Lead Interaction Designer - HO - G6

Location

Croydon CR0 2WF, Manchester M5 3LZ, Sheffield S3 8NU

About the job

Job summary

We are looking for a Lead Interaction Designer who is passionate about designing accessible services for everyone to use. 
The Home Office keeps our UK citizens safe and our country secure. We play a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the UK. 
You will work in an agile Programme, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Service (MAPPS). MAPPS will be used by various organisations including police forces, prison & probation services and others. It is required to support a multi-agency oversight of relevant offenders once they are released from custody for as long as they are considered to present a risk to the public. As such MAPPS has a high political profile as well as a very complex network of stakeholders.

You will lead on interaction design within a multidisciplinary team with business analysts, user researchers, developers and tester. Your aim will be to deliver world-class, user-centred services for the public and civil servants.  

As an experienced interaction designer, you will be responsible for mentoring and leading a team of interaction designers to design services focused on user needs. In addition to guiding the team to achieve the best user outcomes, the role will involve a large measure of personal ‘hands-on’ design work. 

You may also take an active role in the wider Home Office and cross-government design communities to champion good interaction design and an effective user-centred approach.  

You can learn more about design and research in the Home Office on our Digital and Data blog:

• Designing content for people with limited English 
• Words matter: shaping our Home Office content style guide  inclusive language by design 
• By looking at our design system  

We have a thriving UCD community. If you want to work with us to ensure that our services are easier and simpler to use, apply now. 

Job description

Your main day-to-day responsibilities will include: 

• Delivering excellent interaction design for MAPPS in collaboration with programme colleagues and stakeholders.
• Working closely with other professional leads, delivery managers and heads of role to ensure current and future resourcing needs for interaction design.
• Working with the head of role to assure the quality of interaction design and defining, developing and embedding best practice and standards.
• Building an inclusive community of practice that enables designers across the programme to share ideas, best practice and proactively support each other.
• Working with senior stakeholders to raise awareness and understanding of the value of user-centred design (UCD)
• Line managing, supporting and mentoring a team of interaction designers over multiple projects, providing them with guidance, training and constructive feedback.
• Take responsibility for your own learning and development and seek opportunities to improve your knowledge and experience.

Person specification

UK residency and security requirements - You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. 

Essential Criteria 

You will be assessed against the following skills and experience during the selection process:  

• Strategy and advocacy: influences the wider organisation, embedding a UCD culture and practices at high levels, including with senior stakeholders.
• Interaction design: leads and sets direction for interaction design. Evangelizes UCD principles across projects and teams. Advises on best practices and emerging trends in interaction design.
• Prototyping and concept creation: manages the prototyping and concept creation process for high-impact projects. Applies advanced techniques, like interactive and complex prototyping in code, to validate and refine concepts. Provides guidance to junior team members.
• Functional management: oversees a professional function across a business area, manages and set priorities, aligning it with wider strategic objectives.
• Standards and quality: has responsibility for maintaining and updating standards and quality guidelines.
• Managing people and leading: leads larger teams, setting vision and strategy.

Our skills align with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Strategy and Advocacy
• Interaction Design
• Prototyping and Concept Creation
• Functional Management
• Standards and Quality
• Managing People and Leading