User Research & Customer Understanding Lead -Manager, Comms & Journey Research

This is an exciting opportunity to work within the new Customer, Brand and Engagement community.  Working in the Customer Strategy, Insights & Propositions leadership team, you’ll be working with a newly formed team of User Research and comms understanding specialists, and be part of creating a best-in-class function to help Nationwide put consumer understanding at the heart of all its comms and content, in support of our response to the FCA’s new Consumer Duty.

You will join a team of User Research specialists who deliver insights on comprehension and engagement across journeys, communications, content, touchpoints, products and channels to help inform Comms & Journey development, and enable best practises.

At the heart of Strategy and Insight are our 17 million customers, who are at the forefront of every decision we make as a business. Every role, no matter its accountabilities, is customer focused.

In Customer, Brand and Engagement we are embarking on a programme of investment to support the delivery of our new strategy.  As part of this investment, we have a number of different roles within Customer Strategy, Insights & Propositions that we are recruiting for that you may be considered for if applying for this role.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, at one of our offices. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

This role requires you to travel into our London or Swindon office 2 days a week

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

We're looking for highly skilled user experience researchers to assist us, primarily with our comms and comprehension testing programme.  You’ll be well-versed in UXR, user journeys and user-centred research practises, and able take insight from research and testing, and communicate it in a way that engages, influences and helps us make the right decisions for customers.  You’ll have a wealth of experience in navigating research within a commercial environment, and most likely a strong background in User Research (UXR).  And you’ll be a natural collaborator, working closely with stakeholders at all levels to scope, plan research, and deliver & embed insights.

While your core focus will be Comms and Content User Research, you’ll be joining a community of researchers with a broad range of experience that also includes Design Research, Market Research, Strategic Insight, Data and Analytics, and Brand & Propositions Research.

You'll plan, design, and carry out User Research activities with users that help teams get a deep understanding of our members and how they interact with our communications and content, across different journeys and channels. This research informs comms, UX, and content development and interaction design so that services work well for users and assist users in reaching their financial objectives, with good outcomes.

You’ll be comfortable interacting with researchers and stakeholders at all levels, to take part in conversations to inform complex decision making and improvements across products, comms and strategies.

You’ll believe passionately in putting the best user experience at the heart of everything we do, and ideally will have experience working in an environment where research and testing of content to protect customers’ interests and outcomes is second nature.

About you

You’ll be an experienced User Research lead, most likely from a UX research background; with a broad range of methodological experience.  You’ll bring the following core skills:

• Essential core research skills: You understand and can clearly demonstrate experience in a range of User Research methods.  You can choose appropriate methods for different situations and stages of the customer journey and product life cycle.
• Analysis and synthesis: You can turn user testing and research data into clear findings that inform decisions.  You can effectively work with colleagues in analysis and synthesis to reach consensus and challenge assumptions.
• Inclusive research: You understand the diversity of members and users of our services.  You can effectively include all kinds of users in appropriate research activities to help teams deliver accessible services and understand vulnerable customers' needs.
• User-centred practices: You understand user-centred design and strategy practices and how to produce timely findings. You are able to work in an open, iterative and collaborative way in a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience working collaboratively in and across diverse and mixed-method User Research teams; being part of an inclusive and open culture, displaying team skills and behaviours that enhance both individual and collective performance.
• An ability to manage multiple pieces of work at the same time, together with strong planning skills.
• A strong ability to join dots between different sources and inputs, to provide compelling and concise evidence & narratives; engaging with audiences of all levels to link in with wider teams and deliver insight which can deepen organisational understanding of key customer experience issues, including where stakeholders have a broad range of priorities/interests.
• Experience working alongside/with a broader research and insights team: You can understand wider customer strategy and organisational objectives. You can align comms and User Research activities with these objectives to create strategic insights that inform our wider proposition and services.

Whilst not essential, ideally you would have some experience in some of the following areas;

• Understanding/experience of working in a highly-regulated consumer environment, especially financial services
• Understanding of the wider financial services market, including key products and responses of firms to Consumer Duty
• Demonstrable experience of understanding and researching vulnerable audiences/customers
• Mixed method CX experience, including cross-channel measurement and understanding

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Gympass – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.  

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.  

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.  

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

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