• Job Description

  Req#: req13202

  Senior User Researcher

  Permanent, Full Time 37 hours per week - Flexible working, Part-time, Condensed hours considered

  Up to £55,022 per annum

  Location: Chelmsford

  Working Style: Anywhere worker

  Closing Date: 13th August 2023

  
  

  We are looking for an experienced User Researcher, well versed in user centred approaches and digital accessibility, to join Service Transformation at Essex County Council.

  Essex County Council is shaping a new programme of transformation with renewed energy, ambition, and focus. In the last few years, we have been able to build the foundations of financial stability and create the breathing space to think big. And without doubt, ‘big’ is the challenge ahead of us.

  As many of our residents’ lives have become more complex and uncertain, they need us to deliver greater, improved support. With increasing demand on our services and finances post-pandemic, it’s never been more critical to take a user-centred approach to change.

  In the two years since its launch, we’ve made good progress towards our Everyone’s Essex goals. As we look ahead to 2030, our ambition continues with vital plans for building the resilient, efficient, and effective council that our residents deserve.

  Service Transformation will play an important role in grounding this change in the needs of Essex residents, and ensuring our next steps are focused in the areas where we can deliver meaningful change for both residents and staff.

  The User Researcher role

  You will help others to understand the value of user centred approaches, stretch their ambition, and help build effective cases for modernising services. Together, we will build digital and design maturity in our team and with colleagues and stakeholders from the wider organisation, helping pave the way for success. You will:

  • champion and build empathy for the user
  • advocate for inclusive research and design
  • plan and lead user research activities
  • proactively share skills, knowledge, and contribute to best practice
  • help grow the user research community of practice across the council
  • provide expert advice and guidance to ensure the experience of our residents and staff informs service design and development.

  Day-to-day you will:

  • plan and lead user research activities for services with challenging user needs and on more complex pieces of work
  • gather and share user insights and facilitate teams to collaborate on the design, development, and improvement of solutions
  • show integrity in your research practice and resilience in advocating for user needs based on user insights
  • work with stakeholders to scope work, develop appropriate research strategies and help inform measures of success
  • collaborate with people and teams from across the organisation to align user research activities with wider plans to inform a service proposition
  • help inexperienced and/or new teams adopt user-centred practices and embed them into their agile workflow
  • explain and communicate user insights to senior stakeholders to build understanding and consensus to enable evidence based decision making
  • undertake assurance of ethics and consent processes and develop / review privacy and equality impact assessments.

  Skills and experience

  • have a minimum of five years’ experience working as a User Researcher (or equivalent role)
  • have experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams from discovery through to a live service
  • can help teams adopt a wide range of user research methods, analysis and synthesis techniques, and different approaches to presenting and sharing findings
  • can understand what problem the team is trying to solve and align user research activities to inform decision making and action
  • have experience planning user research for services with challenging user needs and complex user journeys and can advise on best practice
  • know how to help teams understand the diversity of users of government services, advocate for inclusive practices and help design and deliver accessible services
  • have experience of influencing stakeholders, managing their expectations, and know how to challenge decisions that don’t meet user need
  • can communicate research in a way that engages stakeholders and teams to create shared understanding and alignment

  Benefits of working for us

  This is a great role in a vibrant and growing team with opportunities at a range of levels across different disciplines. You’ll find an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

  We have a strong ethos for learning and development. You’ll be encouraged to take on new opportunities for development and as a team we want to share skills and support each other.

  We’re a sociable bunch. We regularly get together for team lunches and to celebrate our successes.

  You can find out more about us and the work we do on Service Transformation blog.

  The Council has developed a package of benefits that we hope resonates with you. You can find out more about our pay and reward offer on our Working for Essex website.

  It’s important to us that we represent the communities that we serve, and we want a diverse workforce and an inclusive working environment. You can find out more about our commitment to equality and diversity on our Equality and Diversity page

  What you should do next

  If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Just email joanna.lang@essex.gov.uk

  Please ensure that you include a supporting statement as part of your application. This should demonstrate capability for all the bullet points listed under “Skills and experience”. Please try to use real examples and tell us what the situation was, what you did and what the result was.

  If your application is shortlisted, you’ll be invited to attend a remote interview on an agreed date.

  Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

  We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

  Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

• About the company

  essex.gov.uk - The place to find services and information provided by Essex County Council and its partners.

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