Lead Accessibility Specialist in Manchester

Manchester Full-Time No working from home possible

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Job Description

We’re looking for someone who lives and breathes accessibility, inclusion and equitable design. The successful candidate will be a highly skilled expert in their field, with a passion for building public services that include everyone by design.

Role Overview

As an accessibility expert at GDS you’ll work in multidisciplinary teams to deliver world‑class, user‑centred public services. You will help identify and fix some of the toughest problems in public infrastructure and focus on designing services at scale, transforming the way the government delivers services to be more efficient, simpler, faster and easier to use.

Key Responsibilities

Work with the Head of Design for GOV.UK to define and implement an ambitious and expansive Accessibility and Inclusion strategy, and lead on the objectives for this area.
Act as a subject‑matter expert and escalation point, leveraging your knowledge of accessibility and inclusion to provide practical support and strategic advice to teams and senior leaders where necessary.
Support the GOV.UK programme and delivery teams to create multi‑channel accessible and inclusive services that meet the WCAG standard, with effective assisted‑digital support models where appropriate.
Champion co‑design and ongoing research with disabled users and those facing barriers or broader inclusion needs, ensuring their lived experience directly shapes how GOV.UK services are designed and improved.
Develop rigorous ways of tracking, measuring, assuring and documenting accessibility across the GOV.UK estate, introducing processes to embed accessibility into all project, programme and change activity, and manage a backlog of this work across the programme.
Lead on meeting legal accessibility obligations for GOV.UK, translating requirements, standards and legislation for project teams to understand and address issues.
Manage accessibility specialists and designers, developing and coaching them to pass on your skills and experience to support their learning and development goals.
Be an active and engaged leader in the GDS and cross‑government accessibility community, encouraging contribution and collaboration across organisational boundaries.

Person Specification

Track record of turning accessibility and inclusion strategy into tangible outcomes, ideally within large and complex organisations such as those in the public sector or government.
Skilled at setting direction, making decisions, evaluating impact and contributing to strategic discussions at a senior level.
Understand and explain how digitally excluded people or those with access requirements use services, and the factors that help or hinder them.
Demonstrated ability to establish, promote and apply accessibility standards and best‑practice guidance to products and services.
Proven record of helping delivery teams build services that meet the needs of users who are digitally excluded or have access needs.
Thorough technical knowledge of assistive hardware/software and activities related to accessibility testing.

Salary and Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,675, Government Digital Service contributes £20,184 towards your membership of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Flexible hybrid working with flexi‑time and the option to work part‑time or condensed hours.
Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97 %.
25 days of annual leave, increasing by one 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.
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.
State funeral service benefits.
Cycle‑to‑work scheme and facilities.
Access to an employee discount scheme.
10 learning days per year.
Volunteering opportunities (five special leave days per year).
Access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service Learning.

Location

The role is based in Bristol or Manchester. Existing Civil Servants in this department who are based in London may also apply and retain their London location and pay.

Security Clearance

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. The role requires SC clearance, normally requiring five years’ UK residence within the last five years. Failure to meet the residency requirements may result in withdrawal of provisional job offers or delay in appointment.

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