About the job

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Lead User Researcher - Probation Digital

Closing Date: 9th June

Interviews: expected 1st July & 2nd July

Location: National*

Type of Vacancy: Permanent Civil Servant

Salary: National: £66314 - £75810

London: £70303 - £80475 (which may include an allowance of up to £10172)

 Grade: 6

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer) 

Working Pattern: Full time, Part time, Flexible working

 Vacancy number: 87546

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and 2 days spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

There may be an expectation to attend some management and team meetings in person.

 The Role

We’re recruiting for a Lead User Researcher here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Probation Digital team. In Probation Digital we are working to create a world class digital-first probation service that drives down reoffending. We are working hard to solve challenges at the heart of our justice system with a probation service that is under increasing pressure. Our aim is to deliver simpler, better, faster digital services to help frontline staff and people on probation, and we’re looking for someone who can help shape our strategy by advocating the user perspective.

This role aligns against Lead User Researcher role from the Government Digital and Data Framework

A lead user researcher, you’ll be both

• An expert practitioner, leading and aligning user research activities across several teams to meet the needs of the business
• An advocate for users at a strategic level, helping inform Probation Digital’s Senior Leadership Team of users’ needs, to influence decision making and strategy

In practice, this means you’ll be expected to:

• Be a leader in the User Research community, line managing, supporting and coaching your team to deliver best practice user research
• Build our ability to take a user-centred, evidence-based approach to service delivery, assuring the quality of our research practice
• Build strong collaborative relationships with your Senior Leadership Team colleagues (fellow Leads, Service Owners and the Head of Digital)
• Play an active role in making users’ needs part of the Senior Leadership Team’s thinking, and using this to shape Probation Digital’s work programme and ways of working
• Be an advocate for a user-centred approach to all that we do in Probation, and become the go-to person when colleagues need insight into service users of the Probation Service

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

 Key Responsibilities:

• Recruit, lead, coach, develop and empower user researchers across a range of multidisciplinary product teams, building a user research team that’s responsive to the needs of the business
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with peers, senior colleagues and external partners to problem solve and build consensus
• Provide consultative support and guidance to senior stakeholders, making recommendations, challenging thinking and helping shape work programmes
• Help solve challenges for users and the agency, recognising the complexity and interconnectedness of services and taking an end-to-end perspective
• Ensure an effective research programme is in place, delivering multiple strands of research aligned to the business needs and priorities
• Oversee the quality of the research conducted, ensuring user researchers understand what good looks like and are able to deliver it, including in areas such as inclusivity, accessibility and trauma informed practice
• Synthesising the findings from that research programme, drawing out the strategic insight to be an effective advocate for users at a senior level, and using this to help shape organisational strategy
• As part of the Research Leadership Team, collaborate with the Head of Profession and other UR Leads to:
  • continually develop the capabilities of the profession, identifying opportunities to innovate, emerging trends and sharing best practice
  • develop the community of practice, ensuring user researchers across MoJ have high levels of purpose and engagement
  • promote the importance and value of user-centred practice
  • ensure we have effective tools, policies and practices for the profession
  • ensure we offer flexible ways of working to better support the business

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms
• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym

Person Specification

Essential

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for user centred design, with the following skills or extensive experience in the following areas:

Expert Research Practitioner

• Advising on the application of appropriate user research methods across different life cycle phases, drawing on hands-on experience of those methods
• Overseeing and quality assuring parallel strands of research delivery, including ensuring inclusive practice
• Driving the standards for ethical research standards and practices to ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of participants and researchers

Management and Leadership

• Building effective, collaborative working relationships with colleagues, using this to build consensus and help shape organisational strategy, aligning programmes of user research to meet these needs - task
• Establishing an effective UCD culture in an organisation, demonstrating the value of user centred practice to stakeholders, embedding this in ways of working, and being an advocate for the user
• Building a team of researchers and ways of working that are well aligned to supporting the needs of the business
• Proven track record of growing people capability, through coaching, junior development programmes and through developing safe environments to experiment and learn

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £66,314, Ministry of Justice contributes £18,501 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

How to Apply

Candidates must submit CV and statement of suitability (max 500 words). Failure to provide both documents will result in a rejection of your application. Also, if the statement is too long, we won’t read past the first 5000 words.

The statement of suitability should outline your experience, against the following points of the essential criteria list above, under ’Person Specification

• Advising on the application of appropriate user research methods across different life cycle phases, drawing on hands-on experience of those methods
• Overseeing and quality assuring parallel strands of research delivery, including ensuring inclusive practice
• Building effective, collaborative working relationships with colleagues, using this to build consensus and help shape organisational strategy, aligning programmes of user research to meet these needs

*Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on ‘User Researcher experience’’ will be conducted before the panel sift.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Working together
• Developing self and others
• Managing a quality service

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 60 minute interview held via video conference. This will include a ten minute presentation, which will be given in advance of the interview.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.