Lead Interaction Designer

Job description

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 Interaction Designer, you’ll:

• lead design across the teams that work on our GOV.UK website, 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, whilst planning for future design work on the platform
• collaborate with other design leads in adjacent directorates such as the publishing platform, to deliver a joined up and coherent user experience
• 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 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 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’re 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 on products and services that offer personalisation and customisation
• collaborating with other designers to develop new patterns or principles
• 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

Alongside your salary of £67,126, Government Digital Service contributes £19,446 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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).

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 500 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 design portfolio is required to be submitted along with your application. Applications with no portfolio submitted will not be considered.
• a 60 minute video interview with a presentation

In order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Friday 13th June at 09:30am 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.

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.

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:

• designing usable, accessible digital products that work at scale across multiple channels, for example apps, conversational interfaces, or web

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 Capability Framework for the Lead Interaction Designer role: 

• designing for everyone
• designing strategically
• designing together
• iterative design

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 20/06/2025

Panel interviews: 30/06/2025

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.

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.

Location 

Whilst this role's location is Bristol / Manchester, if you are a current Civil servant working in the DSIT and based in London, you are also able to apply for this role. If you are successful, you will retain your London location and pay.

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