Mid Weight User Researcher

User Researchers are key figures in the teams that design and deliver services. They help their teams develop a deep understanding of the people - citizens, businesses or government colleagues - who use a service. Their findings allow their teams to design and build better services more quickly and at lower cost and risk. And to continuously improve services, based on data and evidence.

As a User Researcher you will work in a multi-disciplinary team on a wide range of user research activities. You will work independently, with support and guidance from more senior user researchers.

Main responsibilities:

• Planning, designing and preparing a range of user research activities to support the design, development and continuous improvement of government services.
• Leading colleagues to analyse research data and synthesise clear and actionable findings, including working closely with analytics colleagues to create a rich picture of user behaviour.
• Communicating user research findings to help the team and wider organisation develop a deep understanding of users and their needs - including presentations at show and tells, designing and maintaining research outputs and creating reports of findings.
• Working closely with product managers, designers and developers to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product and service features.
• Mentoring and guiding more junior user researchers.
• Contributing to the wider user research community - including presenting at meetups and writing blog posts.

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

• experience and understanding of basic user research methods, including those related with planning, analysis and sharing of findings
• experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and involving them in research activities
• experience and understanding of user-centred service design and delivery practices
• ability to include all kinds of users in appropriate research activities to help teams understand the diversity of users of government services
• ability to present clear findings that colleagues can understand and use

Benefits

The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.