Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation Design)

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government - we are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK's geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We're part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you'll be working with some of the world's most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation's highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government's announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Machinery of Government changes: Fact Sheet - GOV.UK

Details on changes to the machinery of government

The Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation Design) on the GOV.UK AI team works across language, conversation, and data to design GOV.UK Chat and agentic experiences for GOV.UK. You'll care deeply about how emerging technologies can make people's experience of government simpler and more human. This is the first permanent conversation design role at GDS, and you'll help establish the discipline here.

As a Senior Interaction Designer (Conversation Design), you'll:

• design conversational and multimodal AI experiences for GOV.UK that are clear, inclusive, and trustworthy
• prototype and test new dialogue patterns, prompts, and interaction flows with real users
• explore multiple approaches to solving user problems through conversation and natural language
• communicate design decisions clearly, sharing rationale with teammates and stakeholders
• feed into the development of AI conversation design principles and reusable dialogue patterns for government
• collaborate closely with product, research, engineering, and other designers to deliver joined-up services
• help establish conversation design as a discipline at GDS, contributing to a community of practice, sharing knowledge across teams, and helping others develop their skills in this emerging area

Person specification

We're interested in people with experience of:

• designing usable, accessible digital products with a focus on conversational or voice interfaces
• working with AI and applied linguistics to prototype innovative conversational experiencesi>
• making effective design decisions informed by user research and behavioural data
• explaining and documenting conversation design rationale to non-specialists
• contributing to shared libraries, tone of voice guidance, and conversation design patterns