Lead User Researcher - Principal

Role is available - Bristol, London, Manchester

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government. Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world‑leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government. We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol. The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly‑skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale. Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You will solve some of the nation’s highest‑priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

We are recruiting 2 Lead User Researcher (Principal) roles, 1 for GOV.UK and 1 for the GOV.UK App. GOV.UK is the trusted online home for government information and services, every week millions of people rely on it to complete essential and often life‑changing tasks. GOV.UK also supports government colleagues to publish content, ensuring accurate and accessible information is always available to the public. The GOV.UK App makes it easier for you to access government guidance and services by delivering personalised experiences. The GOV.UK App team sits in the Product and Services Directorate, which also includes GOV.UK Chat, GOV.UK Notify, GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK Forms, and Emergency Alerts.

We expect this to be a practitioner role, though the responsibilities may be adapted to meet shifting business needs, while still maintaining the core, practitioner‑focused nature of the work. You will be a core part of the User Research leadership group and your respective directorate leadership group and work closely with senior stakeholders. You will lead, oversee and deliver research to build a deeper understanding of our users, inform product and strategic decisions and support the delivery of impactful outcomes.

Join us, if you want to:

• make a real difference: work on and tackle some of the toughest challenges in public infrastructure, improving millions of people’s lives through effective strategies and solutions that are informed by high quality insights
• deliver work that matters: work with multi-disciplinary leadership, to proactively identify transformational opportunities that will drive change, and deliver better value and outcomes for users and government
• shape the future of craft, culture and impact: grow with us as a leader in an environment that empowers bold thinking and experimentation to learn, fall fast, reflect and grow. With dedicated development resources, training and cross‑government networks, you will have plenty of opportunities to influence, mentor and develop your skills and others

As a Lead User Researcher - Principal, you will be an expert practitioner in GOV.UK / GOV.UK App and your main responsibilities include:

• be a core part of the leadership group for your responsible area(s) and work closely with the senior stakeholders (including director/deputy director levels), multidisciplinary leads and research leadership groups to ensure research delivers impactful outcomes
• design and implement research strategy based on GDS visions and strategic outcomes. This includes proactively identifying research opportunities, getting buy‑in for important research initiatives that can provide high quality strategic insights/foresights for senior stakeholders and influence the innovation/solution space.
• conduct a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research, including using advanced, innovative techniques and comparative experiments to mitigate risks and deepen our understanding of user cohorts and needs, evaluate and design strategies/solutions, and demonstrate/measure value delivered by GDS
• support or pair up with researchers to develop and ensure best practices are applied in their work and the work delivered is high‑quality, reliable for decision making and meeting the delivery pace
• be the user insights and knowledge expert for your area of responsibility, and proactively share important learnings with the directors, senior leadership groups, wider organisation and beyond. This includes leading on the creation and maintaining of documentations/artefacts related to our understanding of needs, problems, opportunities and user groups to direct prioritisation effort, and building reusable, accessible consolidated insights
• help colleagues understand when and when not to do research, the diverse range of research methods, advocate the value of research and demonstrate the importance of research by making sure the impact made by research is tracked and visible to others
• be a visible leader and model of craft, culture and impact. Build positive and influential relationships with multidisciplinary leaders and colleagues and continuously strengthen trust and seamless cross‑functional collaboration
• be a reflective practitioner who strives to improve their own practice continually, develop creative solutions and practice, and help to lead the User Research Community to grow expertise. This includes pioneering and innovating on methods, processes, ways of working and providing training for the community to maximise results

Person specification

You don’t need government experience to apply for this role. We’re interested in people who are exceptional and recognised research experts, with strong, demonstrable, tracked records of delivering impactful results and changes in craft, culture and impact in organisations:

• extensive practitioner experience of conducting research with a diverse range of user groups, using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research (from foundational, evaluative, experimental to idea generation) in the context of user experience and product development. This includes advanced research that reveals real context, behaviour and mental models, innovative methods, experiment design and use of basic applied statistics for comparative studies
• to be a proactive self‑starter who excels at identifying overlooked yet critical research opportunities, going on to lead, plan and execute high‑impact research that directly influences product decisions and business direction, as well as mitigate risks. Can confidently run any types of research projects, including introducing new or unfamiliar approaches
• strong critical thinking and analysis skills to distil hidden and actionable insights through a wide range of data and communicate them through compelling storytelling to land the key messages effectively and drive actions. This includes high proficiency in clustering a wide user‑base through appropriate techniques, and mapping complex journeys/ecosystems using system and service‑design thinking
• strong ability in navigating complexity and uncertainty. Thrives in the delivery pressures combining pragmatism (not just playing it by the book); Is tenacious and comes up with creative solutions (including new ways of working, process where necessary) to problem‑solving and enable change successfully embedding a diverse range of effective research methods, and established data‑driven/UCD in challenging and complex environments with different levels of UCD maturity
• demonstrated success embedding best research practices and helping lead a community of practice with thought leadership, new process/approaches, mentoring and delivering training to continue to improve research function and its impact
• proven ability to build trusted and influential relationships with senior stakeholders and cross‑functional multidisciplinary colleagues by collaboration and thinking beyond the user research lens - bringing a strong consideration of business, product, design and technical feasibility and constraints to drive well‑balanced decision making
• masters degree or a Doctorate in the field of HCI, Human Factors, Psychology, Anthropology, Behavioural/Social Science, Information Architecture or a related field/equivalent work experience

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.