Senior Content Designer

Department for Education; London; Hybrid; GBP 57,000; Full time

Job description

Bristol (BS2 0EL), Coventry (CV1 2WT), Darlington (DL1 5QE), Sheffield (S1 2FT), Manchester (M1 2WD), Newcastle (NE1 8QH), Nottingham (NG2 1AW), London (SW1P 3BT)

Please note – Bristol, Newcastle and Nottingham currently have site controls in place. Therefore, this location option is only available to existing DfE employees already assigned to this office location.

Job Summary

We’re hiring two Senior Content Designers to work on complex, user-centred services at the Department for Education.

These roles sit in DfE Digital, where you’ll lead content design across end-to-end journeys—making services clearer, simpler and more effective for the people who use them.

Funding Service Delivery

This role is in the DfE Funding Service Delivery team, part of the Funding and Financial Oversight Directorate, within the DfE Digital, Data and Technology (DDT) function.

The Service Delivery division supports one of the biggest funding operations in government. We ensure over £75bn of education and training funds are allocated, contracted and paid accurately and on time through our digital Funding Service—made up of both internal and external-facing products. The service, and the funding operations it supports, works at pace to deliver a high-quality customer experience.

As a Senior Content Designer, you’ll be joining a friendly, motivated team working to transform the user experience of receiving and managing education funding, as well as how our internal operators use the service. We view the education funding service as not just the digital element, but also the operational processes, the data behind it, and the whole journey—both online and offline. All the divisions involved take a holistic, user-centred approach to designing and improving the service.

Teacher Services

Teacher Services is an empowered, cross-cutting division supporting digital and data services across multiple areas, including:

• Teacher Workforce Directorates:
• Data Services
  
  

These directorates are part of the Schools Group, led by Director General Juliet Chua.

We are a multidisciplinary team with a passion for delivering digital services to support and grow the teaching profession. We have strategic oversight of the digital teaching journey—from becoming a teacher to continuing professional development. We focus on how digital services, combined with bold policymaking, can help solve challenges in recruitment, retention, development, and more. You can read about our ambitions in the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.

In parallel, we’re working to become a data-led organisation—providing trusted, high-quality data to support responsive decisions that lead to better outcomes for learners, parents, and the education workforce.

We bring together policy, delivery and data to build effective, user-centred services.

Job Description

Content designers make things easier for people to understand and use. This can involve working on a single piece of content or on the end-to-end journey of a service to help users complete their goal and government to deliver policy. In this role, your work may involve the creation of, or change to, a transaction, product or single piece of content that stretches across digital and offline channels.

You will work with user researchers, product managers, designers, business analysts, delivery managers and developers part of a multi-disciplinary team to directly deliver better outcomes for users. You will innovate to radically transform how public services are delivered and improved.

Job Responsibilities:

• Identify and build strong relationships with stakeholders, including policy, marketing, communications and legal, influencing and collaborating with them to improve the structure and quality of the content.
• Create, improve and manage user centred content that meets user needs.
• Use data analytics, user research and usability testing to identify user needs. Map journeys and user stories to inform content strategy and design decisions to assure quality.
• Develop a content strategy for the programme you’re working on ensuring it connects with the content strategy of related programmes.
• Be responsible for content quality by managing small teams, mentoring content designers and reviewing content.
• Play an active role in the content design community at DfE and engage with the cross-government design community.
• Work with the head of content design to contribute to the content design road map and lead on a strand of it.
• Contribute to the design standards and act as a guardian for them.
• Advocate the role of content designers and the value content design can bring, and embed content design practices into ways of working.
• Join the internal service assessment community and become a design assessor for services.
  
  

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Creating high quality, user-centred content.
• Using data and feedback to inform design decisions and improving content.
• Building strong stakeholder relationships.
• Creating content strategies that are user focused.
• Leading others through constructive feedback to improve content design.
• Collaborating with user researchers, business analysts and interaction designers to define evidence-based content design strategies.
• Collaborating on prototypes using a variety of methods prototyping and choosing the most appropriate ones for the circumstances.
  
  

Desirable Criteria:

• Designing content for transactional services.
• Identifying and comparing the best processes or delivery methods to achieve minimum viable product (MVP) print and scope.
• Working in ambiguity with the ability to manage multiple projects and adapt to changing priorities and deadlines.
  
  

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Content concepts and prototyping
• Strategic thinking (content design)
• User-centred content design
  
  

Alongside your salary of £56,353, Department for Education contributes £16,325 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Application Process:

Please note that all communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

Stage 1: Application

If you would like to apply for this position, please complete the Civil Service Jobs application form by clicking the "apply now" button at the top or bottom of this advert.

You Will Be Required To Provide Details Of:

• Your CV – Set out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
• Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 750 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.
  
  

Please note, CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.

Stage 2: Sift

At sift stage, your application will be assessed on how your CV and Statement of Suitability align to the essential criteria listed in the advert.

Candidates successful at sift stage will be invited to an interview.

We receive many applications, and unfortunately, we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted.

Stage 3: Interview

You Will Be Interviewed By a Panel Which Will Last For Approximately 60 Minutes. The Interview Will Be a 2-part Process:

• Completion of a task which we will send to you prior to the interview and require you to give a 10-minute presentation on. This will be assessed against the technical skills listed in the job advert.
• We’ll ask you a series of questions about your experience. You’ll need to provide examples to show how you meet the essential criteria and technical skills outlined in the advert.
  
  

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Content concepts and prototyping
• Strategic thinking (content design)
• User-centred content design
  
  

Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. If you are invited to interview, please ensure that you have access to this software and that you have your video turned on. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Sift date and interview date to be confirmed.

Other Information

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status
  
  

We understand that you might use AI and other resources for your application; however, please ensure all information you provide is factually accurate, truthful, and original and doesn’t include ideas or work that isn’t your own. This is so that your application is authentically and credibly your own.

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing [e-mail] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a Person With Disabilities Is Put At a Substantial Disadvantage Compared To a Non-disabled Person, We Have a Duty To Make Reasonable Changes To Our Processes. If You Need a Change To Be Made So That You Can Make Your Application, You Should:

Contact Department of Education via [e-mail] soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact :

• Name : Charly Dalby
• Email : [e-mail]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [e-mail]
  
  

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via [e-mail]. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages