User Researcher

Trust in SODA; Portsmouth; Hybrid; GBP 104,000 - 109,000; Full time

Job summary

Trust in SODA in Portsmouth is seeking a User Researcher for a 6-month contract, hybrid with 2 days per fortnight in the office. Start ASAP; daily rate £400–£420 outside IR35. SC clearance is required.

The role covers planning and executing user research, employing generative and evaluative methods, running workshops, recruiting participants, and presenting insights to inform service design. Some on-site work may be required.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years in a dedicated user research role, ideally in an Agile environment.
• Experience with generative (discovery) and evaluative (testing) research methods.
• Strong communication and presentation skills; able to advocate for the user to non-researchers.
• Experience facilitating workshops or collaborative analysis sessions with stakeholders.
• Ability to source research tools to expedite analysis and synthesis.
• Collaborative, personable, and clear communicator across visual, literal, and verbal channels.
• Experience recruiting and engaging research participants.
• Capturing and distilling user needs to inform options.
• Proficient at conducting virtual interviews.
• Developing research artefacts like personas and user journey maps.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute a broad range of user research activities to understand user needs and behaviours.
• Gather data on core user groups and journeys to turn into actionable insights for design.
• Work autonomously, guiding research method choices within an agile delivery context.
• Ensure services meet Government Service Standard principles, including accessibility and user needs.

Skills

User research

Agile

Discovery research

Usability testing

Workshop facilitation

Stakeholder comms

Participant recruitment

Remote interviews

User journeys

Personas

Job description

User Researcher – Contract Position – HIRING ASAP

Location: Hybrid working in Portsmouth office (2 days per fortnight)
Start Date: ASAP
Duration: 6-month contract
Daily Rate: £400 - £420 per day outside IR35

Security Clearance: SC Clearance is required

Key Skills

• Minimum 3–5 years of experience in a dedicated user research role, ideally within an Agile environment.
• Proven experience in both generative (discovery) and evaluative (testing) research methods.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to advocate for the user to non-researchers.
• Experience facilitating workshops or collaborative analysis sessions with stakeholders
• Ability to source and secure research tools to enable expediting research analysis and synthesis
• Collaborative, personable and a good visual, literal and verbal communicator.
• Recruiting and engaging research participants
• Capturing, challenging, distilling and presenting user needs and ensuring they can be used to inform and assess potential options.
• Proficient at conducting virtual interviews
• Ability to source and secure research tools to enable expediting research analysis and synthesis
• Developing research related artefacts i.e. personas and user journey maps etc

Bonus Skills

• Proficiency in research tools.
• Familiarity with the GDS Service Standard or similar public/private sector design frameworks.
• Experience working in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) or similar secure environments.

Responsibilities

• As a User Researcher, you will be responsible for planning and executing a broad range of user research activities to help the team understand user needs and behaviours. You will gather data in terms of identifying core user groups and the process of the user journey which will be turned into actionable insights that shape the design of services and products. As a User Researcher, you will gather any pain points from users during processes, gathering user needs at all points of a project. You will work with a degree of autonomy, guiding the choice of research methods and ensuring that the development lifecycle is user-centred. The role supports the delivery of user-centred, accessible, secure and effective digital services, aligned to Government Service Standard and organisational delivery frameworks.
• You will be working closely with product managers, designers, developers and delivery managers to embed user research into agile delivery.
• You will contribute evidence to prioritisation decisions, backlog refinement, and design iterations. Supporting continuous improvement of live services through ongoing research and feedback loops.
• It will be your responsibility to ensure services meet Government Service Standard principles, particularly around user needs and accessibility. The User Researcher will need a flexible approach to needing to be on site due to the type of work needed on this project.