About the job

Job summary

£36,585 - £41,834 plus £5000 Digital (DDaT) Pay Supplement after 3 month qualifying period. Hybrid Working with Edinburgh or Glasgow base location 

At Scottish Government, we work daily to improve the lives of the people of Scotland. Our vision is to be a dynamic, diverse and connected organisation serving Scotland now and in the future.

This role plays a vital part in helping colleagues work effectively and realise our vision.

Adopting a user centred approach, you would be responsible for developing & designing content covering our wide range of HR & IT support services. In ensuring information is clear, consistent, accessible and easy to find, understand you will be potentially helping and empowering 22,000+ people who use these services.

“Content designer is a really varied and interesting role. As designers, we want to help the user do something and make their interaction as straightforward as possible. It’s a great area to work in if you enjoy solving problems and having the freedom to be creative.

You’ll be joining an enthusiastic and encouraging content community at the Scottish Government. Folk are always happy to answer questions, share their knowledge and learn from each other. Whatever your background or experience, your thoughts and skills will be valued. "  Elaine Gibb, Senior Content Designer

Hear from colleagues discussing Digital Careers at Scottish Government. 

Job description

User focus (content design)

• Create content and form label design that helps users solve their common IT problems, evidencing the need based on analysing the service desk queries.
• Create and iterate content for end-to-end services that makes complex language and processes easy to understand. Record design decisions and design debt.
• Provide evidence and acceptance criteria for design decisions that show how the content meets user needs.

User-centred content design

• Work within a multi-disciplinary team to support improvements to the service desk offerings based on anticipated changes to the business priorities
• Use data, research and evidence to plan, write, design and edit content across multiple channels that meets content styles and standards.
• Set review dates and monitor the effectiveness of content to make continuous improvements.
• Engage with and contribute to the Scottish Government content design community of practice.

Agile working

• Work in agile teams and help them to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work, define scope and agree a minimum viable product (MVP).
• Adapt, reflect and be responsive to feedback.

Content concepts and prototyping

• Create prototypes and content plans to demonstrate proposed approaches to content design.
• Explain how the pattern choice, publishing approach and metadata will shape how the content will be published and managed.

Stakeholder relationship management (content design)

• Prioritise and build relationships with stakeholders. Communicating with them in various ways to build consensus on content design approaches that balance the needs of the business and user.

Strategic thinking

• Establish and iterate content patterns and standards.
• Contribute to the creation and development of content strategies and processes.

Person specification

No specific qualifications are required for this post.

Essential Criteria

1. Your experience of working in an agile team and using agile tools allows you to use an iterative and flexible approach to rapidly deliver content.
2. Your experience of working with content prototyping techniques, patterns and content management systems allows you to create prototypes that show value to others and publish content.
3. Your experience of tailoring communication styles, to meet the needs of others, allows you to build and reach consensus with stakeholders.
4. Your experience of creating and developing content design principles allows you to contribute to the creation and implementation of a content strategy.
5. Your experience of working with user stories and creating content that can be measured as effectively meeting the needs of users allows you to propose suitable content design approaches.
6. Your experience of making complex language, user journeys and processes easy to understand allows you to plan and design content that delivers the right information, in the right pattern and format, to meet the needs of the user.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,585, Scottish Government contributes £10,573 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How To Apply

To apply for this post, you will need to provide the information requested below via the online application process.

Panels sift applications for interview and assessment purely based on evidence provided against the essential criteria. Therefore, it is especially important that your CV & Personal Statement provide clear examples and evidence demonstrating how your skills and experience meet each essential criteria.

• A CV (no longer than two A4 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements
• Personal Statement (no longer than 750 words)  

The closing date for applications is Sunday 9 June 2024 at 23:55

Sift and interview dates TBC

Interview/Assessment Information 

If you are invited to attend an interview this will include a DDaT Technical Skill Assessment and the following competencies: -

• Communications and Engagement
• Analysis and Use of Evidence
• Improving Performance
• Self-Awareness

More detail on these competencies can be found in the

We recommend reviewing the following links:-

How to apply for Digital roles with Scottish Government  

If you have any additional questions, please email digitalcareers@gov.scot   

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

Security

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.