User Research Officer

embl; Hinxton; Hybrid; GBP 39,000 - 43,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Family allowances

Child allowances

Non-resident allowances

Pension plan

Medical insurance

Flexible/hybrid work

Salary review

Job summary

EMBL, based at the Wellcome Genome Campus, seeks a Global Engagement professional to lead user research and stakeholder outreach for biodata resources. You will coordinate with EMBL-EBI data service teams and other engagement activities to map communities and identify user needs in LMICs.

The role requires building partnerships, informing resource development, and supporting cross-team collaboration to improve access to biodata resources and training across global communities.

Qualifications

• Familiarity with biodata services and communities.
• Ability to gather data resource requirements from audiences.
• Experience engaging with biodata communities in Africa, Latin America and/or SE Asia.
• Ability to translate user needs into resource delivery requirements.

Responsibilities

• Leading the EMBL-EBI Global Engagement programme user research to engage new stakeholders.
• Connecting stakeholders with EMBL-EBI data resources and training teams.
• Running user research to understand motivations and needs from LMICs.
• Ensuring work aligns with ongoing EMBL-EBI data service and global engagement activities.
• Developing a framework for distributed user research and insight sharing.
• Recommending data resource or engagement channel improvements based on research.

Skills

Biodata familiarity

Stakeholder requirements

Global engagement experience

Communication skills

Job description

Your role

Reporting to EMBL-EBI's Deputy Director, funded by Wellcome and working closely with senior colleagues responsible for data services, training, infrastructure development, in this role, you will work alongside colleagues in EMBL-EBI's Global Engagement programme to:

• Develop a stakeholder map of the current landscape of life science data communities and resources in low and middle income countries, and identify gaps in engagement of biodata communities (including users, contributors, and delivery partners).
• Coordinate outreach to existing and new biodata communities to understand user needs, experiences, pain points and opportunities with respect to the use and development of biodata resources
• Work with EMBL-EBI-based service teams to inform user research and raise awareness of new stakeholders or new needs identified
• Build and share new and specific understanding of global community challenges, identify priority use cases
• Advise the Global Engagement programme on potential collaborations and partnerships

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Leading the EMBL-EBI Global Engagement programme user research to find and engage new key stakeholders communities
• Connecting key stakeholders with EMBL-EBI data resources and training teams
• Running user research activities that enable key stakeholders from low and middle income countries to understand motivations and provide a forum for user needs to be heard
• Ensuring that your work is in collaboration with ongoing activities within EMBL-EBI data service teams and central global engagement activities.
• Developing a framework for distributed user research (some user research will happen within teams responsible for delivering specific resources), expertise and insight sharing with Global Engagement programme
• Proposing, through user research, recommendations for the development of data resources and/or new engagement channels or events

You have

• Familiarity with biodata services and the communities who use them
• Ability to gather data resource requirements from audiences in the Global Engagement programme and communicate these to resource delivery teams
• Experience interfacing with biodata scientific communities in Africa, Latin America, and/or South East Asia
• Ability to combine experiences and intuition across multiple fields to build insights and perspectives adaptable to resource-limited settings.
• Strong communication skills with an appetite for building new relationships, and keeping existing relationships and communities engaged

You may also have

• Technical understanding of bioinformatics processes or operations evident through software engineering / web development projects, research/data service experiences, publications and/or GitHub repositories
• Demonstrated ability or experience to deconstruct complex low resource problems into basic units and map these to requirements
• Experience with internal and external communication strategies such as communication campaigns, social media engagements
• Experience building strategic partnerships, or communities, evident through establishing/managing scientific networks and communities

Contract length: Project based contract for 3 years

Salary: Grade 5 or 6 monthly salary from £3,452.05 or £3,861.91 after tax plus generous benefits and financial allowances based on personal circumstances. Excluding personal pension and insurance contributions.

*** We will review applications on a rolling basis and in the event that we identify a suitable candidate sooner, we reserve the right to close the vacancy earlier that the published closing date ***

Why join us

Do something meaningful

At EMBL-EBI you can apply your talent and passion to accelerate science and tackle some of humankind's greatest challenges. EMBL-EBI, part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, is a worldwide leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We provide the global research community with access to publicly available databases and tools which are crucial for the advancement of healthcare, food security, and biodiversity.

Join a culture of innovation

We are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, alongside other prominent research and biotech organisations, and surrounded by beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. This is a highly collaborative and inclusive community where our employees enjoy a relaxed atmosphere. We are committed to ensuring our employees feel valued, supported and empowered to reach their professional potential. Watch this video to see how EMBL-EBI makes an impact.

Enjoy lots of benefits:

• Financial incentives: Monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Flexible working arrangements - including hybrid working patterns
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)
• Generous time