Lead Interaction Designer - HO - G6

Location

Croydon CR0 2WF, Manchester M5 3LZ, Sheffield S3 8NU

About the job

Job summary

We are looking for a Lead Interaction Designer who is passionate about designing accessible services for everyone to use. 
The Home Office keeps our UK citizens safe and our country secure. We play a fundamental role in the security and economic prosperity of the UK. 
You will work in an agile Programme, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Service (MAPPS). MAPPS will be used by various organisations including police forces, prison & probation services and others. It is required to support a multi-agency oversight of relevant offenders once they are released from custody for as long as they are considered to present a risk to the public. As such MAPPS has a high political profile as well as a very complex network of stakeholders. 

You will lead on interaction design within a multidisciplinary team with business analysts, user researchers, developers and tester. Your aim will be to deliver world-class, user-centred services for the public and civil servants.  

As an experienced interaction designer, you will be responsible for mentoring and leading a team of interaction designers to design services focused on user needs. In addition to guiding the team to achieve the best user outcomes, the role will involve a large measure of personal ‘hands-on’ design work. 

You may also take an active role in the wider Home Office and cross-government design communities to champion good interaction design and an effective user-centred approach.  

You can learn more about design and research in the Home Office on our Digital and Data blog:

Designing content for people with limited English 
Words matter: shaping our Home Office content style guide  inclusive language by design 
By looking at our design system  

We have a thriving UCD community. If you want to work with us to ensure that our services are easier and simpler to use, apply now. 

Job description

Your main day-to-day responsibilities will include: 

Delivering excellent interaction design for MAPPS in collaboration with programme colleagues and stakeholders.
Working closely with other professional leads, delivery managers and heads of role to ensure current and future resourcing needs for interaction design.
Working with the head of role to assure the quality of interaction design and defining, developing and embedding best practice and standards.
Building an inclusive community of practice that enables designers across the programme to share ideas, best practice and proactively support each other.
Working with senior stakeholders to raise awareness and understanding of the value of user-centred design (UCD)
Line managing, supporting and mentoring a team of interaction designers over multiple projects, providing them with guidance, training and constructive feedback.
Take responsibility for your own learning and development and seek opportunities to improve your knowledge and experience.

Person specification

UK residency and security requirements - You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. 

Essential Criteria 

You will be assessed against the following skills and experience during the selection process:  

Strategy and advocacy: influences the wider organisation, embedding a UCD culture and practices at high levels, including with senior stakeholders.
Interaction design: leads and sets direction for interaction design. Evangelizes UCD principles across projects and teams. Advises on best practices and emerging trends in interaction design.
Prototyping and concept creation: manages the prototyping and concept creation process for high-impact projects. Applies advanced techniques, like interactive and complex prototyping in code, to validate and refine concepts. Provides guidance to junior team members.
Functional management: oversees a professional function across a business area, manages and set priorities, aligning it with wider strategic objectives.
Standards and quality: has responsibility for maintaining and updating standards and quality guidelines.
Managing people and leading: leads larger teams, setting vision and strategy.

Our skills align with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Strategy and Advocacy
Interaction Design
Prototyping and Concept Creation
Functional Management
Standards and Quality
Managing People and Leading