Senior Interaction Designer

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:

• design digital services that meet user needs 
• work effectively in a multidisciplinary, agile environment, adapting quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs
• use research and analytics to understand users needs, identify service failures and test different designs
• design collaboratively and in the open, engaging your whole team with the design process and adapting it if necessary
• 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 interfaces across multiple channels, for example for web, apps, or conversational interfaces
• have experience of guiding, supporting and mentoring others
• have experience in making effective decisions with user research data
• have experience of working with senior stakeholders and ability to negotiate important design decisions
• 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 a working knowledge of WCAG and how it is used to develop accessible products and services
• have an awareness or experience of the GOV.UK Design System
• have an experience of working closely with other designers and developers to develop components and patterns that can be reused across products and 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).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

You must submit all 3 of these for your application to be considered:

1. a cover letter of no more than 500 words to tell us about you and why you think you are suitable for this role, addressing the points in the “who you are” 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 selection process as a standard for all of our roles consists of:

• An application screening process to shortlist people to interview
• A 90 minute video interview
• A short task, which we will give you 30 minutes before the interview. You’ll present your response during the interview.

In order to assist candidates with this role, we will be holding a virtual recruitment event on Friday 31st October at 12:30 where we will introduce you to what it is like to be a designer at the Government Digital Service, the team that you will be potentially working with and a bit about how the application and interview process works within the civil service. There will also be time to answer any questions. If you would like to join this recruitment open day session, please use this google meet link to access the session

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.

“Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.”

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 across multiple channels, for example for web, apps, or conversational interfaces

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

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:

• Design communication
• Designing for everyone
• Designing strategically
• Designing together
• Evidence-based design
• Iterative design
• Leading design

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 14th November 2025

Panel interviews: 24th November 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.

Whilst this role's location is Bristol/ Manchester, if you are a current Civil servant working in 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.

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.