You will therefore be deeply experienced in supporting collaboratives and communities to build change in practice. This will mean that you have perhaps prototyped in health and social care (or another relevant sector), designed and built local government services, or designed new ways of working in a neighbourhood setting to deliver change and community benefit.

You will be able to evidence that you have supported others to move from research and practice into the creation of new businesses and community interventions. Leading local teams, you will connect design, implementation and policy so that learning from the ground meaningfully influences national decision making. This is a senior, intellectually demanding and relationally complex role.

It requires excellent judgement, strong facilitation and synthesis skills, and the ability to lead with both rigour and adaptability in contested and often ambiguous environments. You will be working in place so an ability to travel is essential. What You’ll Be Doing Strategic Design Lead the systemic/strategic design approach for the Uplands project, ensuring interventions reflect whole system thinking and place based insight.

Translate ideas for system change into concrete initiatives and experiments in project locations and lead teams to deliver these. Enable local teams to move from concept to implementation and delivery (this is not a role that will focus on ethnography and early research but on prototyping, scaling and delivery). Lead experiments, prototypes and co design activity, ensuring they are well designed, ethically delivered and capable of producing system transformation in practice – this will include environmental, social, infrastructure and wider system-change projects.

Leadership Provide expert advice and support on the hiring and training of a team to ensure the new skills required for system transformation sit at the heart of Defra and ensure delivery of design work in place. Ensure local teams are equipped with the right skills, roles and capabilities to deliver prototypes that lead to action and facilitate system change locally.

Provide leadership to the ground teams, working jointly with the Head of Place and Implementation. Provide quality assurance for the work of place based design teams. Coach, mentor and build capability across the team. Collaboration Work closely with the project Director and other members of the senior team to produce local insights and evidence and build these into policy development and practice.

Build a strong set of relationships with partners within and outside government to enable project delivery. Essential: Deep experience in designing social system transformation, systems change leadership, strategic/service design, social innovation and/or public sector transformation. A track record of working in complex place based systems involving communities, local government, regulators and national policy stakeholders.

A track record of moving systems change work from concept to implementation at scale Creativity and curiosity – willingness to trial new ways of doing things. Exceptional synthesis and sense making skills, with the ability to turn ambiguity into clear strategic direction and delivery on the ground. Experience using participatory or place based evidence to shape policy, strategy or system change.

Confidence operating in politically sensitive, relational or contested environments. Strong coaching and capability building skills. A collaborative leadership style and comfort working in a shared leadership model. Experience designing or running large scale experiments or prototypes, preferably in public sector settings.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas. Disability Confident As a Disability Confident employer, Defra encourage applications from disabled and neurodivergent candidates . Applications from candidates who identify as having a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role will be prioritised for review.

Where application volumes are high, additional role-specific and desirable criteria may be applied as part of the shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance. In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation.

Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".