Lead User Researcher - 2 Year FTA

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

About CustomerFirst

Long phone queues, repeated form-filling, and endless paperwork will be cut out as technology is put to work to transform public services, modernise government, and accelerate national renewal across the UK.

CustomerFirst transforms how public services are designed, delivered and operated. Driving efficiency while radically improving the experience for citizens and the staff who deliver services. We work in partnership with government departments, taking inspiration from the best of industry and leading practice across the public sector. Our focus is on fixing the root causes of poor customer service: fragmented journeys, inefficient processes and systems that don’t join up.

CustomerFirst exists to make government services work better for the people who rely on them and for the teams who run them. Not incrementally better. Fundamentally better.

Job description

As the Lead User Researcher for CustomerFirst, you’ll play a defining role in shaping the team to improve customer service at scale with a user-centred mindset. This is not about leading the research on a single project. This role will sit across multiple delivery squads setting the research strategy and practice, and conducting research yourself when needed.

This role will be shaping how research is conducted across complex portfolios and helping government move from quick fixes to deep transformation based on what people fundamentally need from our services.

CustomerFirst is still being built. Our operating model, culture and ways of working are evolving, and that’s deliberate. We’re looking for a Lead Researcher who is comfortable in ambiguity, and is motivated by the chance to build something new with real public impact.

This is a hands-on leadership role, involving research tasks and also strategic direction and responsibility for a small team of researchers embedded in different projects. You’ll set direction and standards, and step in wherever needed to help teams deliver.

What you will do

As a Lead User Researcher, you will:

• develop and assure good user research practice across multiple teams, supporting researchers to adopt a range of techniques and to continuously improve
• oversee and lead the planning, design and delivery of user research to support the design and development of excellent public services
• establish and align user research activities and teams to meet organisational goals
• lead colleagues to analyse research data and synthesise clear and actionable findings
• ensure that teams take a user-centred, evidence-based approach to service design and delivery, and that our research includes all kinds of users
• contribute to the wider user research community – taking on a leadership role in the community including sharing findings and insights across the organisation, mentoring other researchers, writing blog posts and leading on aspects of practice
• may be required to provide line management and leadership to a team of researchers

This role will involve overseeing research across multiple different projects, each a partnership with a different organisation across government. This means you’ll be advising and coaching service teams on how to improve, as well as being part of a multidisciplinary team delivering a service. You’ll need skills building relationships quickly, identifying problems, and helping others to solve them.

What this role offers

• a chance to fix real customer service problems that affect millions of people
• the opportunity to shape how government considers products and services, not just work within existing models
• exposure and opportunity to influence senior leadership across policy, operations, digital and delivery
• a start-up/ scale up environment with the mandate to challenge, experiment and build
• work with purpose, scale and visibility – without losing pragmatism or pace

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have experience:

• of a wide range of research methods, track record of deploying appropriate research methods for the product environment, and supporting others to adopt new approaches
• leading in ambiguity, providing others with support and direction to deliver results while external factors are uncertain.
• establishing and aligning user research activities to organisational goals.
• building stakeholder relationships quickly, and partnering with others to resolve issues and enable progress
• in user-centred practice and advocacy, including helping teams adopt user-centred practices
• in developing and assuring best practice in a wide range of user research methods

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service 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

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT 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).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and to answer 3 application questions
• a 60 minute video interview which will feature a presentation
• a final 'fireside chat' interview with CustomerFirst SLT assessed against the 'Leadership' Civil Service Behaviour

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: What experience do you have of different research methods, deploying appropriate research methods for the context, and supporting others to adopt new approaches?

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

• working together
• leadership
• communicating and Influencing

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Lead User Researcher role:

• agile research practices
• user research methods
• research management, leadership, and assurance
• stakeholder relationship management

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 20/03/2026

Panel interviews: Starting from 27/03/2026

Final 'Fireside' Interviews will be booked following the panel interviews

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Sponsorship

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

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk
• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.