Senior Interaction Designer

Job summary

At i.AI, you will help design the interactions, flows and interfaces behind frontier AI products being developed for real public services. Your work will shape how emerging technologies are used to solve real problems for real users - in ways that are useful, trusted, accessible and grounded in evidence.

You will join a multidisciplinary team working at the cutting edge of AI delivery in government. This is an environment for designers who want to tackle hard questions, work through ambiguity, influence product direction early, and help ensure teams build the right things in the right way.

This is a rare opportunity to work on some of the most important and fast-moving questions in government: how AI can be turned into practical tools that improve public services, while staying focused on user needs, ethical considerations and measurable impact.

At i.AI, we do not explore technology for its own sake. We work quickly to understand whether there is genuine value in a problem area by building working products, putting them in front of users, and learning from what happens next. Design is central to that process.

If you are excited by difficult questions, fast feedback loops, and the chance to improve public services through evidence-led design, this is an opportunity to make a genuine impact

Job description

About the role

Interaction Designers work within agile teams to design interaction flows and product interfaces that meet our standards for usability, branding and accessibility. Their work helps teams deliver better products and services, reduce cost and risk, and continuously improve based on evidence.

This is a rare opportunity to work on some of the most important and fast-moving questions in government: how emerging AI technologies can be used to solve real problems for real users, in ways that are useful, trusted and grounded in evidence.

You will work in one of our multidisciplinary product teams, each focused on a different application of AI to a government problem space - for example planning, education, government operations or frontline services. Our goal is not to explore technology for its own sake. We work quickly to understand whether there is genuine value in a problem area by building working products, putting them in front of users, and measuring real impact.

i.AI is an incubator, which means our teams are small, nimble and optimised for learning fast. You will need to be flexible, comfortable with ambiguity, and motivated by turning insight into action. In return, you will have the chance to shape products at an early stage, influence strategic decisions, and ensure teams stay focused on the needs, behaviours and realities of the people they are trying to serve.

If you are excited by difficult questions, fast feedback loops, and the chance to improve public services through evidence-led design, this is an opportunity to make a genuine impact.

What you will work on

• Deliver high-quality, user-centred designs as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Use evidence to challenge assumptions, validate decisions and negotiate with stakeholders
• Build ethical review and evaluation into your work to reduce unintended consequences
• Develop patterns for how people interact with AI, working with teams across i.AI and beyond
• Lead good design practice, including line managing junior designers
• Contribute to i.AI's design community and to GDS and cross-government design communities
• Foster an inclusive team culture built on honest feedback and continuous improvement

Person specification

Who we think will thrive in this role

You may be a strong fit if you bring some of the following:

• Designs clear, usable, accessible interfaces that work across devices and browsers, grounded in user needs
• Has a track record in user-centred digital product design in a product-led organisation, and knows which tool or method suits the job
• Is proficient across a range of design and prototyping tools, including HTML prototyping (AI-assisted is fine)
• Collaborates well in multidisciplinary teams, iterates designs using data, research and best practice, and builds strong working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders
• Communicates clearly and persuasively, bringing clarity and alignment across project and leadership teams, especially when things are ambiguous
• Reflects critically and asks difficult questions, seeing the big picture and its wider implications while staying focused on the minimum viable product
• Contributes to the wider design community, for example by speaking at meetups or writing blog posts

Technical skills

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

• Take home test

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,850, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £16,469 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).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Candidates should expect to go through some or all of the following stages once an application has been submitted:

• A short initial conversation
• Technical take home test
• Second interview in which we’ll review the technical test
• Third interview with wider representation from the team
• Final interview with members of the senior team

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.Succ