Service Designer

IBM; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Private medical

Pension scheme

Job summary

IBM Consulting UK FutureNow is seeking a Senior Experience Consultant specializing in Research to lead and shape user research across government digital services. You will guide complex research programmes, champion evidence-informed decisions, and oversee qualitative and quantitative studies from ethnography to large-scale surveys.

You will mentor researchers, present insights to senior stakeholders, and ensure research outputs drive policy, service design, and delivery across the GDS

Qualifications

• Experience leading planning, design and execution of end-to-end user research.
• Guides research strategies aligned with client needs and objectives.
• Provides mentoring and quality assurance across research teams.
• Develops artefacts like service maps and behavioural models.
• Facilitates workshops with senior stakeholders to prioritise needs.
• Conducts expert reviews and cognitive walkthroughs to improve UX.
• Communicates insights clearly to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop comprehensive user research plans aligned with project goals.
• Design and conduct research to deepen understanding of user needs across services.
• Document insights into personas, journey maps, and repositories.
• Champion user research across programmes and policy contexts.
• Ensure research evidence informs policy and service design.
• Participate in craft communities, sharing IBM best practices.

Skills

User research leadership

Stakeholder communication

Mentoring researchers

Accessibility testing

Qualitative methods

Quantitative methods

Research strategy

Tools

Research repositories

A/B testing

Card sorting

Experience with accessibility tools

Job description

A Senior Experience Consultant specializing in Research provides strategic leadership in shaping, delivering, and championing user research across digital services. The role leads complex research programmes, oversees methodological decisions, and ensures insights directly influence policy, service design, and delivery across the GDS lifecycle. This includes advanced qualitative and quantitative approaches such as ethnographic studies, generative discovery, large-scale surveys, workshops, prototype testing, and accessibility evaluations. Senior researchers interpret complex data, synthesise insights at scale, and guide teams in understanding user needs, behaviours, and systemic challenges.

• Develop comprehensive user research plans, aligned with project goals and wider organisational priorities.
• Design and carry out research activities that help teams develop a deep understanding of users and their needs across government services.
• Document user insights clearly and consistently, producing high-quality outputs such as personas, journey maps, research summaries, and insight repositories.
• Champion user research
• Ensure research evidence effectively informs policy, propositions, service design, content design, and interaction design to achieve both user and policy outcomes.
• Actively participate in HMRC craft communities, contributing IBM best practices, frameworks, and thought leadership to strengthen capability

This role is suited to a highly skilled, senior professional dedicated to understanding user behaviour and shaping accessible, equitable, and effective public services. If you are an influential, strategic, and analytically strong research leader able to drive impact at scale

Required technical and professional expertise

• Experience leading planning, design, and execution of end-to-end user research using a broad range of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Skilled at shaping research strategies that drive decision-making and align with client needs and organisational objectives.
• Provide guidance, mentoring, and quality assurance to researchers, improving research practice across teams.
• Develop advanced artefacts such as service-level journey maps, research frameworks, behavioural models, and thematic insight repositories.
• Facilitate workshops and collaborative sessions with senior stakeholders to prioritise research needs and embed evidence-based decisions.
• Conduct expert reviews, heuristic evaluations, and cognitive walkthroughs to assess and improve user experience quality.
• Communicate complex insights clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, including senior leaders.
• Champion user-centred design principles and influence product and service direction across multidisciplinary teams.
• Remain current on emerging research methodologies, accessibility standards, and best practices in user-centred design.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience with advanced analytics, A/B testing, card sorting, or contextual inquiry.
• Experience mentoring or line-managing junior researchers.
• Familiarity with digital accessibility standards and specialised accessibility testing tools.
• Knowledge of behavioural science, service design, or systems thinking.
• Experience using insight repositories or researchOps platforms.

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

At IBM Consulting UK FutureNow, you'll build a career at the forefront of hybrid cloud and AI, working with leading clients across the public and private sectors. You'll collaborate with top industry professionals, gain hands on experience with cutting edge technologies, and deliver solutions that create real business impact. From day one, you'll work on meaningful, high profile programmes that stretch your skills and accelerate your growth. We invest heavily in you--supporting continuous learning, in demand skills development, and long term career progression. You'll thrive in a flexible, inclusive environment that values curiosity, encourages reinvention, and recognises what makes you unique.

• Tools and policies to support your work-life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme
• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group pension plan through salary sacrifice.