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.

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

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 experiences
• 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

Alongside your salary of £58,275, Government Digital Service contributes £16,882 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a 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
• a 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
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning