About the job

Job summary

We are looking for a Interaction Designer to join the Government People Group (GPG) within the Cabinet Office, to help develop our Civil Service Jobs platform and wider recruitment service. You will help us to transform how the Civil Service recruits so that we hire the right people, into the right roles, at the right time.

Your role:
As an Interaction Designer, you will be an experienced, confident and competent designer who can develop designs based on evidence of user needs and organisational outcomes.  You’ll be a team player and care deeply about users and improving their experience. You will also take initiative to engage with stakeholders and communicate your design decisions on a regular basis.

Our team: We are a digital team made of Service, Product and Delivery Managers, Business Analysts, a Service Designer, a Content Designer, an Interaction Designer and a User Researcher, who will all support you in your work. We are also part of a wider digital community, and have a great UCD community with fellow designers and researchers to network with.

Our project is looking at Recruitment Transformation, to procure and build a new recruitment platform by 2026, which will enhance the recruitment service provision across government.

Civil Service Jobs enables the whole of government to recruit people more efficiently, without which the government could not deliver its work: hence our service brings far-reaching benefits for all citizens.

We also enjoy enabling people to find meaningful jobs, and teams to find great colleagues - contributing to a diverse culture that reflects the diversity in the UK.

Job description

What you’ll work on:

You will join our cross-functional agile delivery team focusing on transforming Civil Service Jobs, and helping to redesign how the service should be delivered in the future.

Civil Service Jobs is used by over 3 million candidates per month to find and view vacancies across the Civil Service. Each year it handles over 2 million applications and advertises 140,000 posts. The live service is used by 211 organisations to advertise their vacancies and manage their recruitment processes. Currently, Civil Service Jobs is a
software-as-a-service (SaaS) provision that has been configured and enhanced to meet Civil Service recruitment, digital and security standards.

Along with the live service, we are running a Recruitment Transformation programme, looking at what the future service should look like. We’ve completed our Discovery and Alpha phases, where we did extensive user research and prototype design, to explore our user needs and potential solutions for the biggest areas of improvement.

We’ve decided that our service needs to procure rather than building our own, so we’ve now moved into the Beta procurement phase, which will result in appointing a new technology platform provider by summer 2024, followed by a build and migration phase to be completed by the end of 2026.

The Department:
Government People Group (GPG) is a large business unit of the Cabinet Office with around 610 staff bringing together back office services across government. It supports the Civil Service with high-volume HR and finance processes, aligning with the Government's modernisation agenda. Established in August 2020, it covers Shared Services,

Government Recruitment, Civil Service and Royal Mail Pensions, and the Platforms and Services to support these. GPG delivers services for around 480,000 civil servants across government, it supports 1.5m pension scheme members alongside Royal Mail and provides recruitment services for around 70% of all Civil Service recruitment.

Person specification

We follow the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability job description model for Interaction Designer. We'd expect the role to have a good understanding of the Government Digital Service Manual, the GDS Design System, and our Technology Code of Practice.

We’re looking for people who are passionate about creating accessible services that are simple enough for everyone to use.

As an Interaction Designer you will:

• use research and analytics to understand user needs, identify service failures and test different designs
• use evidence to challenge assumptions, negotiate with product owners and rationalise your design decisions
• design collaboratively and in the open, engaging your whole team with the design process and adapting it if necessary
• create prototypes and mockups to explain complex ideas and support the development process
• set the design direction and good practice within your teams
• champion accessibility and inclusion, consider the impact of new technologies and make sure that designs meet accessibility, legal and security requirements
• identify and build strong relationships with stakeholders across the recruitment space, influencing and collaborating with them to improve design quality
• work with colleagues to use analytics data, user feedback and user research to identify the needs of users, map user journeys and inform design strategy
• encourage knowledge sharing within and between teams, making sure that your designs are reusable and consistent with the GOV.UK Design System
• contribute to the government design community and assess and review the design of other government services

Essential criteria:

The required skills as detailed in the Interaction Designer capability, at Interaction Designer or Senior Interaction Designer level, and in particular:

• Communicating between the technical and non-technical - You can listen to the needs of technical and business stakeholders, and interpret them. You can effectively manage stakeholder expectations. You know how to support or host difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.
• Evidence and context-based design - You can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to produce simple designs.
• Prototyping - You approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others. You can establish design patterns and iterate them. You know how to use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate.
• Prototyping in code - You can create static HTML and CSS prototypes. You know how to code for different screen sizes. You can version and host a prototype.
• User focus - You can collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. You can explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You know how to champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others to do so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.
• Working with constraints   - You can identify, communicate and work within constraints. You can challenge the validity of constraints. You can ensure standards are being met.
  
  

We’re looking for someone who:

• • has relevant experience in designing services or a design-related degree
  • is skilled at sketching and prototyping in different fidelities
  • is able to work quickly in an agile environment
  • is experienced in explaining their designs in a way that other people understand
  • knows how to interpret user research
  • is skilled at designing simple, accessible, responsive user interfaces
  • has experience in engaging the whole multidisciplinary team with the design process

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,850, Cabinet Office contributes £11,029 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

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

Application process

Stage 1 - Sift
Assessed against the essential criteria using:
● CV
● Personal statement (1,000 words max)

Selection process

Stage 2 - Online Interview which may include a presentation assessed against the Behaviours and Technical skills listed in this advert.
Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected Sift date/s – tbc

Expected interview date/s – tbc
Interview location - Online

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to CO 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

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: 

Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. 

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional. 

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out. 

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk 

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.