You’ll play a key role in driving user-centred design as the primary force behind digital development, shaping priorities, influencing stakeholders, and ensuring user needs are embedded across the service.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and deliver high-quality user research in high-pressure, delivery-led environments
- Advocate for user needs where delivery constraints exist, influencing decision-making at pace
- Drive strategic change through insight, ensuring research directly informs product and service decisions
- Engage and manage senior stakeholders, providing clear, evidence-based recommendations
- Deliver research quickly and effectively without compromising on quality
- Contribute to shaping end-to-end user journeys, not just individual touchpoints
- Work closely with product, design, delivery, and engineering colleagues in agile teams
- Champion GDS standards and UCD best practice throughout the lifecycle
Essential Skills & Experience:
- Senior-level experience as a User Researcher in UK Central Government
- Strong experience working in agile, multidisciplinary teams
- Proven ability to operate in environments where delivery cannot stop
- Demonstrable experience influencing decisions through user research
- Ability to position UCD as a driver of delivery priorities
- Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
- Experience delivering impactful research at pace
Desirable:
- Experience researching with vulnerable users
- Service design mindset or experience contributing to holistic service journeys
- Previous experience working on complex, large-scale government programmes
