About the job

Job summary

The Research & Design Operations & Communities Manager (RDOC) will support the User-Centred Design (UCD) team by building and maintaining the systems and processes needed to enable them to deliver their best work. They will help User-Centred Design professionals understand the best ways of planning and delivering their work, including in providing tooling, access to suppliers, processes, information and resourcing. The Research & Design Operations & Communities Manager  will also be the central contact for User-Centred Design operations across UKHSA, providing practical support and advice to professionals across UKHSA.

The Research & Design Operations & Communities Manager (RDOC) will establish, administer and manage commercial contracts relating to User-Centred Design (UCD) tooling, translation and alternative formats and work with User-Centred Design professionals to develop and support the communities of practice. They will lead on engagement with User-Centred Design professionals across UKHSA, continually improving tools, processes and ways of working to support the User-Centred Design profession. They will also play an active role in recruiting and inducting new User-Centred Design specialists. 

Job description

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Tooling and access management for UCD Professionals. Improve consolidation and consistency of tools across UCD, including how they are used and managed 
• Systems, processes and information management for UCD professionals; improve processes and systems
• Work closely with the Division’s Portfolio Management Office (PMO) team to ensure UCD systems, processes and tooling fit seamlessly with broader processes; work to upskill PMO teams on UCD principles
• Build an understanding of how our teams work and assist with identifying common issues with ways of working to drive improvements, such as by building or adapting tools and processes
• Support team governance including establishing and facilitating design meetings and critique sessions
• Support the UCD leads to build communities of practice, and support those communities of practice, including organising meetings and events and leading engagement activities
• Act as a central point of contact to UCD professionals within the user centred design team and across UKHSA, including sharing key information and signposting to information repositories
• Assist with resource planning, considering current and future UCD team needs; maintaining and reporting of personnel information of UCD professionals within the UCD Team and across UKHSA and feed into Resourcing and Finance
• Be a key partner with the senior leadership, finance, and resourcing teams to support monthly/quarterly forecasting
• Use expertise to play a key role in recruitment and onboarding in UCD teams, including supporting heads of and leads with first pass sifts and interviews, utilising knowledge of UCD professions and specialist skills
• Lead on procurement of suppliers, tools, and services for UCD; including procuring research and design tools in line with corporate policy 
• Write business cases, approve purchase orders, and pay invoices
• Manage the administration of external contracts for the Division and organisation, including our translation and alternative formats contract
• Design onboarding information and ensure quality onboarding of new UCD personnel into our teams
• Attend cross-departmental meetings and feed broader organisational requirements into the research and design operations function

For more information on the Job description and main duties please see the attached JD

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrate knowledge or experience equivalent to working or practitioner level in relevant discipline – research or design
• Demonstrable experience working in research or design operations role in a UCD environment
• Experience of working in an Agile environment with multidisciplinary teams; awareness of Agile methodology and how to iterate work
• Experience of supporting UCD professionals with tooling and operational support; good knowledge of the principles of UCD and of processes and systems required to support the profession
• Experience of working in a fast-paced complex organisational ecosystem and of demonstrating a proactive adaptable approach to change
• Basic understanding of Government Digital and Data environment and principles
• Experience of managing and administering commercial processes and financial management including managing contracts, budget tracking, value for money measures, and developing business cases
• Demonstrable experience of working independently to develop and implement initiatives such as processes or service improvements
• Highly motivated with the ability to build productive working relationships quickly and work with a broad range of stakeholders
• Ability to maintain own levels of performance in challenging circumstances and encourage others to do the same. Be able to demonstrate persistence, resilience and adaptability to change 
• Good analytical skills and ability to interpret data and information to achieve the best results
• Demonstrate appreciation and acknowledgment of the range and complexities of diversity; self-awareness in terms of emotional intelligence, biases, and personal triggers; cultural competence – cultural sensitivity and awareness

Desirable Criteria

• Qualification in Agile, Digital Standards (e.g. DGS), Product Management or User-Centred Design
• Experience of portfolio management and governance including planning, risks and issues and stakeholder management
• Knowledge of service / service-design standards, customer-centred standards and/or governance digital service standards
• Experience in quality assessment or quality assurance, including mechanisms to assure the quality and value for money of initiatives

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,724, UK Health Security Agency contributes £10,455 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

Selection process

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

• CV/ Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application) 
• 750 word Statement of Suitability.

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The CV and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment.

Depending on how many applications we get, we might include a pre-sift on the CV or include an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise. 

Please do not exceed 750 words for the Statement of Suitability. We will not consider any words over and above this number.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a 60 minute remote video interview. This may include a presentation on your understanding of UCD, to help us understand more about you and your skills and experience.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles  to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role. 

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• Changing and improving 
• Communicating and influencing
• Developing self and others

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework and candidates should expect questions on the following skills during the interview:

• Community collaboration
• User focus
• Commercial management
• Data regulation and ethics

Interviews will be held week commencing 17th June 2024. Please note, these dates are subject to change. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. 

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

 External  

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).

Disability Confident scheme  
 
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.

Reserve List clause  

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.   

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.

Starting salary  

Entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.    

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.    Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.   

For further details please refer to the Information Sheet- Starting Salaries & Benefits attachment .

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.