Lead User Researcher Q10706

The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) works with the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and Parliament staff on their IT and digital needs.

Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) builds and supports excellent digital services for a modern Parliament and we’re transforming the way Parliament does digital. Our vital work helps to deliver the business of UK Parliament, including the work of the House of Commons and House of Lords. We design, deliver and continuously improve digital and technology services that Members (MPs and Lords), their staff and administration teams use, as well as enabling access to our democracy for the public and other specialist audiences.

We think it’s important that all of those working at Parliament are connected and are supported to do their work and that everyone can access and understand what’s going on in Parliament. Our work helps to bring together Members of Parliament, parliamentary staff and the public to inform, engage, support, and communicate through one, unified digital core – PDS.

THE ROLE

The Lead User Researcher is an expert practitioner within PDS who works to ensure user needs are at the heart of everything we do. The work of the User Research team helps to shape our understanding of different audiences, their motivations, behaviours and barriers. It informs the design of new digital products and services and helps us understand how far existing products and services are meeting the needs of users, so we can continuously iterate and improve these.

The Lead User Researcher manages the user research team, plans and oversees user research activities across multiple projects and delivers user research for large scale and more complex work. Their work ensures appropriate research methods are used, and the findings and insights delivered are robust and of a high quality.

The Lead User Researcher champions and demonstrates the benefits of user research within PDS, UK Parliament and the wider sector. They build communities of interest and networks of practitioners to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of user research and share knowledge, skills and best practice.

The Lead User Researcher works in collaboration with various disciplines and teams and across different contexts, including projects, transformation programmes, strategic discoveries and established service teams. The role works closely with Service Design, UX and Interactive Design, Performance Analysts, Software Engineering, Content and Delivery professions. They also have strong links with the Director of Delivery and Customer Experience and the Director of Design.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

We are currently looking for candidates who have:

• Strong teambuilding and management skills with the ability to motivate, lead, mentor and develop a diverse team ensuring resources are organised appropriately and effectively.
• You can build strong and trusted relationships across a wide range of professions and at all levels, in support of ensuring that user research adds value and that practices and methods are adopted by a wide range of teams.
• You can help an organisation adopt a wide range of user research methods and analysis and synthesis techniques. You can establish a community of practice to help an organisation continually assure, improve and innovate their practices and generate clear and valuable findings.
• You know about the technologies used to build and operate digital products and services. You can plan and shape work to take account of constraints and collaborate closely with colleagues from different disciplines to deliver improved outcomes.

Please see the Job Description for more information about the role and person specification.

Join us and you’ll be part of a growing team of talented and like-minded individuals who are driven by excellence and transforming the way UK Parliament uses digital to deliver its work and meet user, customer and audience needs. You will be collaborative, delivery-focused and have strong organisational and interpersonal skills.

We’re an open, transparent, collaborative team at the heart of Westminster, who work innovatively and flexibly to facilitate a work/life balance. We pride ourselves in building people’s careers, investing in them and providing great opportunities for career progression.