About the job

Job summary

The Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) is a new shared corporate service, launched in July 2023. It will provide corporate services (HR, Finance, Digital, Commercial, Security and Estates) across the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).  

Our team of just over 300 professionals will be leading the way in how these functions will be delivered in the future. Our ambition is to be the leading provider of integrated corporate services for government and set the standard for quality, efficiency, and innovation in our field. 

Our Inclusive Environment 

We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.  

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive. 

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process. 

Find Out More 

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/departmentforenergysecurityandnetzero?  

You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/  

Job description

Join ICS Digital, where innovation meets expertise to create digital solutions. We are a cohesive digital community who work in the open, solving problems together and fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration. Our commitment to user-focused design and data-driven decision-making ensures that we deliver accessible services tailored to the needs of our customers.

We are looking for hard working, forward-thinking people with strong people skills who enjoy working collaboratively with others to solve problems.

We are a small but growing team with a keen sense of community. We care about the way we work, how we treat each other, the quality of our services and how we make a difference for our customers.

This is an exciting opportunity to advance your career and develop your skills within a supportive and encouraging team. We are passionate about career development and offer a diverse range of learning and development opportunities. We have partnerships with leaders in professional development, such as Pluralsight and CITF.

The role:
As a user researcher you will work with teams across ICS, DESNZ and DSIT to make sure that public-facing services and internal systems meet user needs. You'll help teams understand the problem they're trying to solve, and who their users are.

Your role will be to support in planning and carrying out user research. You'll apply user research techniques to analyse and synthesise findings. You'll work collaboratively with colleagues as part of a multi-disciplinary agile team to understand and solve complex problems.

You'll take a broad approach to user research to solve the whole problem for the user. You'll use your problem-solving skills to find opportunities, risks and dependencies across multiple services.

You'll be an excellent communicator who can advocate for your users and explain user-centred design principles to non-specialists.

The UCD team:
You will sit in the UCD team alongside our user researchers, service designers, content designers and business analysts.

We work across high profile and high priority projects for DESNZ and DSIT. Recently we have responded to energy price rises, grant delivery and energy sustainability for Net Zero.

We are agile, collaborative and user-centred. We are a welcoming community where you can develop your skills and career.

Person specification

Key responsibilities

As a user researcher:

• You will help to plan, design, prepare and run user research activities to support the design, development, and continuous improvement of ICS services (this could include interviews, diary studies, prototype testing, usability and accessibility testing).
• You will advocate appropriate research strategies to understand user needs for a service, and to continually test and improve the service.
• You will help to manage the research process from recruiting participants, designing tasks, and preparing discussion guides, to research facilitation, analysis and presenting results.
• You will effectively communicate user research findings to the team, so that they share a strong and empathetic understanding of their users (including presentations at show and tells, designing and maintaining research outputs, formal reports etc).
• You will collaborate with insight and analysis colleagues to build up a rich picture of our users.
• You will advocate for inclusive design and research, ensuring full inclusion and understanding of users with access needs and those that require non-digital access or support.
• You will actively contribute to the user research community within ICS and across government.

Skills and experience

Essential criteria:

• Understanding of user-centred service design and delivery practices.
• Recognition of user diversity and the need to make digital services usable and accessible for everyone.
• Experience of basic user research methods
• Aware of social technology and how it impacts digital services
• Examining research data and combining insights.

Desirable criteria:

• Command of some programs in the Adobe Suite (i.e. Illustrator, InDesign, etc.)
• Survey software (Microsoft Forms, Survey Monkey, Google forms)
• Rapid prototyping experience or use of tools (i.e. Balsamiq, Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch )
• A degree in Psychology/Behavioural Science/Anthropology/Human-Computer Interaction/Ergonomics/Market Research or a related field

It is unusual that all candidates will meet all the desirable criteria. If your skills and experience look slightly different from what we have identified and you think you can bring value to the User Researcher role and the team, we strongly encourage you to apply. We'd love to hear from you!

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,635, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £9,081 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.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 750 words) to describe how your experience and/or transferable skills relate to the essential and desirable criteria noted in the advert.

Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.  

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the Personal Statement. 

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions. 

Sift and interview dates

Expected Timeline subject to change

Sift dates: w/c 20th May 2024

Interview dates: from 6th June 2024

Interview Location: MS Teams.

Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

Further Information

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

We fully support adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

We do not have an exhaustive list of adjustments that we support but just some examples include additional time to complete your application form, behaviour questions up to 72 hours prior to interview and having extra time at interview. 

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero  from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. 

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk 

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Feedback

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. 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.