Senior Content Designer - EXT

Job summary

Digital Publishing sits within the Communications and Digital Publishing (CDP) Directorate in operations group. Its main task is to disseminate statistics on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website in a way that meets the needs of the broad range of users who want to make decisions with ONS statistics. We work with business areas across the organisation to publish around 800 releases each year.

At present, we are engaged in an exciting programme of web and content transformation that will see big improvements to our systems and in our ability to help users find, understand, explore and act on what we publish. We are also starting to prepare for Census 2031, with our teams supporting many of the publication and planning activities.

These new roles will initially be within the Content service, which sets the standards and provides guidance for all content on the ONS site. They will play a crucial part in delivering our transformation programme and census objectives over the next 18 months to 2 years.

Once this work is complete, one or both roles may move to the Publishing service, depending on business need. In this role, they would help to embed and uphold the new content standards introduced through transformation, ensuring they become part of business-as-usual activity. They would support the team with complex content queries and improve processes, to deliver high-quality content for our users through our daily publishing schedule.

This campaign is for external candidates who wish to be based at either our Newport or Titchfield site. Therefore, this campaign has been linked with the internal advert 453903 - Senior Content Designer. If you are an internal candidate to ONS please apply via the other campaign. The selection and interview process will be combined, so you do not need to apply to both campaigns.

Job description

At the ONS, Senior Content Designers within the Communications and Digital Publishing directorate play a leading role in delivering the team or service’s objectives. They line manage more junior content designers, ensuring all content published on the ONS website is user-focused and meets style and web standards.

They support the delivery of longer-term objectives and lead their own projects, working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver or improve our content, products and services for our end users. They advocate for the user, using evidence to influence stakeholders and promote the work and value of the team.

They contribute to the development of colleagues and play an active role in developing the Content Design Community of Practice.

Responsibilities

• Works with the Head of Content Design or Head of Publishing Operations to help set objectives and ensure their delivery.
• Leads on cross-ONS multi-disciplinary projects and provides content design support at all levels (from micro copy to new products) to improve the quality of our content, products, and services for users.
• Develops content strategy and solutions for large-scale problems and contributes to the development of new policy, standards and guidance.
• Oversees the continuous development of our style and standards, guidance, training, and processes within the team.
• Provides support to the Publishing service on complex editorial queries, or challenges on house style, using evidence to influence user-centred decisions and support practical solutions.
• Raises the profile of the content design discipline across the ONS and cross-government community by building relationships with teams and stakeholders.
• Contributes to the development of the Content Design Community of Practice.
• Line manages other Content Designers, supporting with the allocation of their work, alongside their personal and professional development.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Stakeholder relationship management (Practitioner)

• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders, dealing with challenging situations and removing blockers.
• Build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders, supporting mutual needs and commitments while focusing on user needs.

Strategic thinking (Expert)

• Help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to ensure business objectives and the needs of users are being met.
• Lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focusing effort in the areas of greatest priority and ensuring objectives are met.

User focus (Practitioner)

• Formulate hypotheses, gain insights from research and data, and make decisions based on findings, clearly explaining how decisions have been made.
• Show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys.
• Take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve.

Community collaboration (Practitioner)

• Advocate for and role model the sharing of knowledge and experience through mentoring, shadowing and coaching opportunities.

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, Office for National Statistics contributes £12,163 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

This role is part of the cross-government Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) profession framework. As a role within Government Digital and Data (formerly DDaT) at the ONS, we also offer benefits such as:

• Protected Learning Time to spend on your personal development and side-projects.

• A supportive and active Community of Practice which you will be expected to contribute to, helping ensure you and your colleagues get the training, development and opportunities you need to progress your careers.

We are committed to supporting our people’s well being by offering flexible ways of working that support a healthy work life balance. We are happy to explore opportunities with you about working flexibly in line with our hybrid working policies.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience, CV, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1,250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

A presentation may be required at interview.

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

The Sift will be conducted from 13/04/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 27/04/2026

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Near Misses

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

Curious about Government Digital and Data? Dive into the Candidate Pack to learn more

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

Apply and further information

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 : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

Content Designer Role Profile Opens in new window (pdf, 271kB)2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)