Senior User Researcher

The Police Digital Service (PoDS) is a multidisciplinary team of digital professionals who support agile and user-centred design within the Home Office Law Enforcement Innovation portfolio.

We collaborate and deliver across the five major programmes of Policing-related work in the Home Office as well as the smaller programmes of work. These major programmes are:

• Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS)
• Child Abuse Image Database (CAID)
• Emergency Services Mobile Communication Platform (ESMCP)
• Home Office Biometrics (HOB)
• National Automatic Number Plate Recognition Service (NAS)

The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this effort since 1782. As such, we play a fundamental role in maintaining the security and economic prosperity of the UK.

The Home Office leads on immigration and passports, refugee protection, counter-terrorism, policing, fire services, and crime and drugs policy.

Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) enables the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. We design and build the services that help people apply for visas or passports; support policing and counter-terrorism operations; and protect the UK’s borders.

This is an exciting time to be at the Home Office. You’ll have a chance to shape the future and support our mission to deliver exceptional public services that work for everyone.

Our work is guided by these principles:

• We put user needs first
• We value delivery and outcomes over process
• We work in the open

Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We also nurture talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities that will help you flourish in your role.

We work hard to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you fulfil your potential. We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive and supportive environment to help you do your best work.

You can keep up-to-date with our work on the Home Office DDaT blog. (https://hodigital.blog.gov.uk/)

We are looking for a skilled and experienced Senior User Researcher who is passionate about what they can bring to delivering better services at the Home Office and prepared to be a vocal advocate for user needs.

You will work within a fast-paced delivery team in Police and Public Protection - either across several smaller services or dedicated to one larger programme of work. Your research will inform policy, proposition, service, content and interaction design so that digital services work well for users and achieve their policy intent.

Job description

As a Senior User Researcher, you will plan and lead user research activities in large teams and on complex services. You will develop research strategy and test design, as well as leading on expansive discovery research and analysis within the broad problem space. You will lead research using a range of methods, including usability testing, contextual interviews, pop-up testing, and will lead on rapid analysis that involves the wider team whenever possible.

You will also carry out line management, mentoring, training and other activities designed to up-skill junior staff in primary research techniques, as well as recruitment activities to ensure that we continue to have the required skills within the organisation.

You’ll communicate insights from research in engaging and impactful ways to delivery teams and stakeholders to drive change and improve government services.

We’re looking for people who are collaborative, inclusive, open to their work being critiqued and who are empathetic towards their colleagues and users. A healthy balance of determinism and pragmatism will be needed on our complex services and products.

If you want to join us in keeping the UK safe and secure and ensuring that our services for migrants and asylum seekers are easier and simpler to use, apply now.

You can learn more about design and research in the Home Office on our blog.

Person specification

Responsibilities

Your main day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Leading the planning, design and execution of user research and usability testing to understand user needs and behaviours and inform the design and development of government services
• Influencing how decisions are made and constructively challenging ways of thinking at both the team and senior stakeholder level
• Leading other user researchers within a digital delivery team, mentoring and up-skilling researchers and supporting the growth and development of the team
• Taking a user centred, evidence-based approach by turning user research findings into actionable insights that influence service/product development
• Supporting digital delivery teams to build accessible digital services by ensuring that participants with access needs and low digital skills are included in all research
• Sharing insights from research and examples of best practice where they can help other researchers across the Home Office
• Aligning user research activities with wider organisational objectives to provide strategic insights that inform policy and proposition

You will also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• Presenting research findings and related recommendations to senior decision makers across government
• Identifying, mitigating or escalating risks to conducting and implementing research.

Essential Skills

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for user-centred design, with the following skills or some experience in:

• Understanding and applying a range of user research methods correctly for different life cycle phases, and advising others on these methods
• Communicating insights from research in a clear and impactful way that drives change in the design of services and informs policy and proposition
• Establishing an effective user centred design culture in a team, and supporting them to embed user centred design practices into their agile workflow
• ­Convincing senior stakeholders about the benefits of adopting a user-centred approach, based on evidence
• Establishing and applying ethical research standards and practices to ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of participants and researchers
• Researching diverse audiences to help teams deliver accessible and inclusive digital services

Our skills align with the cross gov DDaT Capability Framework

Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)