Senior Interaction Designer

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.

You’ll help identify and fix some of the toughest problems in public infrastructure and you will be focussing on the design of services at scale. You’ll help the government transform the way it delivers services, so that they’re more efficient, simpler, faster and easier to use.

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:

• support user researchers and product managers to understand user needs
• lead stakeholder aligning workshops alongside product manager
• map user journey flows for internal stakeholders and identify patterns
• drive the design direction, supporting the product and delivery teams with product roadmap
• share design output with the internal design community for a joined-up experience
• champion accessibility and inclusion, consider the impact of new technologies and ensure that designs meet legal requirements
• collaborate with designers in other teams and departments, reviewing each other's work and developing shared patterns

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• design clear, usable, accessible digital and/or app 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 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 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 link to your portfolio in your cover letter or cv to show some examples of your design work
• a 80 minute video interview. Candidates invited to interview will be asked to complete a task as part of the interview process. Full details around the task will be made available to all shortlisted candidates at a later date.

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 Thursday 3rd April at 12:00-13:00 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:

• design clear, usable, accessible digital and/or app interfaces that work across a range of devices and browsers

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:

• working together
• making effective decisions
• leadership
• seeing the bigger picture
• communicating and influencing
• delivering at pace

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 Senior Interaction Designer role:

• design communication
• designing for everyone
• designing strategically
• designing together
• evidence-based design
• iterative design
• leading design

Recruitment Timeline

Virtual session: Thursday 3rd April at 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Sift completion: Friday 11th April

Panel interviews: Monday 21st April

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

In January 2025, it was announced that the Government Digital Service (GDS) will move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as a part of a machinery of government change. This change aims to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one central department, presenting exciting opportunities and positioning DSIT to lead the government’s digital agenda.

This role is in scope to transfer to DSIT when the machinery of government change takes place.  As a result,  if you are successful and appointed by Cabinet Office to this role before 1st June 2025, your role will transfer from Cabinet Office to DSIT at the time of the relevant machinery of government change taking place. If your start date is after 1 June 2025, you will be appointed direct to DSIT and your appointment will be unaffected by the machinery of government change.  We are currently consulting with our Trade Unions on which policies, terms and conditions will apply on transfer.  The statement of changes applied to all other Cabinet Office staff will also apply to you if you are successful.

We encourage you to apply and look forward to reviewing your application. We will keep you updated throughout the process.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.