Lead User Researcher

Lead User Researcher

c.£70,000 per annum

Bedford

Fixed Term Contract

Contract Length: 18 months with the possibility of extension or permanency

Hybrid Working

Are you a Lead User Researcher looking for a new contract? This new role at Money and Pensions Service is an opportunity to make a difference to people struggling with the cost of living crisis by improving the usability, inclusivity and accessibility of MoneyHelper.org.uk, a website visited by nearly a million people from across the UK each month. Do you have excellent research skills? Can you present, communicate, and persuade? If you answer ‘yes’ to these questions this might be the right opportunity for you.

As the Lead User Researcher you will be working with an experienced team of UX Designers and support partners, you will perform your own research, manage research partners and develop the user research practice organisation-wide. Previous experience working in a regulated environment such as the public sector is advantageous, as is experience in a financial sector.

Responsibilities

The Lead User Researcher will report directly to the Senior UX Manager. In this role you will be responsible for the following:

• Leading collaborative research programmes for multiple complex projects within and across multi-function teams.
• Uncovering user needs, including how access needs and protected characteristics may impact the way users interact with a product or service.
• Selecting the optimal research approach based on learning objectives, time scales, user profiles and organisational objectives.
• Using analytics, customer feedback and other internal and external data to inform research priorities and approach.
• Planning and leading workshops, debriefs, group note taking and playbacks.
• Creating and socialising research reports, presentations and other research artefacts to communicate research outcomes to audiences with varying levels of seniority, digital experience, project exposure and user-centred design knowledge.
• Identifying, understanding and mitigating ways research activities, processes and outcomes may negatively impact users, especially those who are vulnerable or experience some form of exclusion.
• Educating colleagues across the business on what existing and planned research does and does not tell us.
• Developing and evangelising user research practice across the organisation.
• Working with design leads to develop and champion the user-centred design practice within MaPS.
• Mentoring junior colleagues.
• Advising and teaching colleagues of all levels in your areas of special expertise.
• Collaborating with product owners, Policy and Proposition Managers and Designers to develop research roadmaps and ensure they align to project needs and timelines.
• Working within and across cross-functional teams to challenge assumptions and build coherent pictures of the users and ensuring their needs are met by the proposition, content and designs.
• Communicating with designers and researchers on other programmes to avoid duplication, maximise learning and promote coherence and consistency across MaPS digital experiences.
• Working with colleagues in our Personas working group to define customer profiles, pen portraits and scenarios.
• Working with UX Designers, Product Owners, Policy and Proposition Managers, Omnichannel Analysts and other colleagues to define KPIs and analyse results.
• Working with Programme Managers, Policy and Proposition Managers, Product Owners, Delivery Managers, Lead Editors, Lead Developers and external delivery partner staff to define and evolve agile ways of working.

Application Process

We do not require a portfolio, but if you have one, we would love to see it. If not, we would like a short statement (up to 500 words — less is fine) highlighting specific projects or experience demonstrating the skills and abilities in this job description.

You will be leading the design of a service which helps people, including those with vulnerabilities, understand and use complicated financial information to take positive action. So, we are especially interested in examples which involve one or more of:

• Making difficult information accessible and compelling to non-experts
• A large, content-heavy website
• Leading user research for a multi-disciplinary team across multiple work streams
• Working to the GDS service standard
• Working for a public sector organisation
• Working in a financial services or other regulated environment

Our location

The Money and Pensions Service is based in Bedford and as a key employer in the town we work hard to ensure that we are an active part of the community. This is a great opportunity for you to join us in Bedford and to be an integral part of the Money and Pensions Service team.

We are already forging great relationships with Bedford Borough Council and other local organisations to ensure that we are an active part of the community and fully integrated to play our part in the Government’s “levelling-up” strategy. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to be one of the first colleagues to join us in Bedford and to be an integral part of helping us establish ourselves in the town.

Our values

At the heart of the Money and Pensions Service are our values – caring, connecting and transforming, which are the foundation of our success. They permeate every area of our work and define all our business relationships and the way we work with each other. We’re not only looking for the best people in and around Bedford to come and work for us, but we need people who align themselves to our values: -

• Caring
  We care about our colleagues and people whose lives we are here to transform.
• Connecting
  We will transform lives through our ability to make positive connections.
• Transforming
  We are committed to transforming lives and make a positive societal impact.

At MaPS, we help people – particularly those most in need – to improve their financial wellbeing and build a better, more confident future. Working collaboratively across the UK, we make sure customers can access high-quality money and pensions guidance and debt advice throughout their lives, however and whenever they need it.

Our values

At the heart of the Money and Pensions Service are our values – caring, connecting and transforming, which are the foundation of our success. They permeate every area of our work and define all our business relationships and the way we work with each other. We’re not only looking for the best people in and around Bedford to come and work for us, but we need people who align themselves to our values: -

• Caring
  We care about our colleagues and people whose lives we are here to transform.
• Connecting
  We will transform lives through our ability to make positive connections.
• Transforming
  We are committed to transforming lives and make a positive societal impact.

At MaPS, we help people – particularly those most in need – to improve their financial wellbeing and build a better, more confident future. Working collaboratively across the UK, we make sure customers can access high-quality money and pensions guidance and debt advice throughout their lives, however and whenever they need it.

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme