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Job Title & Grade:

Transformation Design Lead

Contract Type:

Fixed Term - 24 months

Salary range (depending on location):

National - £71,381 - £80,419

London - £75,674 - £85,257

Please note that unless you are currently employed by the Civil Service and are earning more than the minimum above, if successful you will be offered the minimum for the grade depending on your location.

Location:

National

Directorate:

Transformation

Team:

Transformation

Working Pattern:

The post is supported by the MOJ flexible working policy and includes colleagues who work flexibly, remotely (as part of hybrid working), part time or as part of a job share etc.

If you are applying for a part time role, please note that in order to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 4 days a week.

To meet legal requirements, if you are between the ages 16-18 and you are a successful candidate, you will be required to complete an apprenticeship after your initial on the job training.

Reporting to:

Head of Transformation, Deputy Director

Closing date for applications

26^th March 2026

The Legal Aid Agency

We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We are responsible for operationally administering the legal aid fund to provide criminal and civil legal aid advice to people in England and Wales.

Our people are at the heart of achieving excellence. Employing around 1,200 colleagues across England and Wales, we feel proud to have some of the best People Survey results in the Civil Service.

Our LAA commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain, and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect

on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

If you are responding to a role within the Legal Aid Agency and would like to be considered under the guaranteed interview, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the sift or later selection processes.

The LAA’s goal is to build an organisation that is open and inclusive and truly values and celebrates the diversity of its workforce. One that reflects and understands the needs of the diverse society we serve. This is regardless of social background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, beliefs, disabilities or long-term illness or caring responsibilities.

Reasonable Adjustments
We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process, please let us know by adding the information to the applications system or emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk after you have applied so that we can discuss options with you.

Transformation
Transformation are responsible for continuing to drive forward simplifying the delivery of legal aid. We want to improve the experience for the people who apply for legal aid, the providers who deliver the services and those of us in the LAA who administer the scheme, while ensuring the LAA remains a great place to work.

Transformation Team
This team is leading the transformation of our organisation through innovation, collaboration and inclusion. Originally established in May 2020, the Transformation Team has grown rapidly over the last five years. We are a hybrid team of business change and project delivery experts, and working in partnership with others is at the heart of what we do. We work together with teams across the agency, with the LAA Digital team, MoJ Project Delivery Function experts, MoJ Policy teams and wider stakeholders across the justice system and government.

We have a large and complex portfolio remit to deliver change that enables recovery from the cyber-attack, development and implementation of transformed user facing services, implementation of modern digital architecture, and implementation of public commitments.

Job Summary

The Design Lead will be responsible for leading strategic problem framing and design coherence across the Transformation Portfolio, ensuring that major change decisions are well-framed, evidence-based and aligned to the Legal Aid Agency’s strategic outcomes and future vision.

The role acts as a senior design and thinking partner to policy, operational and digital leaders, improving the quality of decisions before they enter formal governance or delivery.

The role will operate across the full Legal Aid Transformation Portfolio, including transformation of end-to-end user journeys, policy change, digital infrastructure development, operational process efficiencies and interim solutions required during recovery and transition.

The focus of any role in the Transformation Portfolio team is dynamic, reflecting our role in responding to evolving operational and policy implementation priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic problem framing

Work with senior stakeholders across operations, policy and digital to clarify the underlying problems that change activities are seeking to address

Translate organisational strategy and outcomes, policy intent and organisation change intensions into clear, design problem statements

Challenge assumptions and surface root causes where proposals risk addressing symptoms rather than causes

Option shaping and trade-off analysis

Lead the development and exploration of viable design options for complex, cross-cutting problems

Make trade-offs explicit across policy, operational, technical, user and delivery dimensions

Support senior leaders to understand the implications, risks and opportunities of different choices

Design coherence across the portfolio

Act as a custodian of design intent across multiple initiatives over time

Identify and resolve contradictions, duplication or drift across programmes and workstreams

