Senior User Researcher

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

- 385234

**Salary**:

- £55,557 - £66,058
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

**Job grade**:

- Grade 7

**Contract type**:

- Permanent

**Business area**:

- DWP - Digital

**Type of role**:

- Digital
Information Technology

**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

**Number of jobs available**:

- 1

Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- This role may be located in one of the following locations; Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle. Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.

About the job

**Job summary**:
**Do you want to be part of a team that has a significant role in designing, developing and operating, the DWP Strategic hosting platform that underpins service transformation across DWP?**

**Would you enjoy working with cutting edge technology on a large scale to make a difference to millions of people’s lives?**

**Do you want to work with amazing product led teams that delivers hybrid cloud shared services across DWP?**

User Researchers plan, design and carry out research activities with users that help teams get a deep understanding of the people that use government services and of the colleagues who use different systems and tools to deliver services. This research informs policy, proposition, service, content and interaction design so that services work well for users and achieves policy intent.

**Job description**:
As a Senior User Researcher, you will lead on the planning and conducting of user research activities across Hybrid Cloud Services.

You will lead on defining the problems in that area and selecting the appropriate research strategies to tackle issues and understand user needs.

You will advocate for user-centred design and champion its value within the department.

Your responsibilities will include but are not restricted to, the following:

- Work with agile teams to develop and advocate appropriate research strategies within project areas, with the goal of understanding user needs for services, and continually improving services.
- Conduct user research using a range of research methods, selecting the appropriate method, both qualitative and quantitative, depending on the requirements of the programme.
- Advocate for user centred approaches to research.
- Develop recommendations based on a variety of research outcomes, evaluate those outcomes to inform the product or service decision.
- Be accountable for the end-to-end delivery of research, developing and delivering research that considers the time & budget vs outcomes perspective.
- Advocate for inclusive research principles, planning and conducting research that considers the diversity of users, keeping in mind any access requirements users may have and the ethical nature of research.

**Person specification**:
When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:

- Experience as a user researcher or appropriate experience in other fields of research.
- Experience of advising colleagues on the best research tools and methods to use to assure best practice in research.
- Experience of collaborating with other researchers on research projects.
- Experience of championing, planning and conducting research approaches which are inclusive of all users. Experience and understanding of the ethical and data governance requirements of conducting research.
- Experience of working with senior stakeholders/clients. Experience of persuading others on the value of research, defending research findings and challenging others on the use of research.
- Experience of working with constraints and adapting approaches to mitigate against constraints.

**Benefits**:

- Alongside your salary of £55,557, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £16,094 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

- Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
- Generous annual leave - at least 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro-rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
- Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
- Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
- Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
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