The planning system is one of the most important layers of everyday democracy. It shapes our homes, our neighbourhoods, our environment and therefore our lives. It is also at the front line of the climate challenge – as we retrofit our existing homes and neighbourhoods, and build new ones. Yet the planning system we have today is famous for being slow, opaque, bureaucratic and inaccessible, especially to those who don’t have a lot of money or time.

We are working with local planning authorities and the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities (DLUHC) to build a planning system fit for the 21st century. To do this, we are building Plan✕, an open source, low-code platform that allows planning authorities to rapidly and collaboratively build simple, accessible public services, like building services out of LEGO. They are some of the first government services in the world that use ‘rules-as-code’ to bake legislation, policies and guidance into the services themselves, making complicated, opaque services like planning simpler and more transparent for everyone.

As more councils start using Plan✕, there is growing excitement about what it can do - both local and national governments want to use Plan✕ to build new, user-centered public services. They need support to help them design and build those services around users needs.

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This is an open call – that means we do not have a closing date, and are interested to receive applications at any time. To apply please send your CV, your solution to the puzzle challenge below and a brief cover message telling us what motivates you and why you are interested in this role.

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The role will involve:

• Designing and building service flows within the Plan✕ editor, using clear language that is easy to understand.
• Hosting online workshops with stakeholders and experts to understand services users and stakeholders, and their needs.
• Making sense of planning legislation and policies, converting them into rules.
• Working with officers and user researchers to test and improve those services.
• Following and contributing to a growing set of guides, and helping to train council teams to use Plan✕ to build good services.
• Producing graphics and visual content (only if you're into that kind of thing)
• Working alongside the product team and developers to improve the platform.

This role might suit those who have already worked in service design and content writing for web. But don't worry if you've never worked in any of these roles before, and don't worry if you don't know anything about planning. If you're a clear logical thinker, a good communicator, and you have a passion for making public services better, this could be the perfect role for you.

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• Excellent logic / analytical skills Able to unpick complex, overlapping sources of information and make sense out of them. Willing to do the hard work to make it simple for users. (We have put an optional puzzle below).
• Clear thinker You must be a natural lucid thinker; someone who can see the wood for the trees. Or if you don’t understand something, you are someone who has the confidence to say so, and ask a person who does.
• Loves making things simple You should have some understanding of the principles of user-centered design and best practices for digital content.‍
• A natural do-er deliverer Someone who is happy to take the initiative and quickly build a first version of a service, which others can then help test and improve.
• ‍Good writing skills Able to distill complex information into clear, accessible, jargon-free language, without distorting its meaning.‍
• A good listener and communicator able to draw-out people’s knowledge, build trust, to read between the lines of what stakeholders are telling you, being sensitive to their fears and concerns, whilst also finding ways to allay those fears.‍
• Purpose-driven Motivated by working on big social challenges, and making government work better.

• Illustration or graphic skills For example, using Adobe Illustrator or similar to create web graphics and even videos.
• Significant relevant experience designing services and/or content for the web especially for public services.
• Experience or knowledge of digital public services or planning
• Experience or knowledge of user research and testing with users

We are aware that you might not exactly fit the role exactly as we've described it. If you are interested in this role, but are not sure if you exactly fit all of this description, or if you have ideas about reshaping this role, please apply anyway – or get in touch with us.

• Work with a small, but incredibly talented, friendly, and motivated team in a high-expectations, but always kind and inclusive environment. Trying to change systems can be hard work, so we look after each other.
• Ridiculously flexible working. Work where you want and when you want (most of the time at least).
• Take a key role in designing and building the planning services of the next decades that will be used by millions, and play a huge role in tackling key challenges such as housing and carbon reduction.
• Pioneer the use of low-code, collaborative tools to build and deploy services across government.