Support alignment between interim solutions and longer-term transformation direction

Decision support and assurance

Work closely with Design governance forums and other senior colleagues to ensure decisions coming forward are well-framed and decision-ready

Provide strategic design input, insight and challenge in senior governance forums

Maintain clarity and continuity around why key design decisions were taken

Leadership and influence

Operate as a trusted senior adviser to operational, policy and digital leaders

Represent the Head of Transformation’s intent in complex cross-organisational discussions

Coach and support others in strategic design thinking and decision-making

Task management of business analysts to commission and direct targeted deep dives into complex design problems

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

Experience shaping strategic options and articulating trade-offs for senior decision-makers
Experience of leading transformation in a complex operational organisation, at pace
Ability to collate and summarise complex information into clear written and verbal narratives
Strong judgement in ambiguous, complex, and politically sensitive environments
Confidence to constructively challenge, influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders, including across other functions (e.g. Policy and Digital)
Strong IT skills including application of AI

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

Knowledge of LAA systems, processes and interdependencies across wider MOJ/Government

Person Specification

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbal)
Comfortable working with ambiguity and incomplete information
Strong networking skills and ability to apply a collaborative and inclusive approach, valuing different perspectives, in person and virtually
Strong influencing skills, and experience of building and maintaining positive relations with internal and external stakeholders, partners and colleagues
Ability to operate in a value-driven style consistent with the values of the public services and specifically with MoJ and wider Civil Service values
The ability to quickly gain understanding about new subject matter and apply that understanding effectively
Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness

Assessment approach

Application Process

To apply please provide a CV and statement of suitability showing how you meet the essential criteria in no more that 1250 words.

Your statement should demonstrate your ability to do all of the essential criteria listed, using examples can help strengthen your application.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:

Strengths relevant to the role
The following Behaviours:

Seeing the big picture

develop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to ensure activity is relevant
ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies
adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy
bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities

Leadership

promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience
welcome and respond to views and challenges from others, despite any conflicting pressures to ignore or give in to them
stand by, promote or defend your own and your team’s actions and decisions where needed
seek out shared interests beyond your own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation
inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role

Making effective decisions

clarify your own understanding and stakeholder needs and expectations, before making decisions
ensure decision making happens at the right level, not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery
encourage both innovative suggestions and challenge from others, to inform decision making
analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions
find the best option by identifying positives, negatives, risks and implications
present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of complex and sometimes incomplete evidence
make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular

Changing and improving

encourage, recognise and share innovative ideas from a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders
give people space to take initiative and praise them for their creativity
create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard
make changes which add value and clearly articulate how changes will benefit the business
understand and identify the role of technology in public service delivery and policy implementation
consider the full impact of implementing changes on culture, structure, morale and the impacts on the diverse range of end users, including accessibility needs
identify early signs that things are going wrong and respond promptly
provide constructive challenge to senior management on change proposals

Your Experience of implementing, promoting, or understanding diversity and inclusion policy - Diversity is the presence of difference, this can include one or more of the protected characteristics (Gender, Age, Race, Disability etc.) or it can be about working patterns, whether we like to jump into a task or reflect on it before acting. Inclusion is how we welcome, value, and celebrate diversity, giving everyone a voice, tapping into ideas, and enabling everyone to be themselves at work and achieve their potential.

For this grade/ role we would expect the candidate to demonstrate understanding of the terms Diversity and Inclusion and be able to explain why they are important in a work environment. We would also expect examples of action they have taken to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding for self or others) or improve inclusion at a cross departmental or organisational level.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 30^th March 2026

Interviews are planned for week commencing 20^th April 2026

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact Hannah Payne at Hannah.payne@justice.gov.uk

Complaints procedure

If you have any complaints about this recruitment activity, please share your concerns by emailing LAARecruitment@justice.gov.uk initially. We aim to respond to any complaint within 10 working days.

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