Chief Citizen Experience Officer

About the role

The Chief Citizen Experience Officer leads the Public Digital Agency's (PDA) citizen experience strategy and oversees end-to-end public service journeys. The role establishes a practical approach to understanding citizen needs, redesigning services across institutions and measuring whether they become easier, more inclusive and more effective. Applications close 15 days after publication, but the authority continues to receive and review them until the position is filled.

Key responsibilities

• Develop the National Citizen Experience Strategy and a life-event approach to priority journeys, such as starting a business or accessing family services.
• Work with service owners to map journeys, identify policy and operational barriers, agree improvements and set accountability across institutional boundaries.
• Lead service design standards, accessibility guidance and reusable design resources, embedding research and testing into service development.
• Build the human-centred design capability and an approved centre-of-excellence model, supporting journey owners and product teams.
• Partner with the Chief Product Officer to turn journey priorities into product roadmaps while keeping non-digital service steps visible.
• Establish citizen experience measures covering completion, satisfaction, accessibility, waiting time and effort, using segmented evidence to spot exclusion or poor outcomes.
• Lead improvement initiatives with ministries and delivery partners and report progress and unresolved barriers through PDA's governance arrangements.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Service Design, Design, Psychology, Social Sciences, Public Policy or a related discipline; a relevant master's degree is preferred.
• At least 15 years of progressively responsible experience in citizen or customer experience, service design or human-centred transformation, including senior leadership.
• At least five years building and leading a design centre of excellence, journey management capability or comparable multidisciplinary service improvement function.
• Evidence of redesigning complex journeys across organisational boundaries and measuring improved service outcomes.
• A portfolio or case studies showing research-led design, stakeholder influence and implementation in complex institutional settings.
• Desirable: leadership of service design, experience strategy or transformation work in consulting, professional services or technology advisory; experience on disability access, language, digital literacy and assisted service needs.

Required skills

• Service design
• Mixed-method user research
• Journey governance
• Accessibility and inclusion
• Experience measurement
• Influence without line authority and design leadership