Lead Designer
Government Digital Services -
Job description
The lead designer on the GOV.UK AI team owns the design direction for the use of AI on GOV.UK. This primarily focuses on our flagship product, GOV.UK Chat, but includes other applications. You will be passionate about how emerging technologies can help make the public’s experience of government easier.
You'll be part of a fantastic design community in government, where we share ideas and challenges with 1000s of designers across the public sector. This is a chance to work on emerging services that matter, at a huge scale, with people who value design. Find out more about what it’s like designing in government on our Design in Government blog.
As a Lead Designer on GOV.UK AI you will:
- lead design across one or more AI-focussed products, including GOV.UK Chat, ensuring that they meet user needs and achieve organisational priorities
- shape product strategy and delivery in collaboration with the rest of the leadership team, by forming a narrative around the team’s work, supporting with speculative design work
- represent the work with senior stakeholders, ensuring it meets the needs of other parts of the public sector and is clearly understood
- develop design patterns for use of AI in the public sector, in collaboration with other parts of GDS and the public sector, through communities of practice
- collaborate with the Head of Design to design a community within the directorate and beyond that delivers quality work on time, to a high standard, and that’s is bold and innovative
- guide, support and mentor design team members within your team and beyond, ensuring designers have what they need to deliver quality work
Person specification
We are interested in people who have demonstrable experience in:
- designing usable, accessible digital products that work at scale across multiple channels, for example apps, conversational interfaces, or web
- working with emerging technology like AI to develop innovative, personalised products and services
- collaborating with other designers to develop new patterns or principles in novel areas
- negotiating important design decisions with senior stakeholders
- communicating long-term design vision for a product area
- supporting designers or design teams in delivering quality work, or in their own professional development
Benefits
The benefits of working at GDS
There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:
- flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
- a Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
- 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
- an extra day off for The King’s birthday
- an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
- career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
- paid volunteering leave
- a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
- job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
- advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
- death in service benefits
- cycle to work scheme and facilities
- access to an employee discounts scheme
- 10 learning days per year
- volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
- access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning
GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.
Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Things you need to know
Selection process details
The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:
- a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 400 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
- a short task, which will be sent to you ahead of the interview
- a 75 minute video interview
How to apply
If this role is a good fit for you. You must submit all 3 of these for your application to be considered.
- a short cover letter to tell us about why you are suitable for this role, directly addressing the points in the “person specification” section above (less than 400 words)
- a CV to show us your work history
- a URL to your portfolio in your cover letter or CV to show 2-3 examples of your design work. Alternatively, you can email it directly to gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk, including your application number
Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.
In order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Tuesday 18th March at 11:30 - 12:15 to go through the role in more detail. If you are interested in joining this event please e-mail: gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk and a member of the team will send you an invitation to the event.
While we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.
In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:
working with emerging technology like AI to develop innovative, personalised products and services
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.
For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:
- seeing the big picture
- making effective decisions
- communicating and influencing
- leadership
We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the Lead interaction designer and Lead service designer role:
- design communication
- designing for everyone
- designing strategically
- designing together
- evidence-based design
- iterative design
- leading design
Recruitment Timeline
Sift completion: 26th March 2025
Panel interviews: 2nd April 2025
Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
Other information: Occasionally, business pressures, priorities or critical delivery may mean that we move you into a different team or work area within GDS. This will always be within the same grade and discipline within which you were hired, but does mean that your focus or objectives may shift in order to deliver GDS business.
You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda.
As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
