Senior Interaction Designer

The Service Transformation Team provides teams across government with expertise and guidance, and supports the adoption of GDS products to design and build user-centred digital services. Working collaboratively with teams, we will identify and implement improvements to services to improve the user journey for citizens.

Job description

As a designer at GDS you’ll work in multidisciplinary teams, alongside researchers and developers, to deliver world-class, user centred public services that meet the Government Design Principles. Your role will be to help service teams across government design accessible services that are simple enough for everyone to use. Specifically in the Service Transformation team, you’ll work across multiple services in government that impact the lives of citizens. 

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 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 Senior Interaction Designer you’ll:

• use research and analytics to understand users and what they need, identify problems with a service and test different designs 
• use evidence from research and analytics to challenge assumptions, negotiate with team members and explain your design decisions 
• design collaboratively and in the open, engaging your whole team with the design process and adapting it if necessary 
• set the design direction and good practice within your teams, inspiring, motivating and mentoring more junior designers
• encourage knowledge sharing within and between teams, making sure that your designs are reusable and consistent with the GOV.UK Design System 
• understand the GDS product offering and how these may be reused and implemented across product teams across government

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• design clear, usable, accessible digital interfaces that work across a range of devices and browsers
• have experience thinking and designing in terms of service design - ensuring products are integrated and cross channel
• have experience in making effective decisions with user research data
• work effectively in a multidisciplinary, agile environment, adapting quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs
• have experience of working with senior stakeholders and ability to negotiate important design decisions
• design collaboratively and in the open, have experience of engaging with people in a variety of ways (eg, workshops or co-design activities)
• have an understanding of the importance of inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable public services 
• have experience of guiding, supporting and mentoring others

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 average employer contribution of 27%
• 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

If this role is a good fit for you. You must submit all 3 of these for your application to be considered:

1. a cover letter of up to 750 words to tell us about you and why you think you are suitable for this role, addressing the points in the “person specification” section above. 
2. a CV to show us your work history
3. a link to your portfolio in your cover letter or cv to show some examples of your design work

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 750 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 60 minute video interview
• A short task, which we will give you before the interview. You’ll present your response during the interview.

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 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
• communicating and influencing
• making effective decisions
• working together
• delivering at pace
• leadership

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 Interaction Designer role:

• Designing information
• Designing interfaces
• Designing services
• Designing with data
• Designing for everyone
• Designing iteratively
• Designing for digital
• Designing collaboratively
• Communicating and influencing
• Working strategically
• Leading design

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.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.