Senior User Researcher in London

Location: Hybrid (UK), with infrequent travel to London

About Amber Labs

The digital transformation partner for highly regulated industries. Our teams deliver digital transformation for organisations operating in complex, highly regulated environments. From securing national borders to supporting critical defence operations, we deliver secure AI, data, cloud and software solutions across high-stakes programmes.

What You’ll Be Doing

We’re looking for an experienced Senior User Researcher to join our growing delivery teams, supporting large-scale digital transformation initiatives within a nationally significant UK government programme. You’ll help teams develop a deep understanding of user needs, behaviours and challenges, ensuring services are accessible, effective and evidence-led. Working within multidisciplinary agile teams, you’ll plan and deliver research activities, synthesise findings into actionable insights and help shape service design and delivery decisions. You’ll collaborate closely with designers, product managers, business analysts, delivery managers and technical teams to ensure user needs remain at the centre of decision‑making.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Planning, designing and conducting user research using appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods
• Developing research strategies and approaches aligned to project objectives and user needs
• Recruiting participants and managing research activities in line with governance and ethical standards
• Conducting interviews, usability testing, workshops and observational research
• Analysing research findings and identifying key themes, opportunities and risks
• Producing clear, evidence‑based recommendations that inform product and service decisions
• Working closely with multidisciplinary teams to ensure research findings influence delivery decisions
• Presenting findings and recommendations to stakeholders at varying levels of seniority
• Building strong relationships with product, design, delivery and operational teams
• Advocating for user‑centred design principles across programmes and projects
• Supporting ongoing discovery and iterative service development
• Helping teams understand user journeys, pain points and service opportunities
• Contributing to service assessments and evidence gathering where required
• Promoting research best practice and helping improve research maturity across teams
• Applying GDS‑aligned user research practices and standards
• Ensuring research activities support accessibility, inclusion and evidence‑based decision‑making

What We’re Looking For

You will need:

• Active SC Clearance
• Proven experience delivering user research within complex digital transformation programmes
• Strong understanding of user‑centred design and research methodologies
• Experience conducting qualitative research, including interviews, usability testing and workshops
• Ability to analyse and synthesise complex research findings into clear, actionable insights
• Experience working within agile multidisciplinary teams
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Ability to influence decision‑making through evidence‑based recommendations
• Experience producing research plans, discussion guides, insight reports and presentations
• Strong understanding of accessibility and inclusive design principles

If this role sounds like a good fit but you don’t tick every box, don’t let that stop you. We’d still love to hear from you.

What’s In It For You

We believe benefits should be practical: things that genuinely support your day‑to‑day, give you flexibility and help you keep developing. Here are a few of our perks:

• 25 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Private medical insurance with Bupa
• Remote‑first working, with access to our Liverpool Street office
• Personal training budget to support your professional development
• Perkbox membership, with discounts across retail, travel, dining and wellness
• Electric Vehicle Scheme after one year of service
• Regular team socials
• Referral scheme offering up to £3,000 for successful hires
• Employer pension contributions
• Your choice of PC or Mac

How We Work

We’ve worked hard to build a team of people who are experts at what they do. Because of that, we’ll trust you to get on with your job and give you the space to do it well. But you’ll always have plenty of support around you whenever you need it - whether that’s to sense‑check an approach, tackle a tricky client challenge, or simply bounce ideas around. We keep our structure flat and our processes straightforward. If you have a good idea, you’ll be encouraged to run with it, and if something could be done better, we’ll encourage you to say so. Ultimately, we work with people who take pride in their work, support their team and want to leave things better than they found them.

What Happens Next?

Once you’ve applied, our in‑house Talent team will review your application and, if it looks like there could be a good fit, they’ll be in touch. For most of our roles, there are two interview stages: one focused on your technical expertise, and another focused on how you communicate and approach your work. We’re big believers that both are equally important!

A Human Approach to Hiring

We use AI responsibly, in our client projects and internally. When it comes to hiring, though, there are always real people behind the process. Decisions throughout - from CV review and progressing to interview through to making an offer - are made by our Talent team (who are real people, we promise!).

Diversity & Inclusion

Amber Labs is an equal opportunities employer, and we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone has the opportunity to do their best work, regardless of background, identity or experience. If there’s anything we can do to make the recruitment process more accessible or comfortable for you, just let our Talent team know, we’ll be happy to help!