Senior Interaction Designer

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 its 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.

HMRC is looking for a Senior Interaction Designer to help strengthen the quality and consistency of interaction design across our services. Youll 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.

Youll 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.

Youll:

• 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

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.

Technical skills

Interaction designers in HMRC are part of the Government Digital and Data profession. As part of the selection process youll 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, its 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 HMRCs Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.