Lead User Researcher Department for Work & Pensions

Reference

44670

Number of vacancies

1

Location

Newcastle, Leeds OR Blackpool

Salary

£59,258 — £71,154 per annum

Work hours

37 per week (flexible working)

Employment type

Permanent

Job benefits

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:
• Flexible working and family friendly policies
• Volunteering and charitable giving
• Discounts and savings on shopping, holidays, insurance, healthcare, events, fun days and more
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike, season ticket, so it’s even easier for you to get to work
• Sports and social activities
• Learning and development, including coaching, mentoring, progression opportunities
• Guaranteed 5-days formal learning per year.
• And lots more

Closing date

30 March 2020

Job description

DWP. Digital with Purpose.

We’re looking for a talented Lead User Researcher to join our growing community of experts. DWP is leading a once in a generation programme of welfare reform and you’ll help drive forward a key part of one of the biggest and highest-profile digital transformation programmes in the world.

DWP currently has an enormously ambitious and challenging agenda, often working in partnership with the private and voluntary sector. We provide services and support to over 20 million people, are responsible for over 730 million benefit payment transactions each year.

At the heart of this massive agenda is the digital transformation of the services that DWP provides, which will radically improve how government interacts with people. We’ll make our services easier and swifter to access; the time taken to develop new services will be decreased and the cost of delivery will be reduced significantly.
And we’ll put the user at the centre of everything we deliver.

Duties. Work. Projects.

You and your role:
Overseeing all research activities across one of DWP Digital’s functional areas, you’ll be responsible for defining and assuring best practice, influencing research strategy and ensuring high quality research is produced.

You’ll have responsibility for developing and leading the execution of research strategy at a programme level, where you will champion the adoption of a wide range of relevant user research methods and analysis techniques.

Your skill and knowledge in this space will help us make informed decisions on the needs of users.

Our UR practice is growing all the time. You will lead, coach and mentor other User Researchers across our community, enabling them to develop as practitioners so that they provide high quality research services to the department.

And as a champion for user centred design practices, and UR expect, you will act as an advocate for the practice’s value so we can really embed User Research in the way DWP and government do things.

What skills, knowledge and experience are we looking for?

For this role we welcome applications from those who can demonstrate that they have:
• Extensive experience as a User Researcher or appropriate experience of other fields of research.

• Proven experience leading a User Research team and have expert understanding of the strengths and weakness of different research methods.

• Strong analytical ability to identify patterns and connections in research outcomes across programs and projects.

• Expertise in designing, facilitating, and analysing a wide range of user research using a variety of methods to build a rich picture of users.

• Expertise in user centred design practices and embedding them into an agile workflow.

• Experience of hiring and prioritising resources, people performance management and people development.

• Experience of advocating for inclusive practices in conducting research that includes all kinds of users, to help our teams understand the diversity of people and their needs.

• Experience in building skills and capability successfully in large, complex public or private sector organisation.

• Extensive experience in identifying the appropriate research plan for a given objective.

Where will you work?
You’ll join our team with a base office at one of our Digital Hubs at your choice of either Newcastle, Leeds OR Blackpool.

Please click this link to have a look here to find out more about what is on offer at each site.

*Please note that this role will involve travel to other DWP digital hubs on a regular basis. That would be at our expense, not yours. *

We’re the UK’s biggest government department with over 80,000 diverse and brilliant people on our team. We are an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications regardless of age, gender, race or sexuality.

We provide the latest tech and tooling and foster a collaborative culture to help our agile, multidisciplinary teams think big and try new things. You will work alongside people who care passionately about public service, making a difference and delivering for our customers.

CLICK APPLY for further information and to start an application on Civil Service Jobs.

If you have any questions of you want to discuss the role before you apply get in touch via danny.winch@dwp.gov.uk

Apply now