Job summary
About OPSS
Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you!
We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade. We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency.
Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, most recently with the addition of construction products regulation planned.
Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence.
Further information can be found on our website�.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives and skills. We are proud to be Disability Confident Leaders.
Job description
The Role and Our Team
About the Team
We are the OPSS Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) team, and we build digital services focused on product safety and regulation. Our digital services are ultimately responsible for protecting people and places from product related harm.
We have an exciting portfolio of services that have internal and external users with further services in our pipeline for future development.
OPSS DDaT develop digital services and tools in line with Government standards. We are a mixed team of civil servants and contractors building services that use user-centred designs. This means that we put users at the centre of what we do by talking to our users and listening to what they say. Their feedback helps us to design services that they need and will want to use.�
About the Role�
�Are you curious about how digital services are designed and developed? We need a Junior User Centred Design (UCD) Officer to help us build great digital services.��
This role is about supporting these three UCD areas and developing the skills to become capable in them. You will work alongside and have the support of experienced digital UCD specialists. Together you will work on building digital services that help OPSS keep people safe. Our digital service portfolio is growing all the time and at different stages of maturity from live to emerging services. You could be working on an existing live service or one that is in the development pipeline.
Along with the rest of the team, you will be helping lead OPSS colleagues through the service development lifecycle.
User Centred Design (UCD)�is at the core of our digital work, encompassing three main areas:
1. User Research
2. User Experience (UX) Design
3. Content Design
User Research�involves understanding our users: who they are, what they aim to achieve, why they need to do it, and how they currently go about it. This research informs our designs and functionalities, ensuring they support user needs. It also helps us test these designs with users, and their feedback allows us to refine and improve them.
UX Design�includes both service and interaction design. Service design shapes the user journeys based on insights from user research, outlining the steps needed to complete a task from start to finish. Interaction design focuses on the individual steps or screens that users navigate through the service.
Content Design�is about creating clear and understandable content for each step of the user journey. This content can be informational or instructional, ensuring users know what is required of them. We write content from the user�s perspective, making it easy to understand and follow.
In this role, you will develop your skills and have the opportunity to earn various certifications that can propel your digital career. These include highly sought-after qualifications such as:
4. Certified Scrum Master
5. Agile Project Manager (APM)
6. Certified Practitioner in UX - Foundation
7. Quantitative User Research Methods
This role involves supporting the three key areas of User Centred Design (UCD) and developing the skills to excel in them. You will work alongside and receive support from experienced digital UCD specialists. Together, you will build digital services that help OPSS keep people safe. Our digital service portfolio is continuously expanding and includes services at various stages of maturity, from live to emerging. You could be working on an existing live service or one in the development pipeline. Along with the rest of the team, you will help guide OPSS colleagues through the service development lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities:
As a Junior User Centred Design Officer, we will provide you with the support, training, and experience needed to:
8. Support our service teams�by helping them focus on delivering business priorities and user needs.
9. Assist in user research�by identifying users, arranging interviews/workshops, and conducting the research.
10. Conduct usability testing�of our services.
11. Analyse research�to identify priorities for your service team.
12. Develop service designs�to ensure our services are easy to use and meet user needs.
13. Create wireframes and prototypes�to test design ideas with users and incorporate their feedback for improvements.
14. Develop roadmaps�to outline the future direction of services.
15. Represent us across stakeholder groups, championing UCD in digital delivery.
This role is designed to help you develop a broad range of UCD skills while retaining the flexibility to specialise in any of the three main areas over time. Further information can be found here:
Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We nurture talent and offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities to help you flourish in your role.
We strive to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you reach your full potential. We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive, and supportive environment to help you do your best work.
Person specification
We welcome applicants from any background, whether you are a school leaver or a career changer, regardless of previous experience in digital work. A passion for learning and development is the most important attribute, alongside the following characteristics and experience:
16. Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to assist others.
17. Effective communication skills, both verbal and written, to clarify, help, influence, and constructively challenge.
18. A passion for improvement and a user-centred approach.
19. A proactive self-starter who is an active team member.
20. A commitment to continuous learning and development.
We are looking for candidates whose experience aligns with the responsibilities listed previously. We are committed to promoting diversity and do not expect any applicant to have experience with every responsibility. If you have experience related to most of the role�s responsibilities and meet the skills and experience criteria, we encourage you to apply. We will support you in filling any gaps in your experience on the job.�
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
21. Working Together
22. Communicating and Influencing
23. Changing and Improving
24. Developing Self and Others
Benefits
Alongside your salary of �27,329, Department for Business and Trade contributes �7,917 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
25. Learning and development tailored to your role
26. An environment with flexible working options
27. A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
28. A with an employer contribution of
We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.
Please refer to the attached candidate pack for further information on our benefits.