Senior Interaction Designer

Senior Interaction Designer – Public Sector (Pensions)

Role summary

We are looking for a Senior Interaction Designer with significant experience designing end‑to‑end digital services in the public sector, ideally within pensions, benefits, or other complex policy‑driven domains.

In this role, you will lead the design of intuitive, accessible and user‑centred services that enable citizens and organisations to interact easily and confidently with pension‑related processes. You will work from discovery through to delivery, shaping strategic direction, setting design standards, and ensuring services meet user needs, policy intent and Government Digital Service (GDS) expectations.

Key responsibilities

Lead interaction design across end‑to‑end services

• Own and shape interaction design for complex user journeys, ensuring they are coherent across digital and non‑digital channels.

• Translate user needs, policy intent and operational constraints into elegant service flows, interaction patterns and prototypes.

• Design for users navigating pensions information, eligibility checks, calculations, and long‑term financial decision‑making.

Champion user‑centred and accessible design

• Apply accessibility‑first and inclusive design principles so services work for all users, including those with low digital confidence or complex life circumstances.

• Ensure design decisions are grounded in evidence from usability testing, behavioural insights, analytics, and domain specialists.

Prototype, test and iterate

• Create prototypes at multiple fidelities to explore hypotheses, test with users, and iterate designs rapidly.

• Collaborate continually with user researchers to identify insights, validate assumptions and refine journeys.

Influence, guide and collaborate

• Work closely with policy, product, research, content, operations and technical teams to align service design with strategic and policy goals.

• Present findings, design rationales and recommendations to senior stakeholders, influencing decisions using evidence and clear design thinking.

• Contribute to departmental design standards, patterns and best practice.

Mentorship and leadership

• Support and mentor other designers, contributing to a strong multidisciplinary design culture.

• Guide teams on GDS service standards, design processes and accessible design approaches.

Essential skills & experience

You have the skills, experience and judgement to:

• Lead interaction design for complex, multi‑channel public‑sector services.

• Demonstrate deep experience working in public‑sector environments and navigating the constraints of policy, legislation and operational processes.

• Show proven experience designing services related to pensions, retirement planning, financial entitlements or similarly complex, long‑term citizen services.

• Use evidence from user research, analytics and service data to inform design decisions.

• Create, test and iterate prototypes using appropriate tools and methods.

• Work effectively in agile, multidisciplinary teams at pace.

• Communicate design concepts clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences.

• Ensure designs meet accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2) and government service expectations.

• Manage ambiguity, shape direction and take responsibility for design outcomes.

• Coach and support less experienced designers.

Desirable skills & experience

• Experience applying GDS Service Standard and contributing to service assessments.

• Knowledge of pensions policy, regulatory frameworks, and user needs related to retirement or long‑term financial decisions.

• Experience improving operational processes or offline interactions alongside digital journeys.

• Familiarity with content design, service design or systems thinking practices.