Lead User Researcher

7 months ago


Reading, United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Full time

**Job description**

User Researchers are key figures in the teams that design and deliver services. They help their teams develop a deep understanding of the people - citizens, businesses or government colleagues - who use a service. Their findings allow their teams to design and build better services more quickly and at lower cost and risk and to continuously improve services, based on data and evidence.

As a Lead User Researcher in DDTS, you will lead and align user research activities across several teams. You will ensure that teams take a user centred, evidence-based approach to service design and delivery. You will develop user research capability and assure good user research practice.

**Person specification**

**Responsibilities**
- Leading and managing user researchers and user research activities across a programme or several teams
- Working with management teams and Delivery Managers to ensure a common understanding of priorities, playing an active role in matching researchers to requirements
- Contributing evidence from user research to inform service propositions and roadmaps
- Oversee the work of user researchers to ensure work is meeting GDS/CDDO service standards and is being delivered pragmatically and to a high quality, intervening if research falls below expected standards
- Working with colleagues and stakeholders to create a culture of user centred and evidence-based service design and delivery, with teams actively involved in user research, and advocating for benefits of operating this way
- Managing the professional development of staff
- Engaging with colleagues across the organisation and across government to collaborate on user research and share relevant findings
- Contributing to the organisation and cross-government user research communities - including presenting at meetups, writing blog posts and leading on aspects of practice

**Skills and Experience**
- Experience of working with management teams and stakeholders to understand business needs and aligning research prioritisation and delivery to these needs
- Managing, mentoring or leading a team, ensuring they are performing against delivery goals and working to develop their capability
- Design and execution of user research projects in complex organisations or contexts
- A proven background in helping teams adopt a wide range of user research methods, co-design, analysis and synthesis techniques and approaches to presenting and sharing findings. Advocating and building stakeholder buy-in, where necessary
- Experience of integrating user-centred practices into agile workflows
- The ability to advocate for inclusive practices and include all kinds of users in appropriate research activities to help teams understand the diversity of people who use their services
- Providing oversight of user researchers to continually assure, improve and innovate user research practices
- Responding to delivery pressures of an agile environment, demonstrating good professional judgement and flexibility

**Job Types**: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent
Part-time hours: 37 per week

**Salary**: £49,403.00-£61,392.00 per year

**Benefits**:

- Additional leave
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Employee discount
- Flexitime
- Free flu jabs
- Sick pay
- Work from home

Schedule:

- Flexitime
- Holidays
- Monday to Friday

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Reading, RG1 1AF

Reference ID: 311221



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