Senior User Researcher

  • Full-time

Company Description

Snook is a design agency with real, human experiences at its heart. We’re passionate and talented people who share our expertise in: service design, interaction design, content design, user research, development, strategy and more.

We’ve designed user-centred services for government agencies including: Home Office, Department for Education (DfE), NHS Digital and NHSX. 

We’ve also designed digital products and solutions for organisations including Lloyds, Cancer Research UK and Comic Relief.

  • Location: UK - Home and Office Working. London and Glasgow based staff are expected to regularly use our studios for collaboration, quiet working and meeting others. For remote staff we have optional access to business lounges across the UK.
  • Contract: Permanent 
  • Salary: UK: £46,000 - 59,800  and London-weighting: £50,000 - 65,000

We’re the ‘user-centered design partner’ for the Home Office, Department for Education, the NHS and others. We also work with local government, charity and private sector organisations

This means we’re embedded in their teams for projects and you’ll move on to different sectors after 3 - 12 months. We want you to get a variety of experiences, from applying GDS (government digital service) standards to improving customer buy-in.

Job Description

We're looking for a Senior User Researcher who can:

  • Lead and direct projects with a focus on ensuring all services are inclusive, accessible and planet-friendly. You’ll lead multidisciplinary teams through complex or high value projects. You’ll also act as director on projects, pointing teams and clients in the right direction to deliver on scope and on budget. 
  • Support the user research team, for example by mentoring colleagues and contributing to recruitment activities. You may line manage more junior team members, including conducting and overseeing appraisals, making recommendations in relation to progression and communicating resulting decisions to the people you manage. 
  • Define the way our disciplines work together. Working with Research Ops, Service Design, Training and the other disciplines, you’ll further articulate our methods. This includes developing and implementing accessible, inclusive and planet-friendly user research practices.
  • Work closely with our clients and partners to spot and nurture opportunities springing from the work we do. It’s likely that you’ll play a role in all stages of Snook’s new business process.  

Qualifications

We’d like to hear from you if you have any of these skills or experiences:

  • Leading the development of research frameworks, and completion of Data Protection Impact Assessments, planning research to uncover the key factors affecting a service and its use.
  • Defining research approaches, questions and activities appropriate to the project context, constraints and outcomes. 
  • Analysing and Synthesising findings from user research to produce robust, evidence-based user stories, identifying the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. 
  • Overseeing others to ensure we always conduct ethical research. You ensure user needs are kept front and centre at all stages of a project.
  • Advising others about conducting user research in challenging situations to ensure participants are supported and able to describe their experiences
  • Balancing multiple forms of research and stakeholder participation. 
  • Applying agile methods in practice.
  • Leading multi-disciplinary agile teams
  • Adhering to the guidelines of the Government Service Manual for Research. 
  • Leading methods that help the team think about how to ensure the product/ service is inclusive, accessible, and equitable. 
  • Directing teams in ensuring our user research evidences where people's experiences of services are influenced by wider systems.
  • Designing, organising and delivering workshops, guiding on the best approaches to deliver project objectives. 
  • Scoping the practical requirements to implement change / clients' next steps, outlining timeframes and resource implications. 
  • Critical and Reflective Practice

Additional Information

  • 25.5 days holiday per year, 4 public holidays, plus up to 6 days of Christmas closure.
  • A supportive maternity package
  • Flexible working hours through discussion to support family friendly working and other commitments you may have
  • A bike to work scheme
  • A vibrant and supportive online and studio culture
  • Access to Snook social clubs, and opportunity to run your own
  • Membership to Headspace, the meditation app
  • Annual team away-day and quarterly show and tells where we come together as a company, taking time out to learn, reflect, and eat snacks
  • Weekly learning sessions plus an annual training budget
  • Snook group pension plan
  • We support you with a Snook buddy when you join to get you started

How to apply

  1. Go to our listing and select ‘I’m interested’

  2. Upload your CV

  3. Add your cover letter - tell us why you think you’d be a good fit for the role and why you want to work for Snook

We’re recruiting continuously so please do apply as soon as possible. This vacancy will close as soon as the positions are filled.

Any questions?

If you have any questions please get in touch with us at [email protected]

Remote interviews
All stages of the interview process will be held remotely. We can offer interview times that suit you including outside of work hours. If you have children, caring during or any other circumstances we’re happy to find an interview time that works for you.

Clearance

All offers are subject to satisfactory security vetting and reference checks. As standard, all roles undertake a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check. As a provider of services to the UK Government, where necessary we adhere to HMG’s personnel security and vetting policy requiring that minimum personnel security controls are checked as specified in the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). Some roles may require national security vetting clearance at the Security Check (SC) level and Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV) Level 3. Where applicable local (non-UK) security checks and vetting schemes will be used to provide sufficient personnel security controls.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 

We strive for diversity in our team. If we’re going to design services for the public we need to ensure our team is inclusive. Snook encourages applications from all backgrounds, abilities or impairments, communities and industries. We’re committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities.

Privacy Policy