How to get a job as a Senior Interaction Designer

Hi, I’m Kirsty, and I’m a senior recruiter for the Home Office.?

We’re advertising for seven Senior Interaction Designers to be based in Croydon, Sheffield or Manchester. I want to help you understand what this role does, what it’s like to work here and how we recruit.?

The work of the Home Office is to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. You’ll work in an agile, multi-disciplinary team on some of the most exciting and impactful services that government delivers for the public, as well as internal systems for approximately 35,000 staff.?

The types of projects you could be working on include:?

• Designing our ongoing work to digitise the entire visa application process and integrating a series of separate products into a more cohesive user experience.?
• Building systems to digitally transform border operations.?
• Continually improving live immigration and borders case working systems using data, analytics and research to inform your designs.?
• Creating user-centred asylum application systems to make the process easier for claimants.?

Benefits?

In return, we offer a salary range of ￡54,000 to ￡64,900, hybrid working, an additional Recruitment and Retention allowance of up to ￡6,000 for candidates with exceptional skills and experience, a Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 26.6%, as well as a range of other brilliant benefits including flexible working and 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service, plus 8 days public holidays.

You will be supported by the User Centred Design Team which will provide access to tools, guidance, our research library and more. We also offer lots of learning and development opportunities tailored to your role. In addition to our online training catalogue with O’Reilly and connections with professional training providers, we offer peer learning, a comprehensive induction and time to volunteer or do charity work.??

What does a Senior Interaction Designer do?????

Senior Interaction Designers work to design the flow of user interactions over a service as well as the right components and layout. You will mentor and train other designers, supporting the growth and development of the interaction design team.?

With an understanding of the way the internet works, you will use your experience of designing in an agile environment to help government transform the way it delivers services.??

You will be collaborative, inclusive, open to your work being critiqued and you will be empathetic towards your colleagues and users. A healthy balance of determinism and pragmatism will be needed on our complex services and products.??

We’re looking for talented individuals with a demonstrable passion for delivery along with proven experience in creating and maintaining delivery plans, translating technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, creating effective team environments and working to improve team delivery performance.???

What does a Senior Interaction Designer look like??

There’s no one type of person working at the Home Office. Just like in UK society, everyone’s different. We believe different backgrounds, different perspectives and different voices add up to richer, fuller thinking that helps us deliver fairer and better outcomes. That’s why we’re committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people can bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.?

How do I apply for a job as a Senior Interaction Designer???

We strive to make our recruitment fair, open and to appoint only on merit. As a result, elements of our selection processes can sometimes feel unfamiliar to external candidates, so hopefully it’ll help if I explain how they work.?

The application – your CV and personal statement?

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.?

When you apply for any of our roles you submit your application through the online civil service recruitment portal, Civil Service Jobs.?

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and Statement of Suitability (Max 750 Word Limit). Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.?

The Statement of Suitability should explain your motivation for applying to this role and offer evidence how you meet the essential criteria.?

For the Interaction Design roles we also ask for a Portfolio of work. This can be a PDF document, maximum of 5mb, you will upload with some examples of your work, or provide a link in your Statement of Suitability to an online portfolio.?

The sift will be based on the CV, Suitability of Statement and your?Portfolio of work.?

The interview?

If you are shortlisted, you will be invited to an interview. At the interview, you will be given an interaction design task and asked questions that explore your technical skills and experience.??

The sift will commence from 15 February 2023. Interviews are expected to take place from week commencing 6 March 2023.?

I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into the work of a Senior Interaction Designer and how we recruit them. If you’re interested in applying, you can view the full advert. The closing date is 23:55 on 12 February 2023.?

We’ll be sharing stories from colleagues already working in these roles shortly.?

In the meantime, for more information about the types of different roles that the Home Office recruits for, check out the Home Office Careers website.??