About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. 

Come and join the DBS community today!

Job description

User researchers 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 achieve policy intent.

As a Senior User Researcher, you will:

•    Plan and lead a range of user research activities for internal and external government services. 
•    Carry out user research activities, from recruiting participants, preparing discussion guides, and moderating research sessions, to analysing research data, and delivering clear and actionable findings. 
•    Work closely with other SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), content, interaction and service designers, business and performance analysts and wider digital teams to iteratively improve services for users in line with the GDS (Government Digital Service) Service Standard. 
•    Include all kinds of users in research to help teams design accessible services for all users. 
•    Engage in DBS, MOD, and pan-government user research communities.  
•    Manage and/or mentor Junior User Researchers. 
•    Support Service Owners and Delivery Managers by generating personas, user needs, user stories and other insights.
•    Develop and own the DBS (Defence Business Services) User Research Strategy and its application as a standardised process across the organisation.
•    Present your work for assessment by Government Digital Services and MOD Internal Assessment Teams

Person specification

Essential experience:

•    Extensive experience of conducting user research with a wide range of users using a variety of techniques
•    Ability to segment and recruit users, particularly those who may be reluctant to engage or with low digital literacy 
•    Strong research and analysis skills with evidence of using a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods e.g. usability testing, remote testing and survey design.
•    Ability to produce and present clear outputs to a variety of stakeholders 
•    Experience of meeting the requirements of the Digital Service Standard and presenting user research at assessment panels.
 
Desirable experience

It would be great if you also have:

•    An understanding of agile approaches and experience of working in agile teams. 
•    Knowledge of gov.uk websites and services

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:

Primary: Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Analysis and Synthesis (practitioner)

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Changing and Improving
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Inclusive Research (practitioner)
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Analysis and Synthesis (practitioner)
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Strategic Insight (working)
• Experience - CV
• Experience - Personal statement - Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert. 

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Inclusive Research (practitioner)
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Analysis and Synthesis (practitioner)
• Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Strategic Insight (working)

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• 2 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Inclusive Research (practitioner)
• 3 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Analysis and Synthesis (practitioner)
• 4 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Strategic Insight (working)

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Experience - Personal statement
• 3 - Behaviour - Changing and Improving
• 4 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Inclusive Research (practitioner)
• 5 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Analysis and Synthesis (practitioner)
• 6 - Technical - DDAT User Researcher: Strategic Insight (working)

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. – this will need amending to 3 months for internal or across government roles

Application sifting is scheduled to take place in mid-late January.

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams (Preferred) and will be conducted early February.

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

To assist with your application please find attached below: 

1.     DBS Candidate Information Guide -   Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

2.     Technical framework - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/index.html

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk 

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.