Principal User Researcher

Hippo; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contributory Pension Scheme

25 Days Holiday

Perkbox access

Critical illness cover

Life assurance

Cycle-to-work

Salary sacrifice EVs

Season ticket loans

Wellbeing sessions

Private health cover

Private dental cover

Additional pension contributions

Job summary

Hippo, a rapidly growing AI-enabled digital consultancy, seeks a Principal Consultant with a user research background to lead across programmes, shaping research strategy and standards for scalable, user-centred outcomes.

You will mentor Senior and Lead researchers, influence executive stakeholders, and help evolve Hippo’s research capability as AI reshapes the industry. Extensive AI in research and public-private projects are valued.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in research at a Principal level across a range of complex delivery environments, and with a range of clients.
• Experience working effectively within and leading multidisciplinary teams using user-centred design approaches throughout the product or service lifecycle.
• Strong track record of applying a wide range of research methodologies, and adapting research to meet the accessibility needs of participants.
• Expert consultancy and leadership skills, and confidence in exploring problem spaces with clients to determine most appropriate way forward.
• Confidence operating within complex organisations and adapting quickly to new environments and ambiguous asks.
• Experience in identifying and effectively mitigating ethics and safeguarding issues, and supporting other user researchers to do this.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor other researchers and UCD practitioners, building profession or team capability and supporting long-term growth.
• Working knowledge of the GDS Digital Standard and how to prepare for a GDS assessment, or extensive experience of delivering research and driving user centred approaches in the private sector.
• Practical experience of implementing AI tools and workflows, producing stronger outcomes for users, clients and Hippo.
• Experience providing continuous thought leadership within your profession

Responsibilities

• Be part of the leadership of our most complex and strategically important client engagements, driving a user centred approach across all projects and adding value across a programme or account
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, including executive leadership, using data, insight and primary research to influence decision-making and shape long-term service strategy to support better outcomes for service users
• Lead teams to ensure that products and services meet the needs of all users and adhere to GDS (where appropriate), accessibility and other relevant standards.
• Be part of the leadership team of Hippo’s research profession, leading substantive internal workstreams to us to grow the profession to support a period of rapid business growth
• Work with other research leaders to evolve our practices to ensure we retain our strong reputation for high quality user centred design and delivery as the market evolves with AI
• Recruit, lead and mentor Senior and Lead user researchers, strengthening capability within Hippo’s research profession and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
• Support business growth through pre-sales activity, shaping product propositions, contributing to bids, and helping clients understand the value of user-centred delivery
• Represent Hippo’s research and UCD capability internally and externally, contributing to thought leadership, community engagement, and the ongoing evolution of our practices

Skills

User research

UCD

Leadership

Mentoring

Stakeholder management

Ethics & safeguarding

AI in research

Tools

GDS Digital Standard

AI tools

Job description

About The Role

Hippo is a rapidly growing AI enabled digital consultancy passionate about building and delivering transformative digital solutions for a diverse range of Public and Private sector clients. We are recruiting for a Principal Consultant with a user research background to support our mission. We work at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Our collaborative and agile culture empowers our teams to make a genuine impact.

As a Principal Consultant, you will be a strategic research and UCD leader and an experienced practitioner. Your scope extends beyond individual products, services or delivery teams; you will be responsible for shaping research strategy across programmes or organisations, defining research standards, and helping to drive the successful delivery of valuable, user-centred outcomes at scale. You will lead research in complex environments, influence organisational strategy, and ensure user-centred thinking is embedded across disciplines.

You will mentor and guide Senior and Lead research practitioners, contribute to the development and evolution of our research capability and profession, and act as a visible leader within both Hippo and our client organisations.

At this level, you will play a key role in strengthening and evolving our propositions, supporting business growth, and influencing senior stakeholders at executive level. You will bring clarity to complex problems, align teams around outcomes for users, and drive direction in challenging client environments.

We are in particular encouraging candidates with extensive experience of using AI within their research or UCD practice, and/or working on products or services that embed AI in how they operate. We are looking for someone to help lead our approach to evolving our research practice as the industry evolves and AI changes how we work, and the types of projects we work on.

What you’ll do

• Be part of the leadership of our most complex and strategically important client engagements, driving a user centred approach across all projects and adding value across a programme or account
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, including executive leadership, using data, insight and primary research to influence decision-making and shape long-term service strategy to support better outcomes for service users
• Lead teams to ensure that products and services meet the needs of all users and adhere to GDS (where appropriate), accessibility and other relevant standards.
• Be part of the leadership team of Hippo’s research profession, leading substantive internal workstreams to us to grow the profession to support a period of rapid business growth
• Work with other research leaders to evolve our practices to ensure we retain our strong reputation for high quality user centred design and delivery as the market evolves with AI
• Recruit, lead and mentor Senior and Lead user researchers, strengthening capability within Hippo’s research profession and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
• Support business growth through pre-sales activity, shaping product propositions, contributing to bids, and helping clients understand the value of user-centred delivery
• Represent Hippo’s research and UCD capability internally and externally, contributing to thought leadership, community engagement, and the ongoing evolution of our practices

About the Candidate

• Extensive experience in research at a Principal level across a range of complex delivery environments, and with a range of clients
• Experience working effectively within and leading multidisciplinary teams using user-centred design approaches throughout the product or service lifecycle
• Strong track record of applying a wide range of research methodologies, and adapting research to meet the accessibility needs of participants
• Expert consultancy and leadership skills, and confidence in exploring problem spaces with clients to determine most appropriate way forward
• Confidence operating within complex organisations and adapting quickly to new environments and ambiguous asks.
• Experience in identifying and effectively mitigating ethics and safeguarding issues, and supporting other user researchers to do this.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor other researchers and UCD practitioners, building profession or team capability and supporting long-term growth
• Working knowledge of the GDS Digital Standard and how to prepare for a GDS assessment, or extensive experience of delivering research and driving user centred approaches in the private sector
• Practical experience of implementing AI tools and workflows, producing stronger outcomes for users, clients and Hippo
• Experience providing continuous thought leadership within your profession

About The Company

Alongside working with some of the most talented people out there and on-top of a competitive salary, which we’re transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory Pension Scheme (Hippo 6% & Employee 2%)
• 25 Days Holiday plus UK Public Holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of:
• Private health cover
• Private dental cover
• Additional company pension contributions
• Additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
• Wellbeing contribution
• Charity contributions
• Tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, we’re Hippo

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We're a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society.

Have a look through our Website at Our Story & Purpose, Our Culture & Values, Case Studies and Our Solutions & Services to find out some more!

Hippo Locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on-site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel and working on one of those sites at least 2 days per week. We offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8,000 (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.