About the job

Job summary

Here at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. 

Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time. 

We have over 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK. 

The remediation programmes exist to improve the lives of those who live in buildings with unsafe cladding. The remediation work began six years ago to make buildings safer following the Grenfell Tower fire. Since then, we have made progress in fixing unsafe cladding but there is much more to do to meet the scale of the challenge.

Delivery is conducted through five programmes with a much greater role for Homes England, the Building Safety Regulator, social housing providers and developers. As the complexity and scale of remediation increases, a Portfolio model is being implemented. We are establishing a new function, System Design, as part of the Portfolio. The System Design function will take a holistic view of the entire remediation landscape to identify, evaluate and support the implementation of changes.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work. 

Find out more about what it's like to work in a digital, data and technology role at DLUHC including our culture, ways of working, career progression and staff benefits. You can also read the DLUHC Digital blog to learn about the work we're doing. 

Job description

Come along to our online events to find out more about the System Design Team and the roles we have available:

• Wednesday 14th February: Systems Design Recruitment - Find Out More! Tickets, Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 3:00 PM , Eventbrite
• Monday 19th February: Systems Design Recruitment - Find Out More! Tickets, Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 12:00 PM , Eventbrite

The System Design function has been created to take a holistic view of the entire remediation landscape. Through identifying, evaluating and supporting the implementation of changes, the System Design team will bring clarity to a complex system and put the users at the heart of decisions whilst hoping to increase the pace and value for money of programmes. The System Design team will work collaboratively across teams within remediation around policy change and to develop a system view.

As a User Researcher you'll:

Work with the Senior User Researcher to be able to gather insights about the end-to-end landscape of remediation, using existing information and designing and delivering new user research, to understand the experiences of users. The role welcomes user researchers with a strategic mindset or with an interest in how user research can be used in more strategic ways. The role will fit those who like to look at the bigger picture, and who are keen to use user research to make connections across a system to have more strategic impact on improving policies and services.

Your responsibilities include:

• Working with the System Design team to define the boundaries of the remediation landscape, contributing the user perspective

• Building relationships with internal teams across the remediation system to gather intel from project and programme level that can support a user-centred view of the system

• Planning, designing and conducting user research with key user groups to understand their needs and experiences, and to understand how the implementation of policies or programmes are impacting them

• Identifying appropriate research methods to meet the aims of the research with a focus on qualitative, participatory and creative approaches, and analysing and synthesising user research data to present clear user insights and actionable findings

• Supporting the development of routes to recruit participants for research and supporting the design of a feedback loop for our research

• Ensuring inclusive research is embedded into all user research practices, ensuring research is conducted with a diverse range of users in the remediation system

• Communicating user research findings with a range of teams and relevant stakeholders, including senior officials, with a clear focus on creative storytelling to advocate for user needs and experiences within the remediation landscape.

• Supporting the development of a user research ‘repository’ that enables tables across remediation to access our research findings

• Delivering user research in line with an established framework that enables individual user research projects to be analysed together and aggregated to form a strategic view

• Supporting the team to develop strategic insights and recommendations from all user research conducted

• Working with the wider System Design team to ensure user needs, experiences and impacts are embedded into the system mapping and visualisation work

• Develop relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels, and work with people to advocate for user research and user-centred design.

• You will be able to access the support of, and contribute to, the relevant Community of Practice within the department.

Person specification

We are seeking a User Researcher that can engage in research at a strategic level in a complex policy and delivery landscape, in a way which prioritises users and their needs.

The role requires:

• Experience of working as a user researcher in a complex policy or delivery environment with an excellent working knowledge of user-centred design practices

• Experience of designing and delivering inclusive user research with a range of users, with a focus on qualitative research methodologies and knowing how to apply different methods to different research projects

• Ability to work with and involve internal stakeholders to design and deliver meaningful and impactful user research

• Ability to analyse research data to generate actionable and implementable insights and involving teams to ensure buy-in for those findings • Ability to look across multiple research projects to connect insights to inform service and systems design

• Ability to present user insights in a clear and engaging way, adapting the dissemination technique to the audience, and using creative approaches to storytelling

• An understanding and ability to work with complexity, uncertainty and organisational constraints in a political context

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,457 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, Strengths and Experience.

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role. 

We are for everyone 

CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

Please remove references to your: 

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing: 

. Experience 

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates. At interview, you will be assessed against the following Behaviours:

. Seeing the big picture

. Communicating and Influencing

. Working Together

. Delivering at Pace

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Strength: Yes 

Behaviours: Seeing the big picture, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Delivering at Pace

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

SEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £38,732 (National).
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to DLUHC 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 at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk. 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

Location 

• Wolverhampton
• Darlington*
• Manchester
• Bristol
• Leeds
• Birmingham

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by: 

• HM Treasury 
• Department for International Trade
• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 
• Office for National Statistics 
• Department for Education

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

Sift and Interview dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place from Monday 26/02/2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register

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.