Contracting position available: Senior Data Designer / Technical Service Designer

About Portable

We care about people and the world. We seek out areas of social need and policy failure and make transformational change using research, design, and technology. Our partners are as passionate as we are, working in government agencies, nonprofit organisations, and socially-minded businesses.

There are currently 65+ of us working as researchers, strategists, designers, technologists, and producers towards our mission from our head office in Collingwood, and remotely from co-working spaces and homes across Australia.

Then there’s you!

You’re a senior practitioner who sits at the intersection of data, service design, and organisational complexity. You’ve spent years helping organisations make sense of their data – not just technically, but as humans. You understand that data problems are almost always people and process problems first, and you know how to untangle them.

You’re as comfortable running a cross-functional workshop as you are mapping a data landscape or drafting a governance framework. You are forward-thinking about AI and how it supports your work. You can hold a credible conversation with an IT lead about system integrations, then turn around and explain the same thing to an executive in plain language. You produce deliverables that people actually use.

What you’ll do

Across our engagements, you might:

Discovery and current-state analysis

• Map data landscapes – what data exists, where it lives, how it moves between systems and teams
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, shadow processes, and manual workarounds that create or consume important data
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and workshops to surface pain points and current-state practices
• Assess data quality issues – duplication, incomplete records, inconsistent definitions – and their organisational root causes
• Apply AI across these processes to accelerate analysis and focus effort where it adds the most value

Governance and future-state design

• Design practical data governance frameworks: principles, roles, decision rights, standards, and escalation paths
• Define the use of AI - how models access organisational data, what they're permitted to do with it, and who's accountable for the outcomes
• Define data domains and map datasets to business purpose, ownership, and stewardship responsibilities
• Develop future-state operating models and transition roadmaps that are staged, realistic, and fit for purpose
• Document roles and responsibilities – Data Owners, Stewards, Custodians – in ways people can actually act on

Facilitation and stakeholder alignment

• Design and run cross-functional workshops for discovery, validation, and alignment – bringing competing stakeholders into the room
• Navigate complex organisational dynamics across multiple teams, with varying data literacy and competing priorities
• Communicate clearly with executives and operational teams, translating between technical and non-technical audiences
• Build genuine buy-in, not just sign-off

Delivery

• Manage your own engagements with light oversight – coordinating stakeholders, maintaining workplans, and tracking progress
• Produce concise, evidence-based deliverables: process maps, data flow diagrams, governance frameworks, roadmaps, and RACI matrices
• Contribute to scoping and estimation for proposals where your expertise is relevant

What we’re looking for

You have 6+ years of experience in roles that combine data, design, and complex stakeholder environments. You might come from service design, business analysis, data strategy, or information management – the title matters less than the capability.

Must-haves

• Demonstrated experience mapping data landscapes and assessing data quality in complex, multi-system environments
• Strong facilitation skills – you’ve run workshops that actually move things forward, not just surface information
• Experience designing governance frameworks, operating models, or data strategies that organisations can realistically adopt, including the use of AI
• Comfort with ambiguity and low data maturity – you don’t need a clean slate to do good work
• Excellent written communication – your deliverables are clear, practical, and used, not filed away
• Tech literacy: able to understand system architectures, integration points, and data flows without being a developer

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in government, health, legal services, aged care, disability, or other mission-driven sectors
• Background in business analysis, including business requirements documentation and process mapping
• Familiarity with data reporting, advocacy data, or national and sector-level data standards
• Experience working in or alongside digital delivery teams, including UX researchers, service designers, developers and project managers
• Understanding of human-centred design and how your work can integrate with human-centred processes and insights.

How to apply

We’re committed to building a diverse and equitable team. People from underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

To be considered, please send us your:

• CV and LinkedIn profile
• Availability - when could you start, and at what capacity
• Day rate