Senior User Experience Researcher

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 249223**Salary**:

- £47,500**Job grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- TNA - Digital - Digital Services**Type of role**:

- Digital**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- London, London (region), TW9 4DUAbout the job

**Job summary**:

- The Digital Services at The National Archives are committed to delivering high quality, user-friendly digital services, such as our website and the services that collect, preserve and provide access to our Digital Archive. We are committed to research, innovation and meeting user needs. We want to test our assumptions thoroughly and regularly with our users, both public and staff, so that we develop services in line with real, evidenced needs and ultimately attract new and more diverse audiences to our nationally important collections.**Job description**:

- Full job description attached (see below).**Person specification**:
We’re currently looking for an enthusiastic Senior User Researcher to become a leader in our growing user-centred design community. Playing a pivotal role in a multi-disciplinary product team you will enable delivery of products that help build our digital brand, support our ambition to become a 21st century archive and, ultimately, enable a wider range of users to better access and understand the UK’s public records.

We are currently undertaking several digital transformation projects so understanding our users’ needs and thinking creatively about how users interact with our services is central to our work. This role requires a deep understanding of usability and accessibility practices and excellent knowledge and experience of a variety of user research methods, knowing when and how these should be applied throughout the development lifecycle.

Your ability to confidently analyse and evaluate research findings to reveal actionable insights and recommendations will help us build a rich picture of our users and their requirements so that together we can transform our digital services, ensuring The National Archives remains relevant, accessible and continues to bring value to the nation.

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site.

**How to apply**:
**Essential criteria**:

- A thorough understanding of the strengths and limitations of different research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, and the confidence to deploy these appropriately.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, able to engage effectively with a wide range of users and potential users and lead research sessions in an open, engaging and sensitive manner.
- Strong critical thinking and analytical skills and a demonstrable ability to collate, synthesise and present user research findings in a creative, clear, rational way that is easy for colleagues to interpret and contribute to.
- An advocate for user-centred design, with a passion for learning, sharing best practice and influencing colleagues to ensure user research and user testing are embedded in development cycles.
- Ability to collaborate effectively within an Agile multidisciplinary team to help keep product development on track, including helping the product team understand which technical options are likely to best meet user needs.
- A commitment to supporting the development of junior members of staff through shadowing, coaching and mentoring as well as through formal line management and training.

**Benefits**:

- Generous benefits package, including pension, sports and social club facilities, onsite gym, discounted rates at our on-site cafe and opportunities for training and development.

Things you need to know

**Selection process details**:

- Reasonable adjustments:

- If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.**Security**:
- People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.**Nationality requirements**:
This job is broadly open to the following groups:

- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationalit