Senior Interaction Designer in London

Location - this role is being offered on a hybrid basis based from either London (Canary Wharf), Leeds, Liverpool or Birmingham. This is a fixed-term appointment until 1st April 2028.

Job summary: You will be joining the Chief Medical Advisor Directorate which provides trusted clinical and public health leadership through expert advice, guidance, epidemiological insights and evidence. The group leads and delivers services protecting the population from hazards locally, nationally and globally.

The role sits within the UKHSA’s core User‑Centred Design (UCD) team, which is part of the Readiness and Surge division. Readiness and Surge works across UKHSA and sets the strategic direction for UKHSA’s readiness to respond to all threats and hazards. We focus on Agency capability, putting external stakeholder and customer needs at the centre of designs for the future. We identify opportunities to improve public health outcomes through better user experiences.

As a senior interaction designer, you’ll work as part of a multidisciplinary squad collaborating with teams across UKHSA. This role involves providing strategy, guidance and support to internal teams across UKHSA to ensure that their policies, services and products are user centred. Senior interaction designers provide creative thinking, technical understanding and innovative approaches.

As an experienced practitioner, you’ll be comfortable assuring best practice. You’ll lead and mentor others within the team, including coaching stakeholders and professionals from other disciplines in service and interaction design and user‑centricity. You’ll deliver high‑quality interactive prototypes across diverse projects, serving a range of user types, and will be comfortable innovating approaches to solve complex usability issues without compromising accessibility.

Together with other UCD professions, you’ll ensure quality, innovation, and creativity in how we approach all aspects of design and how we bring concepts to life for stakeholders to effect change. You’ll be an active part of the UCD community. As a senior leader you’ll actively encourage, facilitate, and demonstrate sharing of insights and practices within the community and across the organisation.

This role is aligned to team are responsible for:

• Embedding UCD approaches into UKHSA ways of working
• Ensuring user needs are understood and designed for, advocating for all users, to achieve equitable outcomes
• Ensuring our products are accessible and developed to the Government Service Standard and use appropriate style guides and patterns
• Leading the UKHSA‑wide UCD community of practice to support organisational and in‑profession development
• Act as a recognised and credible expert in interaction design, advocating for the value of a user‑centred, inclusive, and evidence‑based approach to interaction design and delivery
• Influencing programme or project roadmaps to embed effective and user‑centred design practice
• Provide design leadership by working collaboratively with your team, and wider project teams, to plan and deliver effective design work
• Analyse, synthesise and clearly explain complex evidence relevant to users, balancing user needs with business, operational and technical requirements
• Identify solutions to complex problems within services, and support these by developing design concepts
• Independently prototype complex ideas at an appropriate fidelity
• Adapt designs quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs
• Clearly document and communicate design decisions, related risks and any unresolved issues
• Make actionable recommendations based on insights and communicate these to stakeholders clearly and confidently
• Build relationships and work closely with stakeholders, demonstrating the value of interaction design within the organisation and beyond
• Improve design practice by using a range of design techniques and encouraging others to think of alternative ways to conduct design work, developing the practical experience of non‑specialists
• Identify and create new design patterns and components, contributing to a library of assets for UKHSA designers
• Actively participate in the UCD community of practice, fostering a culture of continuous professional development, working openly and collaboratively to contribute to building the service design capability
• Line manage staff, undertaking the full range of line management responsibilities as well as providing coaching and support to staff across UKHSA

Person specification: To be considered for this role, you’ll need:

• Significant experience in interaction design with experience of using user‑centred design methods, best practice and appropriate tooling to explore problems and opportunities within large, complex organisations
• To be able to communicate and demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• Significant experience of iteratively improving designs based on research and feedback
• Proven leadership skills in planning and delivering design activities, using a collaborative approach and working directly with other professions to deliver high‑quality outputs
• Significant experience of various prototyping tools and methods to deliver interactive prototypes, demonstrating ability to create designs that are accessible without compromising delivery timelines
• To be able to identify and create new design patterns and components working within the standards for government services
• Experience of managing stakeholder relationships and influencing others to gain support for user‑centred standards, strategies, and ways of working
• To be able to effectively communicate with developer colleagues, leveraging knowledge of front‑end languages to ensure designs are developed to standard and remain accessible
• Experience of coaching and mentoring other interaction designers

You may also have experience of:

• Coding using HTML/CSS
• The GOV.UK Prototype Kit and associated hosting technologies
• Government service assessments