Senior Content Designer

Job description

On GOV.UK One Login you’ll be designing user journeys through our service to help people prove their identity. You’ll work in multi-disciplinary teams, designing, prototyping, testing, and iterating.

As a Senior Content Designer you’ll:

• design and iterate user-centred content and user journeys, efficiently and to a high standard
• use analytics data, user feedback and user research to identify the needs of users, map user journeys and inform content strategy
• review and provide direction on the work of other content designers and experts from other disciplines
• manage relationships between your team and other teams in GDS to ensure consistency and share good practice
• build strong relationships with stakeholders across large-scale and high-profile digital projects, influencing and collaborating with them
• contribute to guidance for government, including content principles and patterns
• contribute to the content design community of practice
• help colleagues and stakeholders from other disciplines understand what content design is, why it’s important, and how to work with content designers

Find out more about Content Design roles at GDS

Person specification

We’re interested in people with skills in:

• making complex language and processes easy to understand
• creating, iterating, and managing high-quality, user-centred content
• using analytics, user feedback, and user research to evaluate and improve content
• building relationships with stakeholders to understand their goals and working with them to improve user journeys and content quality
• managing multiple projects and adapting to changing priorities and deadlines
• providing feedback to and mentoring others to make sure they’re delivering quality work
• reviewing and improving processes

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 children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• 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 between 300 - 1000 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above. Application without a cover letter will not be considered
• applicants who show suitable skills and experience in their CV and cover letter will then be asked to complete a short written exercise. This will be marked and successful applicants will then be invited to an online video interview
• a 60 minute video interview

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:

• making complex language and processes easy to understand

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: 

• changing and improving
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• communicating and influencing
• delivering at pace

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework for the Senior Content Designer role:

• agile working (content design)
• content concepts and prototyping
• stakeholder relationship management (content design)
• strategic thinking (content design)
• user focus (content design)
• user-centred content design

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 27th February 2025

Panel interviews: 12th March - 21st March 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.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

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) & the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) 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.