Lead Designer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 285329**Salary**:

- £61,710 - £73,900- £65,790 - £73,900 (London) / £61,710 - £67,000 (National) - Based on capability. The base salary of this grade is £65,790 for London and £61,710 for other locations. Offers made above this will be made up with a specialist pay allowance**Job grade**:

- Grade 6**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- GDS - GOV.UK**Type of role**:

- Digital
- Information Technology**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed Hours**Number of jobs available**:

- 2Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Bristol, London, ManchesterAbout the job

**Job summary**:
GDS exists to help government make brilliant public services that empower people in the UK. We work at the very centre of government to drive digital transformation, focused on users. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools for others to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.

Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities. These are:

- making it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
- building common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper to build quality digital services
- promoting agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and across the world

**Job description**:
As a Lead Designer you’ll:

- lead design delivery across multiple teams in a programme; shaping the proposition and ensuring our work contributes to our wider organisational design principles, objectives and strategic priorities
- collaborate with the Head of Design to set design direction and good practice within the programme, and to build and support the design practice and community within the programme
- guide, support and mentor design team members
- contribute to build a diverse and supportive team through recruitment and resource planning, and help to ensure that designers have the right conditions and environment to thrive
- collaborate with heads of profession and other leads to provide vision and leadership for the overall user-centred design profession

Lead Designers also play a key role in embedding design skills and service standards across a wide portfolio of guidance or services through:

- using their specialist design skills to demonstrate best practice, coaching and mentoring teams
- using evidence to challenge assumptions, negotiate with senior stakeholders and validate design and management decisions
- engaging with designers to develop concepts and deliver high-quality services, based on user needs and meeting GDS design standards
- helping teams understand connections and potential collisions between different services and helping to reconcile these
- influencing and assuring the quality of the design delivery within their programme of services using tools such as peer review/critiques and accessible design reviews

**Person specification**:
We’re interested in people who have extensive experience:

- as an interaction or service designer - designing, prototyping and iterating accessible, usable digital services based on user needs
- helping teams understand the wider service context of a project or product
- working in an agile, multidisciplinary and collaborative environment
- experience in designing end-to-end services, across multiple products and channels
- experience in design leadership and the ability to guide designers working in a range of design specialisms, particularly in interaction design and service design
- proven experience in establishing positive working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and teams to deliver outcomes - including introducing positive change to working practices or teams
- excellent planning and organisational skills

**Behaviours**:
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

- Seeing the Big Picture
- Changing and Improving
- Making Effective Decisions
- Leadership

**Benefits**:
The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

- flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
- a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
- 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
- an extra day off for The King’s birthday
- an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
- career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
- paid volunteering leave
- a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
- job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
- advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
- death in service benefits
- cy