User Researcher

Opencast | B Corp™; Manchester; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 64,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

7% pension

Share options

Discretionary bonus

25 days holiday

Life happens days

Wellbeing support

Professional development

Volunteering opportunities

Job summary

Opencast is seeking a User Researcher to uncover user needs and inform design decisions for government, healthcare, and purpose-driven clients. The role involves shaping services through research, working with cross-disciplinary teams, and traveling to client sites across the UK.

You may take a leadership role on projects and support junior researchers, ensuring delivery in line with Opencast's policies and client standards. This is a demanding, impactful consultancy position.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering user research to delivery teams.
• Ability to select appropriate research methods for project phase.
• Experience producing ethics/governance docs for research.
• Ability to recruit participants per GDPR and guidelines.
• Ability to identify user needs, personas and design feedback.
• Experience working in agile delivery teams.
• Ability to present work and demonstrate skills in interviews.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research to support a user-centred service for clients.
• Collaborate with Service Designers, Content Designers, and Interaction Designers.
• Ensure work complies with quality, environmental and information security policies.
• Lead or contribute to research projects within client engagements.
• Produce clear deliverables tailored to different audiences.
• Work in multi-disciplinary teams across UK client sites.

Skills

User research methods

Stakeholder collaboration

Qualitative analysis

Requirements gathering

Job description

Do you want to use research to shape services that make a real impact? Are you ready to bring curiosity and insight to projects that improve people’s lives?

If so, Opencast could be the place for you. We’re a growing tech consultancy that creates user-centred solutions with purpose for our clients in government, healthcare and purpose-driven businesses. As a User Researcher, you’ll uncover the needs and voices of people, work in multi-disciplinary teams to feed these needs into design decisions shape impactful services, and bring curiosity, pragmatism and insight to projects. You’ll enjoy, a supportive community whilst working across public sector clients, to solve real problems that impact people's lives.

The role

You’ll conduct research which supports the development of a user centred service. You’ll work closely with other user centred design roles, such as Service Designer, Content Designers, and Interaction Designers, to solve complex and interesting problems for our clients.

You'll ensure that work is carried out in accordance with Opencast's quality, environmental, and information security policies and procedures, as well as applicable customer policies, standards, and procedures while working on client.

If you take a leadership role in projects, have a variety of project experience and support more junior colleagues working in design and delivery research you may be better suited to our Senior User Researcher role.

Requirements

This role involves weekly on-site work, and you’ll be required to travel regularly to client locations across the UK. We’re looking for people who value in-person collaboration, enjoy building strong relationships, and are passionate about delivering solutions that make a real difference for our clients.

Due to the nature of this role, you must either hold active Security Check (SC) clearance or be eligible and willing to undergo the clearance process.

SC clearance is granted in line with UK Government security vetting requirements. Typically, applicants must have UK citizenship and have lived continuously in the UK for at least the past five years, with no single absence exceeding 28 consecutive days. Nationality and immigration status may also be considered as part of the vetting process. We are unable to progress applications from candidates who do not meet these requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the eligibility criteria, we encourage you to review the guidance or discuss this with us before applying.

To succeed in this role, you need experience of delivering user research to a delivery team.

• In your CV and interview(s), please show how you have:
• Chosen from a range of research methods to design the right research approach for the project phase
• Produced the required ethics and governance documentation and materials for research activity
• Recruited a wide range of participants in line with GDPR and MRS guidelines
• Identified key themes, user needs, personas, and design feedback through analysis
• Produced clear and concise user research deliverables to meet the needs of different audiences
• Worked to GDS standards
• Worked in agile delivery teams

In addition to user research skills, there are essential core skills you’ll need to work effectively as a consultant.

In the interview, please show how you have:

• Planned your own tasks to achieve the objectives of your project
• Respectfully challenged decisions or solutions you don’t agree with
• Collaborated well with your colleagues, teammates and clients

In your interview we’ll ask you questions based around these experiences. We’ll also ask you to present a piece of work which demonstrates these skills and experiences.

If you have any of this experience, please show it on your CV and in the interview.

What we offer

A competitive package including a 7% employer pension contribution, share options, and a discretionary bonus. You’ll also benefit from 25 days’ holiday and access to 3 annual “life happens” days to support unexpected situations. We provide wellbeing support, ongoing professional development, volunteering opportunities, and the chance to be part of a genuinely supportive team.

Where you’ll work

This role requires regular on-site attendance at our HQ, hub offices, and client sites, as well as the ability to work from home. Applicants must be able to travel to offices and client sites across the UK as part of their normal working arrangements, as travel is essential for fulfilling the responsibilities of the role.

We include you

We welcome candidates from all identities, attributes, ways of thinking and backgrounds to thrive in a career at Opencast. Our aim is for the diversity of our people to be reflected in the solutions we deliver, to help create a fairer society for all.

Interview

Interviews will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. We’re happy to make adjustments to support your needs.

Want to know more?