Lead User Researcher - Quantitative

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 a Lead User Researcher - Quantitative for GOV.UK. 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.

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 - Quantitative, you will be an expert practitioner in GOV.UK 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
• deliver high-quality quantitative and applied experimental UX research, informed by psychology, behavioural science, and human–computer interaction, to understand and evaluate user behaviour and experience in complex, high-risk, or strategically significant contexts, and to benchmark solutions and strategies to inform future product and strategic decisions
• develop user behaviour models and segmentation, grounded in mixed-methods research, to deepen understanding of different user types, behaviours, and priorities at scale
• assess when and how quantitative research adds value, including understanding scale, distribution, impact, risk and trade-offs to support product and strategic decision-making
• apply causal reasoning, experimental thinking, and statistical analysis to understand why behaviours and outcomes occur, and translate complex evidence into clear, actionable recommendations
• work closely with researchers and collaborate with other data professions to build a shared understanding of how qualitative and quantitative UX research, performance analytics, and other data sources contribute to robust evidence
• 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. Lead through practice as a visible expert, strives to improve their own practice continually, strengthening the User Research community by developing quantitative research capability, setting standards and best practice, leading the selection and adoption of tools and platforms, and continuously improving methods and ways of working

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:

As Lead User Researcher - Quantitative, we are interested in people who can demonstrate:

• significant experience designing and conducting high-quality, complex quantitative UX research, including comparative and experimental approaches, with strong applied understanding of causal reasoning, experimental design, and statistical inference, and demonstrated expertise applying methods informed by psychology, behavioural science, or HCI in real-world product and service delivery contexts
• experience of leading and developing quantitative research capability, including training and mentoring researchers and embedding ethical, high-quality research standards and best practice. Demonstrates leadership maturity through reflective practice and continuous improvements
• a proven track record of shaping agendas and delivering high-impact research that has changed product, service or strategic decisions, direction, or prioritisation at senior level
• proven ability to develop user behaviour models or segmentation that explain meaningful differences between users, and to use quantitative research to amplify qualitative insight at scale where it adds value
• experience working as part of a senior or multidisciplinary leadership team, building trusted relationships and contributing to collective decision-making through a whole-system perspective that balances user evidence with product, technical, policy, operational, and business considerations
• strong collaborative and leadership capability, including working closely with researchers and other data professions, and leading through practice by training and developing quantitative UX research skills in others while remaining hands-on in delivery
• strong analytical and synthesis skills, going beyond descriptive analysis to uncover underlying insights, root causes, impacts, and trade-offs, and actively communicate and share research learnings as clear, actionable recommendations with teams, and senior and non-technical stakeholders
• experience adapting methods and approaches to organisational contexts, constraints and maturity, creatively using available data and tools, and applying high levels of professional judgement and resilience to navigate complexity and uncertainty with a tenacious, impact-oriented approach that enables positive change