The successful candidate will join both our Brand team, and Data Insights and Analytics team to provide design leadership to designers in the team and as part of a wider multidisciplinary leadership team. They will also work closely with the head of design to set design direction and strategy for the teams and work.

This role will suit someone who has extensive brand and graphic design experience and skills. We are looking for someone who can use both:

· their practitioner skills to bring ideas and concepts to life, and to communicate proposals and recommendations to the most senior leaders in the organisation.

· And their leadership skills to lead a team of people on our brand and data projects, delivering quality, consistent design work across all areas

This is an expansive role that will see the successful candidate work across the whole of GDS Product group, engaging with our channel teams to understand their branding needs, and work with other teams such as our policy and strategy, design system, and wider programme teams such as those in One Login and Products and Services.

As part of this role, the successful candidate will join a large vibrant design community, with the expectation that they engage with it's members as part of the design leadership group.

Responsibilities of the role:

You will:

· Set graphic design direction across GOV.UK; shape its proposition and ensure it contributes to the wider organisational objectives and strategic priorities

· Work effectively in a multidisciplinary, agile environment, adapting quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs

· Use research and analytics to understand users needs, identify service failures and test different designs

· Lead graphic design in a collaborative and open way, engaging teams with the design process and adapting it if necessary

· Scope designers work and ensure that teams have the right kind of design support, and highlight where complexity and dependencies lie

· Collaborate closely with adjacent disciplines such as development, strategy and communications teams to develop coherently branded design work

· Embed accessibility into the design process - through documentation, training, good practise and working closely with developers and the design system team

· Analyse GOV.UK's design templates and components and find opportunities for reducing complexity while making sure that what is left is flexible and fit for future iterations

· Work towards justice, equity and inclusion in the teams you work with and the services you help deliver

· Work towards environmental sustainability of government and its services

· Guide, support and mentor other designers and colleagues

Skills and experience required:

You will have:

· Designed impactful, accessible, easy to understand information that works across a range of mediums

· Worked collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams and iterate designs using data and research

· An adept communicator and storyteller who can persuasively engage non-designers in the design process, helping to guide the design direction for large and complex programmes of work

· Reduced complexity and choose the most appropriate design approach balancing wider technical constraints and user needs

· Lead and mentor others, work strategically, and build good working relationships with frontend developers

· The ability to explain design ideas and concepts in a way that other people understand - including visualising, sketching and prototyping

· The ability to reflect critically on their work; thinking holistically about the big picture and dependencies, while working out details and being able to appreciate and articulate the broader implications