User Researcher - Digital Services

The Open University; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

33 days annual leave

Pension scheme

OU staff fee waivers

Wellbeing support

Job summary

The Open University is seeking a User Researcher - Digital Services to help understand users and shape inclusive, user-centred digital services for students and colleagues. You will support the Digital Services Design team with UX research methods across varied contexts and help translate findings into actionable product improvements.

Join a collaborative environment with opportunities to contribute to communities of practice, share best practices, and advance a user-centred culture within a

Qualifications

• Experience advocating for user research and engaging non-specialist stakeholders.
• Ability to align research activities to inform decision making.
• Experience independently applying a range of applied UX research methods and insights sharing.
• Ability to moderate user research activities ensuring participant comfort and timekeeping.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate in a multi-disciplinary service team to design and plan a range of user research activities.
• Lead the design of user-centred UX research activities and ensure inclusivity.
• Recruit participants, prepare data collection methods, and moderate sessions.
• Analyze data and present insights to inform product features and service touchpoints.
• Communicate findings to help the team understand users and their needs.
• Collaborate with researchers, product managers, designers, developers, and operations.
• Contribute to Open University’s User Centred Design Communities of Practice.

Skills

User research

UX research methods

Stakeholder engagement

Moderation

Job description

Are you passionate about understanding users and shaping digital services that truly make a difference?

Join The Open University as a User Researcher - Digital Services and play a key role in designing inclusive, user-centred services that improve outcomes for students and colleagues.

About the Role

This role sits within Digital Services which is aligned with the Digital, Data and Design Profession. The focus of this role will be to support the Digital Services Design team whose ambition it is to ensure services and products are highly customer-centric and designed with the user (whether student or colleague) in mind ensuring best possible outcomes.

As a User Researcher - Digital Services (known internally as a User Researcher) you will work within the user research profession and be responsible for helping develop a deep understanding of the people who use end-to-end services. Your findings will allow teams to design, build and develop better, more joined up services more quickly and at lower cost and risk. You’ll be helping to embed user-centred research principles and processes to inform the development of new products and the continual improvement of existing products.

This role is especially suited to researchers with experience in practical UX research methods, for example usability testing, prototype testing, tree testing and other evaluative approaches used within digital product and service teams. Experience of applying research findings directly to the design and improvement of services is particularly important.

This role requires a working or practitioner level of proficiency. You’ll need to demonstrate sufficient experience to enable you to work independently and apply UX user research methods across varied contexts and guide others.

We are currently recruiting for the following contracts:

• 1x Permanent, full-time (37 hours per week)
• 1x Fixed-Term Contract (12 months), full-time (37 hours per week)

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate in a multi-disciplinary service team to reduce complexity and improve service outcomes, leading on planning, designing, and preparing a range of user research activities to support team understanding of users, the service and how it should be designed.
• Lead on the design of user-centred UX research activities, selecting the most appropriate research methods and ensuring all activities are inclusive.
• Run a wide range of user research activities including recruitment of participants, preparation of data collection methods, moderation of research sessions.
• Analyse research data and trends to synthesise clear and actionable findings, including working closely with analytics colleagues to create a rich picture of user behaviour.
• Communicate user research findings to help the team and wider organisation develop a deep understanding of users and their needs.
• Work closely or consult with other user researchers, product managers, designers, developers, and operations teams to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product features, development, and service touchpoints.
• Open University’s User Centred Design Communities of Practice, contributing to our collective knowledge and skills, sharing best practice, and joining up to make the understanding of our users and design of our services more consistent.
• Understand the needs of a range of users, ensure their requirements are considered during user research activities, and design inclusive research sessions open to all users.
• Understand and apply data protection, security, and ethics requirements for handling user information in research.
• Keep up to date in developments in user centred design, user research, trends, technologies and AI, and share with the wider user research team to build a deep understanding and appreciation of best practice in this field.
• Line manage other team members as needed, supporting their professional development, providing pastoral care and supporting them to do their best work within their teams.

About You

• Experience of advocating for user research and effectively engaging non-specialist stakeholders and being able to represent user research at internal and external events.
• Ability to understand the problems a team is trying to solve, and align user research activities to inform decision making and action.
• Experience of independently applying a range of applied UX research methods, analysis techniques, and insight-sharing approaches.
• Ability to confidently moderate user research activities, ensuring participant comfort, focus and timekeeping.
• Ability to analyse and synthesise qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable, presentable insights.
• Have a commitment to inclusive research, and experience of researching with and advocating for a wide range of users.
• Have and maintain strong understanding of research ethics, data protection, and participant safety.
• Experience of working effectively in fast-paced, agile environments whilst managing priorities independently to meet deadlines.
• Ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines and actively engage others in the research process.
• Demonstrate commitment to continuous personal development of the knowledge and skills related to user research for services.
• Ability to work in accordance with the University’s values and relevant policies and apply inclusive and fair practices in the delivery of the role.
• Demonstrates openness to constructive feedback and provides thoughtful, constructive critique to support the development of others’ work.
• Demonstrates an understanding of accessibility principles, and how accessibility aligns with UX design principles.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email [e-mail] quoting the advert reference number.

Why Join The Open University?

At The Open University, we’re leaders in accessible education and digital innovation. This is your opportunity to shape services that directly impact thousands of learners and colleagues.

You’ll be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking environment where user-centred design is at the heart of everything we do—supported by strong communities of practice and opportunities to grow your career.

Our benefits include:

• 33 days annual leave, on top of bank holidays and a three-day Christmas closure period.
• Access to a leading pension scheme for UK higher education with generous employer contributions.
• Staff Fee Waivers for OU study, meaning you could earn a degree for free.
• Hybrid working, with limited requirement to attend the office in-person, with agile working and family friendly policies.
• Discounts, wellbeing support, and development opportunities.