Interaction Designer
Government Digital Services -
Job summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.
Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:
- joining up public sector services
- harnessing the power of AI for the public good
- strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
- elevating leadership and investing in talent
- funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
- committing to transparency and driving accountability
We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.
GOV.UK is the online home of government information and services. Every week GOV.UK supports millions of users to complete complex and potentially life changing interactions, such as making a lasting power of attorney, applying for a provisional driver’s licence, or applying for benefits.
This interaction designer role will sit within the publishing directorate of the GOV.UK programme and will be focused on helping to turn our publishing platform strategy into reality.
This means working closely within multi disciplinary teams to reduce complexity of our publishing systems for the GOV.UK publishing platform. As a user centred design practitioner, you’ll be ensuring that our publishing systems are consistently inclusive, accessible and easy to use for our users.
Find out more about our work on the Inside GOV.UK blog or the GDS blog.
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,
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 an Interaction Designer you’ll:
- support user researchers and product managers to understand user needs
- lead stakeholder aligning workshops alongside a product manager
- map user journey flows for internal stakeholders and identifying 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
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 in making effective decisions with qualitative user research and quantitative data
- work effectively in a multidisciplinary, agile environment, adapting quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs
- 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
Benefits
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 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
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
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
Selection process details
The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:
- a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV to show your work history and a cover letter of up to 500 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “We’re interested in people who” section above
- a link to your portfolio needs to be submitted to show few examples of your design work. Applications with no portfolio submitted will not be considered.
- a 60 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.
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 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
- changing and improving
- making effective decisions
- 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 Capability Framework for the Interaction Designer role:
- Design communication
- Designing for everyone
- Evidence-based design
- Iterative design
Recruitment Timeline
Sift completion: W/C 07/07/2025
Panel interviews: W/C 21/07/2025
Information session: In order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Tuesday 24th July at 12:00pm - 1:00pm to go through the role in more detail. If you are interested in joining this event please e-mail: gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk and a member of the team will send you an invitation to the event.
Please note the above dates are subject to change. 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
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.
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.
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.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
