Service Design Researcher

Job Category: Policy, Planning & Research

Division & Section: Customer Experience, Channel Experience & Innovation

Job Type & Duration: 1 Full-Time, Temporary (12 month) Vacancy

Hourly Rate: 49.66 - 54.43

Shift Information: Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week

Affiliation: L79 Full-Time

Candidate List will be established. For applicability and duration, see below.

Number of Positions Open: 1

Posting Period: 22-Sep-2026 to 06-Oct-2026

The City of Toronto is currently seeking a Service Design Researcher to support the evolution of the City's digital customer experience strategy through the modernization of service experiences, service design, Human-Centred Design, robust change management practices, and continuous improvement.

The Customer Experience Division (CXD) leads enterprise-wide initiatives to improve how residents and businesses interact with the City of Toronto. It uses a collaborative approach to drive standards, capabilities, and the scaling of platforms with a focus on outcomes that result in public access to inclusive, accessible, integrated services via channels of choice, including 311 Toronto.

Reporting to the Manager, Service Design and Delivery, the Service Design Researcher provides subject matter expertise in service design, Human-Centred Design practices, and prototyping approaches. As part of a product-driven approach, they employ a User Experience (UX) focus and Agile development techniques. They conduct discovery research, data collection and analysis, user engagement and user experience research, synthesis workshops/facilitation sessions, and guide teams through the iterative design of rapid prototypes and pilot solutions across different initiatives.

The Service Design Researcher supports the development of services that are intuitive, accessible, and responsive to the needs of the customer.

• Uses Human-Centred Design based innovation approaches (involving technology, policies, processes around redesigning services) to identify the root causes of civic challenges and explore the perspectives of residents, community groups, and various internal and external stakeholders.
• Provides subject matter expertise in Human-Centred Design approaches and research methods. Organizes, supports and executes generative and evaluative experience design research activities.
• Works collaboratively with researchers across cross functional teams and disciplines. Collaborates with various program areas, internal and external stakeholders, the public, and various agencies to conduct research.
• Leads workshops/facilitation sessions and user engagement activities to gather information from residents, clients, people with lived experience, community groups, and other stakeholders.
• Collaborates with research participants, the public, and community stakeholders to understand individual personas, customer journeys, and personal situations.
• Collaborates with product, business, and technology teams, sharing design research insights and ideas to build proofs-of-concept, prototypes, and service blueprints that solve business problems and create new opportunities, e.g. customer acquisition, improved customer experience, revenue generation. Makes recommendations on future stages of design phases based on research.
• Provides design research support through all product development iterations, ensuring research insights and customer needs are taken into consideration. Collects, analyzes, evaluates and interprets information/findings to develop recommendations for design and product improvement.
• Makes recommendations on processes, policies and data, tracks key performance indicators, and suggests improvement of services and operations, based on research findings, to ensure the customers' end-to-end experience is seamless.
• Produces compelling and concise narratives and visual frameworks to drive comprehension of complex topics and concepts and persuade stakeholders. Collects and analyzes user behaviour through qualitative contextual research (i.e. field visits, ethnography, surveys, and benchmark studies).
• Designs, develops and administers questionnaires, surveys, data collection sheets, interview questions to gather information.
• Applies an understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies by gathering, reviewing and analyzing statistical data to make recommendations for process and analog improvements (i.e. handouts, templates, communications material etc.).
• Synthesizes and evaluates data gathered…