Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation)

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.

Job description

The Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation) on the GOV.UK AI team works across language, conversation, and data to design GOV.UK Chat and agentic experiences for GOV.UK. You'll care deeply about how emerging technologies can make people's experience of government simpler and more human. This is the first permanent conversation design role at GDS, and you'll help establish the discipline here.

As a Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation) you’ll:

• design conversational and multimodal AI experiences for GOV.UK that are clear, inclusive, and trustworthy
• prototype and test new dialogue patterns, prompts, and interaction flows with real users
• explore multiple approaches to solving user problems through conversation and natural language
• communicate design decisions clearly, sharing rationale with teammates and stakeholders
• feed into the development of AI conversation design principles and reusable dialogue patterns for government
• collaborate closely with product, research, engineering, and other designers to deliver joined-up services
• help establish conversation design as a discipline at GDS, contributing to a community of practice, sharing knowledge across teams, and helping others develop their skills in this emerging area

Person specification

We’re interested in people with experience of:

• designing usable, accessible digital products with a focus on conversational or voice interfaces
• working with AI and applied linguistics to prototype innovative conversational experiences
• making effective design decisions informed by user research and behavioural data
• explaining and documenting conversation design rationale to non-specialists
• contributing to shared libraries, tone of voice guidance, and conversation design patterns

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
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• 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:

• a simple application screening process: we ask for a cover letter of up to 750 words, your CV, and a link to your portfolio. Please make sure your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above. Include the link to your portfolio in the cover letter.
• a 60 minute video interview, where you will be asked to present some of your work and answer questions about your experience

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.

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 with a focus on conversational or voice 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