Senior User Researcher

The Digital Strategy for Scotland, A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world, was published in March 2021 and it sets out our plans for ensuring that Scotland fulfils its potential in a constantly evolving digital world.

The Digital Transformation Division sits within Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. Our aim is to help government organisations adopt digital business models that will deliver well designed, accessible and inclusive public services.

Through this we facilitate transformation of existing public services, making best use of digital technology for our citizens by championing the core principles of re-use and collaboration.

In 2023, our teams in Digital Transformation Division are:

*Creating a Service Manual including support and tools which helps organisations designing and transforming public services;
*Contributing to a Digital Framework which sets the standards for ‘doing digital’ in the Scottish public sector
*Supporting people who need to procure products and expertise using common standards of accessibility, reuse and cross-silo design;
*Designing and testing a consolidated Scottish Government web estate which meets the needs of users, is easy for civil servants to publish to, and is value for money;
*Providing a forum for organisations designing and delivery transformation to share lessons learnt and knowledge gained in order to reduce duplication of effort across the public sector;
*Supporting colleagues in key policy areas to build and run sustainable digital services – such as the Warm Scots Welcome for people displaced from Ukraine.

Digital Transformation Division’s aim is to enable the Central Government sector to formulate and deliver programmes of work to transform public services for Scotland’s citizens by making best use of technology and championing the core principles of re-use and collaboration – both in technology and skills – making SG an employer of choice within Scotland.

How will you spend your time?

Our User Researchers are part of the User Centred Design job family within the Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) profession. Alongside User Researchers, the User Centred Design job family can also include: Content Designers, Service Designers, Interaction Designers, Graphic Designers, and others.

A User Researcher’s role is to:
“plan, design and carry out research activities with users that help teams get a deep understanding of the people that use government services. This research informs policy, proposition, service, content and interaction design so that services work well for users and achieves policy intent.”

A Senior User Researcher is an experienced practitioner who is able to plan and lead user research activities in larger teams and on more complex services. They have extensive experience of leading on and embedding user research practices in large, complex projects. They can align user research activities to help teams achieve project and organisational goals. They also have experience of supervising more junior user researchers, and contributing to a user research community of practice.

The activities required for this role may include:

• Leading on a range of qualitative and quantitative user research activities to support business and project needs
• Advocating the value of user research by engaging colleagues and stakeholders who are new to user centred design
• Championing the inclusion of different types of users in appropriate research activities.
• Advocating for accessibility, assisted digital and inclusive research and design practices to help teams deliver accessible services that work for all.
• Supporting teams to continually improve their understanding of and engagement with users and their needs, and helping them embed this insight into their work.
• Understanding user-centred service design and delivery practices.
• Helping raise awareness of the social and technological context for government services.

Additional duties of this role:

• Participate in and/or support programme and project assurance activities.
• Contribute to the DDaT community by participating in events and reviewing processes, tools and guidance.
• Line management of more junior user researchers
• Other duties as required by your Division to support wider corporate activities.

You do not need any formal qualifications for this role, the essential criteria are:

• Experience of playing a lead role in a research setting; designing and delivering a wide range of inclusive user-centred research using appropriate research methods (qualitative and quantitative).
• Experience of using appropriate communication techniques to share research insights with diverse audiences, with a view to ensuring the insights lead to actionable outcomes.
• Ability to share knowledge and experience of designing research sessions to ensure they are inclusive and meet the diverse needs of participants.
• Experience of managing personal data, consent processes and other ethical considerations when working with research participants.

• We provide an attractive package with extensive benefits: – 

  • Salary between £43,725 and £52,353 (increasing to £44,557-£53,351 in January 2024)
  • £5000 Digital (DDaT) Pay Supplement after a 3-month qualifying period ***
  • Generous Pension Scheme with employer contributions ranging from 26.6% to 30.3%
  • Flexible working arrangements including compressed hours and flexi time, with potential to accrue up to 4 days off a month
  • 25 Days Annual Leave (increasing in line with service) plus 11.5 days Public & Privilege holidays
  • Access to a wide range of courses offered by the Scottish Digital Academy, plus opportunities to gain professional memberships and academic qualifications 
  • Automatic Membership of the Scottish Government DDaT profession and professional development system  

   

  Hear from colleagues discussing Digital Careers at Scottish Government.  

   

  Click here to learn more about the full range of benefits you could enjoy.

Job contact :

• Name : Digitalcareers@gov.scot
• Email : Digitalcareers@gov.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : Digitalcareers@gov.scot