Lead User Researcher

Join a team at the heart of the global economy! The Department for Business and Trade ("DBT") and Inspire People are partnering together to bring you an exciting opportunity for User Researchers to champion the needs of DBT's users and help teams to design and deliver better services quickly, with less risk, and at lower cost. Salary between £48,981 - £65,600 plus excellent Civil Service benefits. Salary is dependent on location and technical skills as assessed at interview. Flexible, hybrid working from London, Cardiff, Darlington, Belfast, Birmingham, Salford and Edinburgh.

If you would like to find out more about the role, the User Research team and what it's like to work at DBT, we are holding a Hiring Manager Q&A session for this role where you can virtually 'meet the team' on Wednesday 15th November at 12.30pm. Please click here to book your spot.

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 a broader mission to champion the needs of users. User Researchers are key figures in DBT's digital teams. They help teams develop a deep understanding of the people - citizens, businesses, or government - who use DBT's services. Their findings enable teams to design and deliver better services quickly, with less risk, and at lower cost.

The User Researcher function is looking to increase their 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; looking at how they set and assure research standards, how innovate their approaches, and support teams to understand and respond to user needs. Find out more on the DBT User Research blogs.

In your day-to-day role as a Lead User Researcher you will:

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
• Lead on staff recruitment, both permanent civil servants and contractors
• Manage the professional development of current staff, and the capability assessments in the UR profession

Essential Skills and Experience

You should be able to demonstrate essential skills and experience of:

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

Assessment and Interview

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Technical Skills and Behaviours.

Unless otherwise specified, all interviews are currently being held online. Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

DBT Sift will take place week commencing: Monday 27th November 2023

Interviews will take place week commencing: Monday 4th December 2023

Please notes these dates are indicative and may be subject to change.

As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a CV and complete a personal statement outlining your experience, skills and fit for the role. Your personal statement must be a maximum of 750 words. These applications will be assessed by Inspire People to create a long list of applications, which will then be sifted by DBT hiring managers. If successful, you will be invited to interview.

How you'll be interviewed:

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Strengths, Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. A role-specific list of Technical Skills and Behaviours can be found below. The Strengths we are looking for are not shared ahead of the interview.

You will be asked to deliver a presentation at interview and will be informed of the topic closer to the time.

Technical Skills

There will be a technical element within the interview where you will be asked questions about your specific professional skills and knowledge relating directly to the job role.

We will assess you against the following Technical Skills:

• Research Skills (including research planning and design)
• Analysis and Synthesis
• Inclusive research
• Strategic Insight (including working with stakeholders to understand business needs)
• User Centred and Agile working

You will also be assessed against the Behaviours of:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Offer Stage

Appointments may be made to candidates in merit order based on location preferences.

The salary we will offer is determined using interview performance. Scores at interview translate to proficiency levels and an associated salary. Once a successful candidate has a proficiency level and is part of the capability framework, they will be given opportunities to self-assess to progress through the pay scale within their grade during their time at DBT. For further explanation of proficiency levels and more information about DDaT click here.

This role requires you to undergo Security Clearance. The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

Additional Information:

To view the Civil Service advert please click here.

To download the Job Description Click Here.

DBT Candidate Pack