Senior User Researcher

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Our reward package

The Met Office is recruiting for a Senior User Researcher, to join our UX team, based at Exeter HQ with hybrid/ remote working.

Your total reward package is potentially worth up to £45,161 per annum, which includes basic salary, market forces supplement, potential corporate bonus, employer pension contributions.

As our Senior User Researcher, your starting salary will be £30932.00 with opportunities to progress to £33925.00 over time. New joiners to the Met Office will start on the salary band minima. This role attracts a market forces supplement of £1,125 per annum paid quarterly, pro-rated from the date of taking up the appointment to 31 March 2022 - this scheme is currently under review.

Your package includes: - Outstanding Civil Service Pension - Flexible hours and homeworking - Annual Leave starting at 27.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) rising to 32.5 days (plus Bank Holidays) after 5 years and option to buy or sell up to 5 days per year of annual leave - Cycle to work scheme for the purchase of a bicycle and equipment for healthy, low carbon travel - Access to discounted shopping on a range of retail, leisure and lifestyle categories

Who we are

We provide critical weather services and world-leading climate science, to help people make better decisions to stay safe and thrive.

Our exceptional people deliver scientific, technological and operational expertise and provide critical services. Our people work together to deliver extraordinary impact, making us one of the most trusted forecasters in the world.

A career at the Met Office opens a wealth of opportunities to work with world class partners, such as Microsoft, ESRI, AWS and many others.

You'll be at the heart of the User Experience team, using agile methodologies and UX best practice to build and support digital solutions for our users.

We put our people at the heart of our decisions as an employer and aim to provide outstanding working conditions and career development opportunities. We will invest heavily in training and personal development to help you to reach your highest potential. You can expect to enjoy a flexible working day, we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that suits you.

Our values - it's who we are:

We're a force for good

We're experts by nature

We live and breathe it

We're better together

We keep evolving

We're the Met Office, come and join us and help us to make a difference.

Job Purpose

As our Senior User Researcher, in the UX team, you will:

Plan and carry out UX User Research activities, using appropriate UCD methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), to help teams get a deeper understanding of the people using our services.

Analyse and synthesise UX user research, using UCD techniques, to draw out evidence-led findings and show the relevance.

Present insights and the relevance of findings to stakeholders/teams to help align and inform decision-making and actions.

Think strategically to understand business and user problems and how UX research impacts these.

Be an active and key member of the UX practice to help embed and grow a user-centred culture across the organisation.

Champion user-centred and agile practices, working with colleagues to plan and carry out continuous user research in a multidisciplinary team.

Essential Qualifications, Skills & Abilities

Research skills. You have experience of, and can help teams adopt, a wide range of UX user research methods. You can plan user research for services with challenging user needs and complex user journeys. You can advise colleagues on the choice and application of research methods to assure best practice.

Analysis and synthesis. You understand and can help teams apply a range of UX methods to analyse research data and synthesise findings. You know how to engage sceptical colleagues in analysis and synthesis to build shared understanding of the user experience. You can advise on choice and application of techniques, and can critique colleagues' findings to assure best UX practice. You can present clear, evidence-led findings that colleagues can understand and use to inform decision-making.

Strategic insight. You know how to evaluate current strategies to ensure business requirements are being met and exceeded where possible. You understand what problem the team is trying to solve. You can align user research activities to inform decision making and action.

User-centred and agile practices. You understand and have experience of a range of UX/user-centred practices. You can help inexperienced teams adopt user-centred practices and embed them into their agile workflow. You can advocate for user research and engage sceptical colleagues and stakeholders in iterative UX user research in a multidisciplinary team.

Inclusive research. You know how to include all kinds of users in appropriate UX research activities. You understand the diversity of users and the need to make services usable, useful and accessible for everyone.

Communication skills. You can listen to the needs of users and business stakeholders, and interpret them in a way that is clear for both audiences. You know how to manage stakeholder expectations. You can be flexible and you are capable of proactive and reactive communication. You know how to facilitate difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders.

Leadership and guidance. Able to make decisions characterised by medium levels of risk and complexity and recommend decisions as risk and complexity increase. Able to build consensus between services or independent stakeholders. Engages in varying types of feedback choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision sticks.

Community collaboration. You know how to work collaboratively within a group, actively networking with others and varying feedback for the appropriate time to ensure the discussion sticks. You can use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them.

How to apply

Click below and attach your CV and a Cover Letter which evidences how you meet the each of the essential criteria. Closing date 02/12/2021 with interviews commencing from 13/12/2021.

How we can help:

If you are considering applying and need assistance to do so, please contact us via . You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity.

You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident (Guaranteed Interview) Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We are an equal opportunities employer, welcoming applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information.