About the job

Job summary

The UK wide Civil Service Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) profession consists of people who work in a digital, data or technology specialist role. They design, build, and run government digital services. They are responsible for the way we find, access and use data and for the technology infrastructure which support those services. There are currently about 25,000 people working in the Profession. 

The DDaT profession in the Welsh Government supports a range of digital services across the whole organisation. As part of our DDaT profession, you will be a key part of the Rural Payments Wales (RPW) IT team and will make a significant and direct contribution for the people of Wales.  

Job description

Background 

The Welsh Government is the devolved government for Wales with an annual budget of around £15 billion. We are responsible for key aspects of public life in Wales including health, education, the economy, transport, agriculture, and the environment. Welsh Ministers are supported by a workforce of more than 5,000 people with offices in Wales, London and overseas. 

Welsh Government priorities are outlined in Taking Wales Forward with an overall ambition to build a Wales which is a self-confident, prosperous, healthy nation and a society which is fair to all. The Welsh Government has set out clear priorities for Wales following the UK’s exit from the European Union. 

We are looking for people who can provide excellent advice and support, can focus resources and have energy and expertise. The Well Being and Future Generations Act provides context for our work. 

Digital transformation of public services is vital to delivering the services that the people of Wales expect and need. The Welsh Government currently delivers digital services to people and business across Wales. Led by our Chief Digital Officer, the Welsh Government is increasingly delivering more services online. The Chief Digital Officer provides a consultancy service of digital and data expertise to business areas across the Welsh Government.

The RPW IT branch provides the digital service that will underpin the implementation of Sustainable Farming Scheme and National Minimum Standards, as well as other Programme for Government commitments within the Environment & Rural Affairs Directorate.  The branch is responsible for the maintenance of existing and future IT systems that underpin the Divisions activity, ensuring development is in line with business requirements, IT industry best practise, EC and UK regulations and Welsh Government policies and strategies. The branch works with external IT service provision contracts and is located at multiple sites across Wales.

We’re looking for a Senior Interaction Designer to help teams design and deliver intuitive services that are simpler, faster and easier to use. Making sure everything we design is accessible to everyone.

As an Interaction Designer you’ll work alongside operations and other user centred design professionals who are committed to deliver the best possible outcomes for all of our stakeholders.

Person specification

As an Interaction Designer you will

• Use data from research and analytics to understand user’s needs.
• Design collaboratively and in the open, engaging your teams in the design process.
• Design with consideration for accessibility and inclusion.
• Share knowledge across teams, making sure that your designs are reusable and consistent with the Design System.
• Contribute to the Interaction Design community in both Welsh Government (WG) and across local government.
• Communication skills. You can listen to the needs of technical and business stakeholders and interpret them in a way that is clear for both audiences. You know how to manage stakeholder expectations. You can be flexible and you are capable of proactive and reactive communication. You know how to facilitate difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.
• Community collaboration. You know how to work collaboratively within a group, actively networking with others and varying feedback for the appropriate time to ensure the discussion sticks. You can use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them. You can pull out issues through agile health-checks with the team to provoke the right responses.
• Digital perspective. You have the ability to apply a digital understanding to your work. You can identify and implement solutions for assisted digital.
• Evidence- and context-based design. You know how to design user experiences for use across multiple services and can identify the simplest approach out of a variety of approaches.
• Leadership and guidance. You can make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase. You can build consensus between services or independent stakeholders. You can identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them. You engage in varying types of feedback choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision sticks. You can bring people together to form a motivated team and help create the right environment for a team to work in. You know how to facilitate the best team make-up depending on the situation.
• Prototyping. You are experienced in using a variety of methods of prototyping. You know how to share best practice and can coach others. You can look at strategic service design end to end.
• User focus. You know how to give direction on which tools or methods to use. You are experienced in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels. You can bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are met by the business. You know how to apply strategic thinking in how to provide the best service for the end user.

Benefits

All Welsh Government staff are members of the Civil Service, and as a result are eligible for:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme
• 31 days annual leave (pro-rated for part time)
• training and development opportunities
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Smart Working flexible working arrangement
• Green Car Scheme (subject to availability)

If you are an active Civil Service Pension member you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages:	3 stage process
Stage 1	Application Form
Stage 2	Online Test
Stage 3	Interview

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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.