Interim Interaction Designer

Public Sector Resourcing; Remote; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A national funding agency for research in the UK is looking for an Interim Interaction Designer for an 8-week remote contract. The successful candidate will advocate user-centered design principles, collaborate with team members, and prototype designs that meet user needs. Essential qualifications include experience with GDS standards, accessibility, Agile methodologies, and tools such as JIRA and FIGMA. This role supports the improvement of services used by the academic and business communities.

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing services in line with Government Digital Service Standards.
• Strong understanding of WCAG 2.1 and inclusive design principles.
• Comfortable working within Agile, multidisciplinary teams.
• Practical experience using JIRA for design tasks management.
• Skilled in using Figma to create wireframes and prototypes.

Responsibilities

• Advocate strategies for research, testing, and design improvements.
• Prototype low and high fidelity designs in collaboration with team members.
• Generate insights to build a clear picture of service users.
• Support product owners by providing user insights and needed actions.
• Champion user-centred design principles and accessibility standards.

Skills

Experience with GDS Standards

Understanding of accessibility

Familiarity with Agile ways of working

Experience with JIRA

Experience with FIGMA

Job description

On behalf of UKRI, we are looking for an Interim Interaction Designer (Inside IR35) for an 8 week contract based REMOTELY.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK.

UKRI invests £8 billion of taxpayers' money each year into research and innovation and the people who make it happen. They work across a huge range of fields - from biodiversity conservation to quantum computing, and from space telescopes to innovative health care. They give everyone the opportunity to contribute and to benefit, bringing together people and organisations nationally and globally to create, develop and deploy new ideas and technologies.

Working has part of a user centred design team within DDaT's Digital Services function, the senior interaction designer will collaborate on user centred design with user researchers and content designers, ensuring that the digital service being designed meets user needs.

Specifically this will look to pick up work that was deprioritised by the Digital team as a result of the priority shift, namely advising on Studentships phase 2 and funding tower roadmap items.

The users of these services you're designing for are people with academia and business and the broader ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Advocate appropriate strategies for research, test and design to enable ongoing improvements to the service
• The senior interaction designer will prototype low and high fidelity designs and Figma prototypes in collaboration with other team members.
• Work to generate the feedback and insight to build a clear picture of the service users and deliver solutions that they need.
• Support product owners by generating new and useful user insights and translating it into features and actions that will allow them to iteratively improve their service for users.
• Help iterate the user experience process and its implementation across UKRI services. Champion user centred design principles and accessibility standards within UKRI.
• Contribute to the wider design community, including presenting at meet ups and writing blog posts

Essential

• Experience with GDS Standards - Proven experience designing services in line with the Government Digital Service (GDS) Standards and Design System. Able to create consistent, intuitive user journeys that adhere to established patterns and principles, and contribute to meeting the Service Standard at all assessment stages.
• Experience with / understanding of accessibility - Strong understanding of accessibility requirements (e.g., WCAG 2.1) and inclusive design principles. Able to design interfaces, interactions, and content that are accessible to all users, including those with diverse access needs. Capable of identifying and resolving accessibility issues in prototypes or live services.
• Familiarity with Agile ways of working - Comfortable working within Agile, multidisciplinary teams, designing iteratively and contributing to ceremonies such as stand‑ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives. Able to quickly interpret research findings, adjust design solutions, and collaborate closely with developers, researchers, and product managers.
• Experience with JIRA - Practical experience using JIRA (or similar workflow tools) to manage design tasks, track progress across sprints, collaborate with delivery teams, and ensure design work is transparent and well documented. Able to create clear, actionable tickets that support smooth implementation.
• Experience with FIGMA - Skilled in using Figma to create wireframes, prototypes, design systems, and interaction flows. Able to collaborate effectively in shared design files, manage component libraries, and use prototypes to communicate design intent or support usability testing.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, UKRI guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".