JOB title: Design manager responsible for end-to-end customer management (Civil servant – Grade 7).

Employer: Rural Payments Agency (RPA), which is part of Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

Age: 40.

Where are you from? Little Broughton.

Where do you live now? Workington.

Where do you work? I have a base in Workington but travel frequently between London, Newcastle, York and other regional Defra offices.

How long have you done this job? I was promoted to Grade 7 six years ago but I have been a civil servant for 21 years.

Take us through a typical day: Every day can be different especially as a civil servant in 2019 as you do not know what is going to come your way.

I lead a large team of business analysts and product designers who are spread out all over the country so the start of my day is usually spent catching up with them and making sure that we’re on time, in budget, or being on hand to resolve any problems that might have sprung up.

One minute everything can be fine, the next I can be speaking to directors to update them on specific projects or writing a briefing for the CEO or ministers.

Business analysts are responsible for the development of new processes to help our customers and our people work.

They also work with operational areas to define requirements for those processes and new systems that we may be developing.

Product designers develop training and guidance to make sure our operational teams can use those new processes or systems, so a huge part of my role is making sure I work with a very large network of people to ensure we’ve taken account of their needs.

In my specific role, being responsible for end-to-end customer management, I take a lead in looking at new and innovative technology to help the department work smarter.

For example, we’re currently exploring robotic process automation which can automate some of our more manual tasks, speeding things up for our customers and meaning our people can work on other things.

We’re also looking into artificial intelligence and natural language processing to make the customer experience within our contact centre much better for our customers.

I also work directly with our industry stakeholders to understand particular pain points in our service and talk them through and get their feedback on changes we might want to make.

This type of engagement is extremely valuable to us and helps us make sure we’re heading in the right direction as they represent a large proportion of our customers.

What do you like most about the job? I work with lots of people who are all passionate about making our services better.

I love being in the middle of change, making it happen and seeing something being successfully delivered.

I also thrive on being extremely busy.

Defra is one of the government departments that has an awful lot of change ahead of it and that constant need to future-proof our services is as exciting as it gets.

I am lucky enough to also have the flexibility to use my time to give something back to the community.

My department supports me as a trustee of the Carnegie Theatre & Arts Centre in Workington.

I’m able to use flexible working to attend meetings at the theatre but I also use my professional skills as a trustee so it’s a win win.

What do you like least? There isn’t one thing I don’t like - other than not being busy enough, but I’m never not busy enough.

Why did you want to do this job? I thrive on change.

I love planning and going through the steps to make a change happen.

Bringing people along with you so that they too get excited about that change and can see the benefits it will bring.

I would be out of my comfort zone if I didn’t have change.

What jobs have you done previously? I was a senior business analyst, aside from having a very brief stint in an operational team I’ve always worked in change during my civil service career.

What qualifications or experience do you need? You need to be able to engage and facilitate large groups of people who may not all want the same thing.

Those people can be operational teams, team leaders, senior managers or directors.

Being comfortable in senior board meetings is absolutely key.

So being a good mediator is a start.

An interest in change and being able to demonstrate making change happen is fundamental.

All of our business analysts go through accredited business analysis training but also being a mentor and coach helps.

What is a typical salary for this job? Dependent on experience the typical starting salary for a Grade 7 is £46,000.

This is also dependent on location.

Any advice for people wanting to get into your profession? The civil service has changed a lot over the years.

It is very much changing and now is as good a time as any to join.

For my particular profession, have an interest in change, an appetite for new technology and how tech can advance systems and processes – be brave and have a good sales pitch to bring others along.