Strategic Communications Lead

About THE CLIENT'S Design Practice

The Design Practice is on a mission to make lives better for citizens, businesses, and the public sector by activating human-centred design as a core organisational capability in THE CLIENT. We believe that technology can be a force for public good by putting people at the heart of what we do.

We set high design standards, promote best practices, and support THE CLIENT teams in applying human-centred design across the product development lifecycle. Our focus is not just on doing design well, but on making sure design actively shapes what gets built.

To achieve this, we invest in our designers, cultivate a strong learning culture, and build deep partnerships with engineers, product managers, and public officers. Whether we're working on complex policy-driven challenges or improving everyday digital services, we help teams understand users and their needs so we can design with impact.

About the Role

We're looking for a seasoned and strategic communicator to lead how we articulate the role and impact of design across government digital services. This is a leadership role focused on shaping narratives, building influence, and aligning stakeholders-internal and external-around the value of human-centred design in public service delivery.

You will work directly with design leadership, as well as with designers embedded in multidisciplinary teams, to surface insights, shape stories, and craft compelling communications that span executive briefings, public stories, and internal artefacts. You will help scale storytelling and narrative clarity as core components of the practice-ensuring that the impact of design is clearly seen, understood, and acted upon.

If you are passionate about turning complex, technical, or ambiguous work into clear, engaging narratives-and about elevating the role of design in systems-level change-this is a rare opportunity to shape how government builds better services, with and for its people.

What You Will Do

. Lead strategic communications for THE CLIENT's Design Practice, shaping the overarching narrative of design's impact across government products and services.

. Partner with designers, researchers, and product leaders to source powerful stories and develop high-quality case studies, briefings, infographics, and other storytelling formats.

. Craft communications tailored to a wide range of audiences, including senior ministry leadership, public officers, the public, and internal product teams.

. Develop content and messaging that helps build trust, influence, and alignment with key stakeholders-within THE CLIENT and agencies and ministries across the wider government ecosystem.

. Coordinate messaging and assets across multiple internal and external

channels in collaboration with communications and engagement teams.

. Create toolkits, templates, and visual formats to enable others in the practice to tell stories consistently and effectively.

. Mentor and support designers in communicating their work and outcomes.

. Bring clarity to complex, ambiguous domains through strong interviewing, synthesis, and narrative design.

. Champion the role of storytelling in shaping organisational memory, influence, and design quality.

What We're Looking For

. 10+ years of experience in strategic communications, public affairs, content design, or related fields-with at least 3 years influencing at senior levels.

. Excellent writing, editing, and storytelling skills across multiple formats (e.g., presentations, executive briefs, blog posts, videos, infographics).

. Proven ability to turn complex technical or policy work into clear, persuasive narratives for different audiences.

. Deep familiarity with human-centred design, digital transformation, or public sector service delivery.

. Experience working with or alongside design, product, or policy professionals in cross-functional teams.

. Strong interviewing and synthesis skills-comfortable digging deep into work to find its most meaningful story.

. Strategic thinking, with a sharp instinct for stakeholder alignment, influence, and change.

. Comfortable with ambiguity, and skilled in navigating complex organisational contexts.