Senior User Researcher

Job description

We are hiring 3 Senior User Researchers for GOV.UK. GOV.UK is the trusted online home for government information and services, every week millions of people rely on it to complete essential and often life-changing tasks. GOV.UK also supports government colleagues to publish content, ensuring accurate and accessible information is always available to the public. 

As a Senior User Research, you will: 

• make an impact: work on and tackle some of the toughest challenges in public infrastructure, improving millions of people’s lives through solutions that are informed by high quality, evidence-based, insights 
• deliver work that matters: driving change, delivering better value and outcomes for users and government, to empower and transform. 
• grow with us: thrive in a supportive research community that values experimentation, learning, failing fast and reflection as key steps to growth. With dedicated development resources, training and cross-government networks, you will have plenty of opportunities to grow. 

Your main responsibilities are: 

• lead and conduct a wide range of evaluative and foundational user research projects that are aligned with GOV.UK’s vision and goals using a range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.  
• deliver high quality research projects end-to-end: from planning, recruiting participants, data analysis and reporting, ensuring key insights are acted upon. 
• collaborate with multidisciplinary colleagues and stakeholders throughout the research process, and work with analytics colleagues and use a wide range of data to build a rich picture of user behaviour.
• produce impactful and reusable insights to inform, guide (or even reset) design, driving, tactical product and strategic decisions at both the team and organisational level. 
• advocate for evidence-based decision-making, persuading colleagues and stakeholders to adopt research approaches and research initiatives that can deliver significant value to GOV.UK and GDS.

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Person specification

You don't need government experience to apply for this role. We’re interested in seasoned research practitioners who are experienced in both evaluative and foundational research, leveraging a wide range of data and techniques. A skilled communicator with a proven track record of influencing stakeholders and advocating for users, driving decisions and shaping direction at both tactical and strategic levels. 

We’re especially interested in those with strong experience and expertise in:

• qualitative, contextual and ethnographic research  
• and/or Quantitative research and analysis, including experiments 

We also want people who can demonstrate:

• the execution of research projects following best practice, delivering  high impact results that have directly influenced important design and product directions both tactically and strategically. 
• strong analytical skills, with the ability to distil hidden and actionable insights from diverse data sources and communicate them effectively through storytelling, for example:
  • Proficient in clustering users using techniques like personas, mindsets, and mental models to represent the nuances of users and their behaviour to guide focus and prioritisation.
  • Can effectively communicate results and illustrate suggestions in compelling and creative ways to a broad and diverse audience including senior stakeholders, and translate insights into tangible actions.
• proven ability to advocate for research and build strong relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, including sceptical and or challenging stakeholders. Skilled in collaborating with multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders throughout the product development process to drive actions and meaningful change.
• proven experience in educating and directing team(s) focusing on the right research and adopting a wide range of methods/approaches to deliver best results. 
• demonstrable experience in developing engaging and impactful team workshops to assist with research scoping, prioritisation of research insights, and ideas generations 
• a good understanding of social and technological contexts and how that influences user behaviour and solutions; and accessibility and inclusion practices. 

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Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,070, Government Digital Service contributes £16,243 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access 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

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• Application stage - you’ll be asked to submit a CV and cover letter of upto 750 words, demonstrating your previous work history, that should meet the skills and experience listed in the person specification above. Failure to submit your CV and complete the application questions may result in your application being unsuccessful
• a panel interview stage - 75 minute video interview, We will use this to understand your work, experience, and assess in terms of competency and behaviours. You will receive a brief beforehand if preparation is needed. This will be conducted over video conferencing.
• a technical exercise stage - 120 minute video interview. This is a research technical exercise session. In this session, we will assess your research practices and skills using a series of hands-on tasks. You will receive a brief with more info about this before attending the exercise session. This will be conducted over video conferencing.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• the execution of research projects following best practice, delivering  high impact results that have directly influenced important design and product directions both tactically and strategically.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• Seeing the big picture 
• Delivering at pace
• Working together
• Communicating and influencing
• Changing and improving
• Making effective decisions

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Senior User Researcher role:

• Agile research practices
• Analysis and synthesis
• Inclusive research
• Research management, leadership and assurance
• Stakeholder relationship management
• User research methods
• User-centred practice and advocacy

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 6th June 2025

Panel Interview starts: w/c 16th June onwards

technical stage starts: w/c 23rd June onwards

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Other information

In January 2025, it was announced that the Government Digital Service (GDS) will move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) as a part of a machinery of government change. This change aims to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one central department, presenting exciting opportunities and positioning DSIT to lead the government’s digital agenda.

This role is in scope to transfer to DSIT when the machinery of government change takes place.  As a result,  if you are successful and appointed by Cabinet Office to this role before 1st June 2025, your role will transfer from Cabinet Office to DSIT at the time of the relevant machinery of government change taking place. If your start date is after 1 June 2025, you will be appointed direct to DSIT and your appointment will be unaffected by the machinery of government change.  We are currently consulting with our Trade Unions on which policies, terms and conditions will apply on transfer.  The statement of changes applied to all other Cabinet Office staff will also apply to you if you are successful.

We encourage you to apply and look forward to reviewing your application. We will keep you updated throughout the process.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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