HM Revenue & Customs
Senior Interaction Designer
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About The Job
Job summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it's really like to work at HMRC.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.
At HMRC, we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who works for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make an exciting career at HMRC accessible to you.
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we encourage applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.
Job Description
HMRC is looking for a Senior Interaction Designer to help strengthen the quality and consistency of interaction design across our services. You'll work as part of User-centred Design in the Chief Technology and Design Office, supporting teams to design accessible, usable services that meet real user needs.
This is a senior role for an experienced interaction designer with strong practical expertise and sound design judgement. While the role is not primarily hands-on delivery, it does require someone who can use their own skills and experience to coach others, review and improve design work, and guide teams through complex design challenges.
You'll help shape how interaction design is applied across programmes and teams, review and improve design work, and help teams balance user needs, accessibility, technical constraints and delivery pressures. Success in this role comes from strengthening the quality, consistency and impact of interaction design across HMRC.
You'll
- strengthen the quality and consistency of interaction design across HMRC
- help teams make better design decisions in complex delivery environments
- support designers to grow in confidence, judgement and craft
- improve how interaction design is applied across programmes and teams
- help balance user needs, accessibility, technical constraints and delivery pressures
Person specification
Your Responsibilities Will Include
- providing senior interaction design support across programmes and teams.
- acting as a trusted escalation point for interaction design challenges.
- coaching designers through design problems and helping them make informed decisions.
- reviewing designs and prototypes, giving clear and constructive feedback.
- working with Design Leads to identify and resolve design risks or quality issues.
- shaping interaction design practice, including patterns, standards, tools and ways of working.
- building strong relationships with stakeholders and helping them understand interaction design and its value.
- supporting effective multidisciplinary working across design, product and delivery teams.
You Will Also Be Expected To
- line manage and support Interaction Designers, providing them with guidance, support, constructive feedback and design direction, helping them develop their skills.
- lead peer review and contribute to design assurance activities.
- contribute to HMRC and cross-government design communities through collaboration and knowledge sharing.
- seek feedback and opportunities to continuously improve your own skills.
Essential Criteria
You Will Already Have Extensive Experience And Understanding Of
- Interaction design practice, including designing accessible, user-centred interactive products or services through sketching, concept creation, prototyping, journey mapping and needs analysis.
- Inclusive design and accessibility, with a strong understanding of designing services that meet a wide range of access needs and of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- Evidence-based and iterative design, including working with user researchers and using research, metrics and feedback to shape, test and improve design decisions.
- Prototyping and technical understanding, including using methods such as HTML and CSS, and understanding how web technologies affect design decisions, usability and accessibility.
- Senior interaction design judgement, including coaching and supporting other designers, reviewing work and giving constructive feedback, and helping to improve the quality and consistency of interaction design across teams.
- Communicating and influencing through interaction design, including explaining design decisions clearly, challenging assumptions and managing difficult conversations, and leading collaborative design activities to help teams work through problems and stay focused on user needs.
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Technical skills
Skills
Interaction designers in HMRC are part of the Government Digital and Data profession. As part of the selection process you'll be assessed against four skills from the Senior Interaction Design role:
- Design communication
- Evidence-based design
- Iterative design
- Designing for everyone
For more information please see Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework
Office Closures
If your location preference is for the following site, it's important to note that this is not long-term site for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.
For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations (opens in a new window)
This Site Is
Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle
You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.
Leeds Locations
Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC's Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.
Technical Skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Design communication
- Evidence-based design
- Iterative design
- Designing for everyone
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £16,959 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
- Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues' Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
- Family friendly policies.
- Personal support.
- Coaching and development.
To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it's really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service
Things you need to know
Artificial intelligence
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Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.
How To Apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:
- A name-blind CV including your job history and previous experiences. Your CV should detail your job history, including responsibilities, skills, accomplishments, relevant qualifications and training.
- A 1250-word Personal Statement that demonstrates how you meet the Essential Criteria, providing evidence where possible and what personal attributes you believe you can bring to the role. The STAR method may help you structure your statement.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
In the event of a large number of applications being received, an initial sift may be held on your CV.
At full sift your CV and your Personal Statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.
We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.
Interview
During The Panel Interview, We Will Ask You To
- deliver a twenty-minute showcase of two pieces of design work from your portfolio, demonstrating the technical skills required for the role. This should focus on your role, your thinking/process and the outcomes. Further details will be included with the invitation to interview.
- answer questions that let you demonstrate your experience and technical skills relevant to the role, using visual examples from your work where possible (for example prototypes, diagrams, journey maps or screenshots)
Interviews will take place via video link. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Eligibility
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. Mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we may not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake with your eligibility form, or have withdrawn yourself in error and need your application reinstated whilst the campaign is still live, please contact us via: unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk - Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example - 'Please re-open my application - [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]'.
To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.
Exceptionally, candidates who are not successful at this grade may be considered for appointment to similar roles at a lower grade where the eligibility criteria are met. If this applies, we will contact you directly.
Sponsorship
We have assessed this role against both Home Office and HMRC criteria and we are unable to offer sponsorship for a Skilled Worker Visa. This means the vacancy is not open to applicants who require visa sponsorship.
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