Your main day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Planning and leading user research activities to ethical standards to understand user needs and behaviours and align with project goals.
• Sorting, categorising, and transforming raw research data into valuable information for complex projects.
• Effectively communicating user research findings to your team and the wider organisation to influence decision-making.
• Effectively communicating and advocating UCD principles and ways of working with stakeholders.
• Supporting the development of accessible services by ensuring that participants with access needs are included in all research.
• Mentoring and coaching user researchers in method selection, research execution, ethical research, data analysis and synthesis.

Working Pattern 

This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working.  This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 3 days per week due to business requirements.

Essential criteria

As a Senior User Researcher, you will have experience of establishing and leading an effective user centred design culture in a team and supporting them to embed user centred design practices into their agile workflow. During the selection process, you’ll be assessed on your experience of this and the following technical skills:

• User Research: Understanding and applying a range of user research methods correctly for different life cycle phases, and advising others on these methods at a senior level.
• Managing People and Leading: Establishing an effective user centred design culture in a team, and supporting them to embed user centred design practices into their agile workflow.
• Analysis and Synthesis: Communicating insights from research in a clear and impactful way that drives change in the design of services and informs policy and proposition.
• Communicate, persuade and advocate: Convincing senior stakeholders about the benefits of adopting a user-centred approach, based on evidence.
• Research Ethics: Establishing and applying ethical research standards and practices to ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of participants and researchers.
• Accessibility and inclusion: Researching diverse audiences to help teams deliver accessible and inclusive digital services.

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) version 8 is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework:  All skills A – Z English (sfia-online.org).

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skills listed below.

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• User research (HO) – Level 4
• Accessibility and Inclusion – Level 3
• Analysis and Synthesis – Level 4
• Research Ethics – Level 4
• Communicate, Persuade and Advocate – Level 4
• Managing people and leading – Level 3

Alongside your salary of £62,109, Home Office contributes £17,992 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out more information at: Benefits – Home Office Careers, but some of the primary ones are:

• A competitive starting salary.
• A Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
• In-year reward scheme for one-off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• The ability to potentially adopt flexible working options that suit your work/life balance, plus the opportunity in future to take a career break.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
• Eight days public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• 26 weeks maternity, adoption or shared parental leave at full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, after qualifying service.
• Maternity and adoption support leave (also known as paternity leave) of two weeks full pay, after qualifying service.
• Paid leave for fostering approval processes, support when a child is substantively placed with you plus a foster to adopt policy.
• Support for Guardians and Kinship carers.
• Corporate membership of ‘Employers for Carers’ providing additional information and advice for carers, plus a ‘Carer’s Passport’ to discuss workplace needs and underpin supportive conversations.
• Time off to deal with emergencies and certain other unplanned special circumstances.