Senior Content Designer
Department for Work and Pensions
About the job
Job summary
Are you an experienced content designer?
Are you passionate about delivering high quality content?
Do you want to help transform services for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)?
We’re looking for enthusiastic and talented senior content designers to work on services that make a difference to people’s lives.
Content designers meet users’ needs with content. They help people complete essential tasks.
It’s very challenging and very rewarding work for content designers who care about improving people’s lives.
The core purpose of our content designers is to focus on user needs:
- to make complex information and processes easy to understand and follow, and
- to help the government achieve the intended outcomes of its policies
Job description
A senior content designer is an experienced practitioner who can take a high-level view of how a user's content journey maps to business processes.
They develop content strategy and solutions for complex services and other products working with digital and non-digital content.
A senior content designer maps and writes user stories and is responsible for content quality, including reviewing the work of others.
They mentor content designers and may also manage small teams.
They lead on cross-government content projects and engage with the wider government content community.
Person specification
As part of the application process, you are expected to align your Employment History to demonstrate the following Essential Criteria:
- Have substantial experience of working at pace in an agile environment and from a digital perspective
- Have exemplary spelling and grammar and experience of writing and editing using a style guide and plain English
- Have experience of taking a user-centred approach to content design and of explaining design decisions in a way that other people understand
- Have experience of putting forward the case for content design to senior stakeholders and product owners
- Be able to handle constructive criticism of your work and to constructively review other people’s work
- Have experience of how your work fits into the wider context of the team and department
If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact felicity.smith@dwp.gov.uk.
Benefits
• An employer pension contribution of up to 27% For further information please click here.
• Annual leave rising up to 30 days, (based on your working pattern).
• Family friendly flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working, job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Learning and development tailored to your role this could include industry recognised qualifications, coaching and mentoring.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join staff networks including: Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
Location
Applicants should apply for suitable posts where they can travel to and from their home office location daily within a reasonable time.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed
Hybrid Working
This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Salary Information
Pay for this role is from £52,412 to £63,517.
Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.
Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the next grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.
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 Experience.Stage 1: Application
Your application will consist of three parts:
1. A Personal Details application form.
2. Your employment history, skills and experience. In the Employment history box, tell us about your employment history and how you meet the essential criteria listed in the Person specification above. This can be in the detail you give us about your roles or in separate paragraphs.
3. A content design exercise. Details of the exercise are in the Personal Statement section of the application form. Use the Personal statement box to give us your response. There is a 1250-word limit. This will test the technical skill user-centred content design.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria above.
You will receive one combined score for both your Employment History/CV and Personal Statement, which will be provided in your Personal Statement score.
Important Information
• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would normally share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address, must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history or personal statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.
Stage 2: Interview
If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the Behaviours listed above.
To help you prepare and settle into the interview you will be sent the behaviour questions in advance of the interview, at least 5 days prior to your interview. These questions should be treated as confidential and should not be shared. The interview panel may ask you other questions which will not be shared in advance, including follow-up questions, and those about your experience and abilities. Candidates should be asked further probing questions if their response is deemed to require further information to determine suitability for the role.
Interviews will take place from mid-March 2024 onwards.
Reasonable Adjustment
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.
We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” 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.
For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How We Recruit, page
Further Information
Find out more about Working for DWP
For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.
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
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.