AMS PSR

On behalf of UKRI, we are looking for a User Researcher (Inside IR35) for a 6 Month contract based Hybrid in Swindon.

You will work on user centred design activities alongside an interaction designer and content designer. Occasionally, you'll contribute to some service design shaped work and help create low-fidelity prototypes using Figma or by hand.

The initial focus is on digital transformation projects, however the demand for user research is growing across UKRI as the benefits of understanding user needs become more widely recognised.

You'll be working in a multidisciplinary agile team, leading the planning and delivery of user research activities. You’ll have a lot of autonomy and support from the team, as well as the UCD Lead. The team uses Confluence, Jira, Slack and Miro to collaborate. Research Operations are mature with well understood needs, personas using Condens and Consent Kit.

As a User Researcher you will build and lead user research activities on more complex and larger projects. You will oversee the work of supplier and contract team members. You will align user research activities with wider plans to inform service propositions. You will supervise and develop other users researchers to assure and improve research practice.

As a User Researcher your main responsibilities will be to:

• Plan, design and deliver a range of user research activities to support the design, development and continuous improvement of services.
• Conduct user research activities: from recruiting participants and preparing discussion guides, to running research sessions and analysing results.
• Lead collaborative analysis and synthesis of research findings with your team, including working with analytics colleagues to build a rich picture of user behaviour.
• Communicate user research findings effectively through presentations at show-and-tells, reports, and visual outputs to build a deep understanding of user 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.
• Occasionally carry out light service design work and mock up low fidelity prototypes to articulate ideas. Facilitate workshops and engage stakeholders to support service design and usability testing.
• Contribute to the wider user research community through meet ups, blog posts and championing user centred design principles and best practices within UKRI.

Essential:

• Strong experience in planning and conducting a range of user research methods.
• Experience leading or steering user research across multiple workstreams, including working independently as the sole user researcher on a project.
• Experience working in the public sector or with GDS (Government Digital Service) standards.
• Experience in service design, facilitating workshops and using low-fidelity prototyping methods (e.g Figma or hand-drawn).
• Experience with agile methodologies and working in multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to analyse and synthesise research data into clear, actionable insights, with a strong understanding of user diversity, inclusive research practices and involving team members in research and analysis activities.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with Figma and design systems.
• Knowledge of design sprints and collaborative design practices.
• Experience using research repositories such as Condens.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, UKRI guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Commitment

UKRI guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".