Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing) - GDS - G6

Manchester Digital; London, Manchester, Bristol; On-site; GBP 73,000 - 84,000; Full time

Job summary

A government digital service in London is seeking a Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing). The role involves leading the technical writing discipline, managing a team of writers, and establishing documentation standards. Candidates should have strong experience in team leadership and user-centered technical writing, alongside knowledge of relevant tools like Git and Markdown. This position offers a chance to contribute to national digital services and initiatives.

Qualifications

• Experience in leading a team of technical writing specialists.
• Ability to make strategic decisions in documentation projects.
• User-centered approach in documentation creation.

Responsibilities

• Define strategy for technology documentation across the programme.
• Establish standards for technical documentation delivery.
• Manage a team of technical writers and allocate tasks.

Skills

Team leadership

User-centered design

Technical writing

API documentation

Information architecture

Tools

Git

GitHub

OpenAPI/Swagger

Markdown

Job description

Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing) - GDS - G6

£73,280 - £83,027 (London) / £67,972 - £75,275 (National) Based on capability.
Published on

Full-time (Permanent) £73,280 - £83,027 (London) / £67,972 - £75,275 (National) Based on capability.
Published on 19 September 2025 Deadline 5 October 2025

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

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

We are designing and building GOV.UK One Login, a simple, safe, and secure way for people to prove who they are and access government services.

We’re also designing and building GOV.UK Wallet, an app for people to save government-issued documents to their phone, so they can show them to prove things when useful.

GOV.UK One Login and GOV.UK Wallet are being made for everyone, to be accessible, inclusive, safe, and easy to use.

We’re an ambitious team at the heart of government, full of talented and passionate people. If you’d like to join us in this work, we’d love to hear from you.

As a Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing) at GDS you’ll lead the technical writing discipline and operations in the Digital Identity programme. You’ll work alongside other UCD leads.

Lead Content Designers (Technical Writing) at GDS create user-centred technical content using a ‘docs as code’ approach. Our job is to improve and share technical knowledge, best practice and expertise across government. We work in multi-disciplinary teams to understand user needs and turn them into accurate, accessible technical content.

We are recruiting for a Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing). You’ll work closely with senior stakeholders, technologists and delivery leads across the programme to make sure all teams have the technical writing support they need. You’ll line manage, train and support technical writers within the programme. You’ll make recommendations on how to improve existing content, tooling and processes.

The person specification skills must be demonstrated in your cover letter.

As a Lead Content Designer (Technical Writing) you'll:

• work with the Head of UCD to define the strategy and implementation of technology documentation across the programme
• define and establish standards, guidance and best practice for delivery of technical documentation across the programme, particularly API documentation, in line with GDS’ best practice
• support the Digital Identity programme, delivery teams and programme delivery structure to establish processes, scope and support the work of tech writers in teams
• act as an escalation route for technical writing best practice and issues across the Digital Identity programme – leveraging your expert knowledge in both to provide practical support
• recommend and explain approaches to senior leaders across the Digital Identity programme and ensure teams in the programme can produce quality internal documentation on their own
• manage a team of civil servant and contract technical writers, allocating them to work across multiple delivery teams as required
• provide team members with professional advice and performance feedback, and support their learning and development goals

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have experience and skills in:

• leading a team of technical writing specialists, managing documentation projects and directing the work of others to ensure team output is of a consistently high quality
• helping set direction - making decisions, evaluating impact and contributing to strategic discussions at a senior level
• taking a user-centred approach to explaining how to use digital products and services and identifying user needs in terms of documentation and guidance
• collaborate with technologists to design technical documentation for digital services and software, including API documentation, using developer workflows
• understand and explain information architecture principles and how to structure documentation to meet user needs
• strong capability to explain user-centred technical writing and work with senior stakeholders and technical experts to promote technical writing standards and best practice guidance for software development
• thorough knowledge of Git, GitHub, OpenAPI/Swagger, Markdown