User Researcher

As a User Researcher, you will be responsible for ensuring our service provision meets users' needs, by leading on extensive research on how users and customers interact with the service. You will be responsible for conducting research to gain a deep understanding of our users, their behaviours, needs, and motivations. You will plan, design, and execute user-centred research activities, including usability testing, surveys, ethnographic studies, card sorting, and interviews, amongst others. You will work collaboratively with cross-functional teams, including designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to translate research findings into actionable insights that drive product development and innovation. Strong analytical, communication, presentation and problem-solving skills are essential. You'll be at the heart of our dedicated User Experience team, championing UX best practices within the projects to build a user-focused culture. We're looking for people who are passionate about creating accessible services that are simple enough for everyone to use. We follow the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability job description model for User Researcher. You will be required to gain a good understanding of the Government Digital Service Manual, the GDS Design System, and our Technology Code of Practice., As a User Researcher, you will:

• Plan, design and prepare a range of user research activities to support the design, development and continuous improvement of complex government services;
• Carry out a wide range of user research activities from recruiting participants, preparing discussion guides and moderating research sessions;
• Lead 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;
• Communicate user research findings to help the team and wider organisation develop a deep understanding of users and their needs;
• Work closely with product managers, designers and developers to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product and service features;
• Contribute to UCD strategic planning, to align user research activities with wider plans to inform service propositions;
• Help build user-centred practices in new and larger teams;
• Develop and ensure good user research practice, sharing knowledge with other user researchers within the team or external supplier teams;
• Contribute to the wider user research community - including presenting at meetups, writing blog posts and leading on aspects of practice.
  
  Disability Confident
About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Civil Service Jobs is used by over 3 million candidates per month to find and view vacancies across the Civil Service. Each year it handles over 2 million applications and advertises 140,000 posts. The live service is used by 219 organisations to advertise their vacancies and manage their recruitment processes. Currently, Civil Service Jobs is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provision that has been configured and enhanced to meet Civil Service recruitment, digital and security standards. Along with the live service, we are running a Recruitment Transformation programme, looking at what the future service should look like. We've completed our Discovery and Alpha phases, where we did extensive user research and prototype design, to explore our user needs and potential solutions for the biggest areas of improvement. We've decided that our service needs to be procured rather than build our own, so we've now moved into the Beta build phase, working with a new technology platform provider which was appointed in the summer of 2024. The build and migration phase is to be completed by the end of 2026. Cabinet Office Digital aspires to make UK Government digital services the best in the world, meeting or exceeding the benchmark set globally by the best public or private sector standards. We are creating a digital culture where user needs are at the heart of everything we build. Through data democratisation, automation, governance and consolidation we will create a better Cabinet Office. As the digital arm of the department, we advise, assure or manage delivery on behalf of our colleagues in the Government People Group in developing their own Government Digital and Data capabilities. This is an exciting opportunity to join CO Digital, to lead on business improvements and otherwise support the Cabinet Office in delivering on the country's priorities at the heart of the UK Government. We are a digital team made of Service, Product and Delivery Managers, Business Analysts, a Technical Architect, a Service Designer, Content Designers, Interaction Designers, and User Researchers, who will all support you in your work. We are also part of a wider digital community, and have a great UCD community with fellow designers and researchers to network with. Our project is transforming recruitment, building a new recruitment platform by 2026, which will enhance the recruitment service provision across government. This role is an exciting and rewarding opportunity to make a real impact in a significant transformation programme. The programme is a multi-year programme of work at the forefront of recruiting the next generation of civil servants into essential roles. Civil Service Jobs enables the whole of government to recruit people more efficiently, without which the government could not deliver its work: hence our service brings far-reaching benefits for all citizens. We also enjoy enabling people to find meaningful jobs, and teams to find great colleagues - contributing to a diverse culture that reflects the diversity in the UK.You will join our cross-functional agile delivery team focusing on transforming Civil Service Jobs, and helping to redesign how the service should be delivered in the future.