Lead User Researcher (Mixed Methods)

Manchester Digital; Manchester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading government digital service is seeking three mixed method Lead User Researchers to improve public infrastructure through effective research strategies. This role involves collaborating with senior stakeholders, conducting diverse research methods, and mentoring junior researchers. Candidates should possess a strong background in user research and a relevant advanced degree.

Qualifications

• Extensive practitioner experience with diverse user groups.
• Strong record of delivering impactful results.
• Proven ability to build relationships with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement research strategies based on GOV.UK visions.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative research to evaluate GOV.UK strategies.
• Lead and mentor other researchers to ensure best practices.

Skills

Qualitative research

Quantitative research

Critical thinking

Data analysis

Problem-solving

Education

Master's degree or doctorate in HCI, Human Factors, Psychology, Anthropology, or related field

Job description

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:
1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

We are recruiting for 3 mixed method Lead 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.

We expect this to be a practitioner role, though the responsibilities may be adapted to meet shifting business needs, while still maintaining the core, practitioner-focused nature of the work.

Join us, if you want to:

• make a real difference: work on and tackle some of the toughest challenges in public infrastructure, improving millions of people’s lives through effective strategies and solutions that are informed by high quality insights
• deliver work that matters: work with multi-disciplinary leadership, to proactively identify transformational opportunities that will drive change, and deliver better value and outcomes for users and government
• shape the future of craft, culture and impact: grow with us as a leader in an environment that empowers bold thinking and experimentation to learn, fall fast, reflect and grow. With dedicated development resources, training and cross-government networks, you will have plenty of opportunities to influence, mentor and develop your skills and others

As a mixed method Lead User Researcher, you will be the expert practitioner in GOV.UK and the main responsibilities include:

• be a core part of the leadership group for your responsible area(s) and work closely with the senior stakeholders (including director/deputy director levels), multidisciplinary leads and research leadership groups to ensure research delivers impactful outcomes
• design and implement research strategy based on GOV.UK/GDS visions and strategic outcomes. This includes proactively identifying research opportunities, getting buy-in for important research initiatives that can provide high quality strategic insights/foresights for senior stakeholders and influence the innovation/solution space
• conduct a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research, including using advanced, innovative techniques and comparative experiments to mitigate risks and deepen our understanding of user cohorts and needs,evaluate and design GOV.UK strategies/solutions, and demonstrate/measure value delivered by GOV.UK/GDS
• support or pair up with researchers to develop and ensure best practices are applied in their work and the work delivered is high-quality, reliable for decision making and meeting the delivery pace.
• be the user insights and knowledge expert for your area of responsibility, and proactively share important learnings with the directors, senior leadership groups, wider organisation and beyond. This includes leading on the creation and maintaining of documentations/artefacts related to our understanding of needs, problems, opportunities and user groups to direct prioritisation effort, and building reusable, accessible consolidated insights
• help colleagues understand when and when not to do research, the diverse range of research methods, advocate the value of research and demonstrate the importance of research by making sure the impact made by research is tracked and visible to others
• be a visible leader and model of craft, culture and impact. Build positive and influential relationships with multidisciplinary leaders and colleagues and continuously strengthen trust and seamless cross-functional collaboration
• be a reflective practitioner who strives to improve their own practice continually, develop creative solutions and practice, and help to lead the User Research Community to grow expertise. This includes pioneering and innovating on methods, processes, ways of working and providing training for the community to maximise results

Person specification

You don't need government experience to apply for this role.We’re interested in people who are exceptional and recognised research experts, with strong, demonstrable, tracked records of delivering impactful results and changes in craft, culture and impact in organisations:

• extensive practitioner experience of conducting research with a diverse range of user groups, using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research (from foundational, evaluative, experimental to idea generation) in the context of user experience and product development. This includes advanced research that reveals real context, behaviour and mental model, innovative methods, experiment design and use of basic applied statistics for comparative studies
• a proactive self-starter who excels at identifying overlooked yet critical research opportunities, and to develop and execute effective research strategies and delivery plans in complex, ambiguous space - without explicit direction and instruction
• demonstrable execution of research projects to a high standard with best practice, and delivered high impact results that have directly influenced product, business direction as well as mitigated risks. And can confidently run any types of research projects, including introducing new or unfamiliar approaches
• strong critical thinking and analysis skills to distil hidden and actionable insights through a wide range of data and communicate them through compelling storytelling to land the key messages effectively and drive actions. This includes high proficiency in clustering a wide user-base through appropriate techniques, and mapping complex journeys/ecosystems using system and service-design thinking
• strong ability in navigating complexity and uncertainty. Thrives in the delivery pressures of a fast-paced and ambiguous environment, combining pragmatism, professional judgement, and flexibility (not just playing it by the book); Can shift easily between delivering fast-paced research supporting short-term delivery goals, and research informing long-term thinking
• is tenacious, creative and proactively come up with solutions (including new ways of working, process where necessary) to problem-solving and enable change
• successfully embedding a diverse range of effective research methods, and established data-driven/UCD in challenging and complex environments with different levels of UCD maturity
• demonstrated success embedding best research practices and helping lead a community of practice with thought leadership, new process/approaches, mentoring and delivering training to continue to improve research function and its impact
• proven ability to build trusted and influential relationships with senior stakeholders and cross-functional multidisciplinary colleagues by collaboration and thinking beyond the user research lens - bringing a strong consideration of business, product, design and technical feasibility and constraints to drive well-balanced decision making
• masters degree or doctorate in the field of HCI, Human Factors, Psychology, Anthropology, Behavioural/Social Science, Information Architecture or a related field/equivalent work experience

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