About the job

Job summary

We are the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). We champion free trade, help British businesses unleash their potential, and create new investment opportunities. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team develops and operates tools, services, and platforms such as great.gov.uk that enable the UK government to provide world leading support to businesses in the UK and overseas. Work with us to constantly push boundaries in an environment free of heavy legacy, driven by curiosity, social purpose, diversity of thought, entrepreneurship, and the aspiration to offer an incredible experience to all our users.        

These roles are available within our Export and Investment and Data portfolios.

The Export and Investment portfolio is responsible for Great.gov.uk which is DBT's export promotion platform to inspire and educate UK businesses to start and expand selling internationally. Building exporting capability with services including a tool to create an export plan and access to DBT's capability building programme UK Export Academy, identifying export markets with access to market-specific information and key trade data in 108 market guides. Great’s international mission is to promote and assist investment and expansion of businesses to the UK.      

In our Data portfolio we design and operate digital business services to help DBT staff better understand and meet business and customer needs. These services bring together data sources from across the department and beyond to surface insights, opportunities and create platforms to enable trade. This ranges from customer relationship management, analysis insights and data science to managing the UK global tariff and more.

  

Job description

 As a senior interaction designer you will work out the best way to let users interact with services in terms of both overall flow and at the level of individual design elements.     You will work in a multidisciplinary team, alongside policy experts, user researchers, content designers, product managers and technology experts. As a team, you will develop innovative approaches for digital products that are part of integrated services across DBT.          

In this role you will:      

• create user-centred design patterns  
• understand user needs and how to design services that meet them   
• create and iterate prototypes to test and communicate ideas   
• work with user researchers and front-end developers to turn concepts into digital products and services   
• explain design decisions and how they were impacted by user research  
• welcome the constructive criticism of your work and be able to constructively review the work of others   
• ensure that design work is consistent, both internally and with the rest of GOV.UK   
• contribute to the wider community of designers in the department and government   
• support and mentor less experienced colleagues in your profession 

This role is available in seven UK locations and can only be worked from within the UK, not overseas. Most DBT employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office on average. Changes to these working arrangements are available in certain circumstances but must be agreed with the vacancy manager and in line with the requirements of the role and can only be discussed with successful candidates. Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DBT, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.    Find out about life at DBT, our benefits and meet the team by watching our recruitment video, visiting our website or reading our blog!  

Responsibilities        

• Work with service managers and programme directors to develop design concepts 
• Potentially have responsibility across complex services 
• Help set direction and embed good practice within teams 
• Make important decisions based on research and understand how this research impacts others 
• Take complex information and processes, and make them simple to understand and use 
• Ensure that accessibility and usability are built into designs from the outset, and meet web standards and GDS/GOV.UK design principles 
• Be an active member of the DBT user centred design community. 

Person specification

Essential Skills and Experience       

You will need to have demonstrable skills and experience of:    

• Evidence and context-based design: design systems for use across multiple services and can identify the simplest of a variety of approaches 
• User focus: you can demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels 
• Prototyping: you can use a variety of prototyping methods, help to share best practice and coach others and look at strategic service design end to end 
• Understanding constraints: You can identify, communicate and work within constraints; challenge the validity of constraints and ensure standards are being met 
• Strategic thinking: experience of working within a strategic context and communicating how activities meet strategic goals 
• Digital perspective: you can apply a digital understanding to your work and identify and implement solutions for assisted digital

     Desirable Skills and Experience     

These are not necessary but would be ideal if you:    

• Agile working: experience of agile tools, how to use them and can adapt and reflect to see outside of the process. 
• Leadership and guidance: bring people together to form a motivated team and help create the right environment for a team to work in.

    

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to Apply        

Unless otherwise specified, all interviews are currently being held online. Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

Sift will take place week commencing: 10th April 2024   

 Interviews will take place week commencing: 22nd April 2024   

Please notes these dates are indicative and may be subject to change.   

 As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a CV and complete a personal statement outlining your experience, skills and fit for the role. At the sift stage for this role, we will assess your CV and personal statement against the essential skills and experience listed above, so please ensure these documents evidence these criteria. Your personal statement must be a maximum of 750 words.  You can use bullet points and subheadings if you prefer. As well as evidencing the criteria you should also touch upon why you're interested in DBT and in this role.     

 If we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct a ‘short sift’ and read one element of your application. For this campaign a short sift would be conducted based on: Personal Statement.         

How We Interview        

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. A role-specific list of these can be found below. We will also ask you to prepare a presentation around one recent example of work from your portfolio and talk us through your design process.     

There will be a technical element within the interview where you will be asked questions about your specific professional skills and knowledge relating directly to the job role.    We will assess you against these Technical Skills during this process:    

• Evidence and context-based design 
• Prototyping 
• Strategic thinking 
• User focus 
• Community collaboration
• Agile working 

Detailed explanations of each Technical Skill can be found on the DDaT Framework.     We will also assess you against the following Behaviours:    

• Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving

Reserve List       

 Appointments may be made to candidates in merit order based on location preferences. Candidates who pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring will be held on a 12-month reserve list for future appointments. Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be offered a post at the grade below the one advertised.        

Security Clearance Details          

All security clearances require you to provide evidence of your UK footprint where you have been physically present in the UK. The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.    

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected. If you require SC clearance you will need to provide evidence of the below requirements.    

Checks will be made against:    

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records).
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records.
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency.
• Security Services record.
• Location Details

Further Information      

The Department for Business and Trade embraces and values diversity in all forms. We welcome and pride ourselves on the positive impact diversity has on the work we do, and we promote equality of opportunity throughout the organisation. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. Click through to apply and find out more.Our recruitment process is underpinned by appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DBT by email: ddat.recruitment@businessandtrade.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment. Click here to download a PDF about the Civil Service Commission/Complaints.   

Recording of interviews is not permitted except by prior agreement and where it is necessary as an evidenced reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010. If you make a recording of our employees without agreement, you should be aware that in collecting such personal data you would be deemed a 'data controller' under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and are therefore required to comply with all relevant data protection requirements. You would also be susceptible to enforcement action by the regulator and potential legal action.          

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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. 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.