Senior User Researcher

DWP. Digital with Purpose.

We're hiring for a Senior User Researcher who can inspire and lead our UR community and influence our project teams.

Our DWP Digital community is taking on a once-in-a-generation digital transformation. We're bringing together the best tech, tooling and in-house talent to design and build modern, simple-to-use products and services.

Our User Researchers work on internal and external user research projects to gather insights and feedback from a diverse range of users.

The types of users we work with can range from citizens accessing public services like Universal Credit, Pensions, Benefits, Disability Services and Child Maintenance or DWP staff accessing internal systems and services that enable them to to do their jobs well.

Join us and help put user needs, and expert user research, at the heart of everything we do.

So, what can I expect as a Senior User Researcher in DWP?

You're an experienced practitioner in User Research, so you'll be used to planning and leading user research activities across complex projects and services.

Our User Researchers use a wide range of research methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative depending on the requirements of each project/programme.

You have the expertise to define a problem, and pick the right research strategies and methods to help us understand and design for our users' needs.

You'll be an expert UR voice in our community. You will lead and inspire our User Researchers, championing a user-centred and evidence-based approach.

You'll make telling recommendations based on a variety of research outcomes, which inform the way we deliver our wide range of products and services for millions of people.

We work in an agile environment, as part of multi-disciplinary project teams, and expert communities of practice. You'll keep our teams locked in on user centred design based on user needs and quality user research.

You'll be an advocate for inclusive research principles, planning and conduct, considering the diversity of our users and their different needs. DWP services need to work for everyone.

If you'd like to be involved, we'd love to hear from you.

Your essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• A champion for user research, experienced in helping teams use, and choose from, a wide range of user research tools and methodologies
• Able to help teams plan, prioritise and define user research approaches to understand the user story, especially for services with challenging user needs and complex user journeys
• Can align research activities across teams to organisational goals, helping to inform policy and proposition
• Can distinguish user needs from what a user wants, and meet those needs across channels
• Can work with and challenge senior stakeholders
• Can prioritise and mitigate constraints to turn them into an advantage

Details. Wages. Perks.

You'll join us in your choice of our digital hubs in Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield.

We also have all the tools and tech we need to enable our people to work flexibly. We operate a hybrid working model with a mix of home working and some time in the office.

In return for your skills, we offer competitive pay of up to £78,517.

You'll be eligible for a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%.

You'll get a generous leave package starting at 26 days, plus all the usual bank holidays, and the option to take extra days off on flexi leave.

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Flexible working, flexi hours and flexi days
• Hybrid working: some time in a hub with the team, some time at home
• Family-friendly policies
• Time off for volunteering and charitable giving
• Bring your authentic self to work with 'I Can Be Me in DWP'
• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season tickets
• Sports and social activities
• Working in an award-winning environment and culture
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities

Click 'Apply' for more information and to start an application on Civil Service Jobs