JOB SUMMARY

Do you want to use your research skills to transform digital services for vulnerable users—and improve systems for over 100,000 colleagues in the UK’s largest government department?
Do you want to be part of a User Centred Design community of practice that will support your development and nurture your curiosity?
If so, we want you to join us as a User Researcher.
In DWP our User Researchers plan, design and carry out research activities with real users. Our research helps teams get a deep understanding of the people that use government services and of colleagues who use different systems and tools to deliver services.
Your research will inform our policy, proposition, service, content, and interaction design so that services work well for users and do what they are supposed to.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a User Researcher you will:

• Work independently to plan and carry out research projects from preparation through to sharing of research outcomes.
• Make use of the most appropriate research methods and tools to turn research insights into recommendations that align with the department’s goals and/or delivery outcomes.
• Be responsible for communicating with the users and championing core research principles to team members.
• Test high level and specific aspects of a service, presenting the research findings to help gain consensus and take action based on research findings.
• Plan and design user research programmes, testing both high level concepts and specific aspects of the services as they are designed and developed.
• Conduct user research using a range of research methods, selecting the appropriate method, both qualitative and quantitative, depending on the requirements of the programme.
• Generate new and useful insights related to DWP users for the project team to leverage, ensuring where relevant that the insights influence design decision.
• Communicate the insights gained from user research outputs to both the project team and wider stakeholder, helping to enhance organisational understanding of the users and drive decisions and actionable recommendations.
• Maintain and develop relationships across the product teams, guiding the team in understanding research findings and insights.
• Work within agile project teams, providing, to the team, a focus on user centred design.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Research - Understands and has experience of basic user research methods. Understands when to use those methods and how to apply them correctly. Knows how to involve their team in research activities.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

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Digital
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Operational Research