Senior User Researcher at Department for Work & Pensions, UK Office/Remote, 6 Months, £Contract Rate

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for welfare, pensions, and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department, it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers. As such, we operate on a scale that is almost unmatched anywhere in Europe and most people in Britain come into contact with us at some point in their lives.

Working with DWP, you will be helping us to drive our priorities to:

• Help people to move into work and support those already in work to progress, with the aim of increasing overall workforce participation
• Help people to plan and save for later life, while providing a safety net for those who need it now
• Provide effective, efficient, and innovative services to the millions of claimants who rely on us every day, including the most vulnerable in society
• Improve experience of our services while maximising value for money for the taxpayer.

Digital & Transformation Group's Corporate Centre Services (CCS) is working in partnership across DWP to shape the next generation of the Department's corporate digital ecosystem - a modern, integrated and user centred environment that enables One DWP.

The AI Innovation & Improvement team applies advanced product thinking and AI driven innovation to design intelligent services, integrated platforms and data enabled tools that support more than 90,000 colleagues across HR, Finance, Commercial, Estates, Security and Policy.

We are seeking an experienced Senior User Researcher to lead the vision, strategy and delivery of a major AI enabled transformation programme in collaboration with the Policy Group.

As a Senior User Researcher you will be an experienced practitioner, who is capable of planning and leading user research activities across large and complex projects and services.

You will be an expert in problem definition and selecting the appropriate research strategies to tackle issues and understand user needs.

You will help champion a user-centred, evidence based approach to formulating strategy and vision, both across the User Research practice and the teams you are engaged in.

Additionally, you will have management and coaching responsibilities, aiding the development of Associate and User Researchers, enabling quality research services and the growth of the user research community across the department.

Essential:

• Demonstratable expeirence of working in User Research related roles.
• You will have experience of working at pace in agile projects as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• You will have conducted research in b2b environments and in government in particular.
• You will have excellent communications and stakeholder management skills.

Desirable:

• Experience of service design.
• Experience of AI products development lifecycle and AI ethics.
• Experience of policy development.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, DWP guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant

DWP guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.