Senior Service 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.

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.

As a designer at GDS you’ll work in multidisciplinary teams, alongside researchers and developers, to deliver world-class, user centred public services.

You’ll help identify and fix some of the toughest problems in public infrastructure and you will be focusing on 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.

If you’d like to work with us, you’ll become part of a fantastic service design in government community, 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.

Job description

We are recruiting for four Senior Service Designer roles.

Two roles (exclusively in Bristol or Manchester) will join the ‘GOV.UK and Publishing’ programme. One of those roles will involve you working with our content designer colleagues to improve the content publishing process. The other role will be working with the GOV.UK design system team to explore how we might cater for a more multichannel future.

Two roles (exclusively in Manchester) will join the Product and Services programme to work in context of the GOV.UK App.

As a Senior Service Designer you’ll:

• lead and coordinate design work in your team, supporting other designers where necessary
• 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 can demonstrate the following skills in their applications:

• experience in designing services and holistic solutions for users in complex environments
• experience of working and negotiating important design decisions with senior stakeholders (internal and external)
• experience in facilitating and engaging with people in a variety of ways (e.g. workshops, co-design activities or documentation)
• experience in making effective decisions with qualitative user research and quantitative data
• an understanding of how to design inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• experience of working in an agile, multidisciplinary and collaborative environment
• experience of guiding, supporting and mentoring others.

These skills are based on the ‘Government Digital and Data (GDaD) Profession Capability Framework’ and the relevant ‘Civil Service Behaviours' for this role.

Please read the ‘things you need to know’ section of this job description to understand what the interview and selection process looks like.

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
• 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 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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• an initial sift of applications
• if you make it through the sift, you will be invited to a 20 minute screening call where you present a response to a short task sen