User Researcher

Justice Digital; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 43,000 - 53,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension contribution

25 days annual leave

Flexible working

Personal development time

Learning budget

Parental leave

Job summary

Justice Digital Data and Science in the UK is recruiting a User Researcher to join multidisciplinary product teams and work on public services that truly matter. You will be welcomed into a thriving user research community and collaborate with designers, business analysts, product managers, data scientists, delivery managers and developers to deliver user-centred services.

Depending on location, you may visit prisons, courts and probation delivery units, meeting people in their own environments.

Qualifications

• Experience using research methods, primarily qualitative with some quantitative experience.
• Advocate for users and help teams make evidence-based decisions.
• Experience ensuring research supports iterative development of a service/product.
• Experience including diverse users in appropriate research activities and conducting inclusive research.

Responsibilities

• Plan, conduct, analyse and communicate research.
• Ensure inclusion of different types of users in research activities.
• Communicate findings within project teams and to stakeholders.
• Work with product managers, designers, developers, data scientists and engineers to translate findings into actions.
• Contribute to building the user research community and improve ways of working.

Skills

Qualitative research

Quantitative experience

User advocacy

Team collaboration

Job description

User Researcher

Location: National

Closing Date: 22nd November 2026

Interviews: expected week commencing 7th December

Grade: SEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £49,325 - £53,081 National: £42,914 - £46,182

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 2

Vacancy number: 24078

We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP.

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

We're recruiting for User Researchers here at Justice Digital Data and Science (JDDS) to be part of our warm and collaborative product teams.

This role aligns against User Researcher from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

We're looking for User Researchers who want to make a difference by working on public services that really matter.

You'll be welcomed into a thriving user research community and into multidisciplinary teams, alongside designers, business analysts, product managers, data scientists, delivery managers and developers all working together to deliver world-class, user-centred services.

At JDDS, our research spans a wide range of services, from prisons and probation to legal aid and data. Depending on where you are based, you may have the opportunity to visit places such as prisons, courts and probation delivery units, meeting people in their own environments and learning about their experiences, needs and challenges.

We're currently experimenting with different delivery models, so some of the time you might find yourself embedded full time on a product team, and at other times you might be providing research support to teams that share similar problems. You may be working alongside other researchers, or as a single researcher in a team. We are therefore looking for researchers who have pragmatic, flexible ways of working.

Benefits

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work - balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan, conduct, analyse and communicate research
• Ensure the inclusion of different types of users in research activities
• Effectively communicate research findings within project teams, and share findings with other relevant stakeholders
• Work closely with product managers, designers, developers, data scientists and engineers to turn user research findings into actions that lead to valuable product and service designs
• Contribute to building our user research and user centred design community, by developing our practice and ways of working.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential

• Experience using research methods, primarily qualitative but ideally with some quantitative experience, and being able to select the right research method for the problem that needs to be solved
• Ability being an advocate for users, encouraging teams to engage with research insights to help them make evidence-based decisions.
• Experience ensuring research and insights support the iterative development of a service/product
• Experience including different kinds of users in appropriate research activities, and knowing how to run inclusive and ethical research
• Ability to build effective working relationships with a team and stakeholders
• Experience managing personal data, including following security and consent processes

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is from London: £49,325 - £53,081 National: £42,914 - £46,182

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.