Lead User Researcher in London

Dept for Business and Trade, 12 Months Inside IR35, Hybrid – up to 2 days per week London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Darlington. An active SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role; as a minimum, you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks.

As a Lead User Researcher, reporting to the Head of User Research, you will be helping to reinvigorate the User Research function in DBT, as part of our broader mission to champion the needs of our users. User researchers are key figures in our digital teams. They help our teams develop a deep understanding of the people – citizens, businesses, or government – who use our services. Their findings enable our teams to design and deliver better services quickly, with less risk, and at lower cost.

DBT are looking to increase our influence and impact by developing agile, pragmatic ways of working, that help teams meet the CDDO service standards while reflecting the delivery pace of the department. We’re looking at how we set and assure research standards, how we innovate our approaches, and how we support teams to understand and respond to user needs.

Responsibilities

• Help plan research programmes, working with management teams and Delivery Managers to ensure a shared understanding of priorities, playing an active role in matching researchers to requirements.
• Oversee the work of user researchers to ensure work is meeting GDS/CDDO service standards and is being delivered pragmatically and to a high quality, intervening if research falls below expected standards.
• Take the lead on key research about complex services and strategic issues and synthesise findings to generate strategic insights and identify gaps in understanding.
• Be an advocate for agile, user‑focused research and work with stakeholders to highlight the benefits of operating this way.
• Help mentor the professional development of current staff.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Working with management teams and stakeholders to understand business needs and aligning research prioritisation and delivery to these needs.
• Planning, designing and delivering user research projects and programmes in complex, challenging contexts.
• Managing, mentoring or leading a team, ensuring they are performing against delivery goals and working to develop their capability.
• Providing oversight and quality assurance of multiple user research projects at the same time.
• Effectively advocating for the user and for good user research, advising stakeholders and building their buy‑in of the value of user‑centred practice.
• Responding to delivery pressures of an agile environment, demonstrating good professional judgement, flexibility and pragmatism.

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, the MOD 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 Covenant

The MOD 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.