Junior Interaction Designer

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:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. 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.

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Job description

You will join the GOV.UK Web team where you’ll be working on the improvements that help people find and use information and services easily.

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 focusing 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 Junior Interaction Designer you’ll:

• support designers, user researchers and product managers to understand user needs
• support a designer and product manager in stakeholder aligning workshops
• work with other designers to map user journey flows for internal stakeholders and identifying patterns
• show aptitude for driving design direction, supporting the product and delivery teams with product roadmap
• share design output with the internal design community for a joined-up experience
• use your creative skills to develop ideas that contribute to the creation and development of products and services as part of a multidisciplinary team, individually and across GDS

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• can show an aptitude for design through work, study, volunteering, personal projects or other experience, and how they have used creative thinking to make something clearer, more accessible, inclusive, or easier for people to use
• show interest in making effective decisions with qualitative user research and quantitative data
• have an awareness of multidisciplinary, agile environments and can adapt to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs, with support
• enjoy making ideas tangible, for example through sketches, diagrams, prototypes, journey maps, layouts or visual designs, and have an awareness of how these can be used to explore, test and improve ideas with users
• design collaboratively and in the open, show interest in 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

Alongside your salary of £37,655, Government Digital Service contributes £10,908 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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
• 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

Artificial intelligence

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