Lead User Researcher

Job summary

At the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), we design user-centred services that make the criminal justice system easier to use, quicker to deliver, and fairer for all.

As the Lead User Researcher, you’ll be critical to this mission, setting the vision for rigorous, inclusive research that helps us build a deep understanding of our users. You will enable our decisions to be guided by evidence, advocating for a user‑centred, insights-led approach with senior leaders and stakeholders. You’ll develop research strategies, assure research quality, and turn insights into clear direction for service, content, and interaction design so our services are effective, accessible, and meet users’ needs.

You’ll lead discovery and iterative research for multiple or highly complex services, making sure teams work to the Government Service Standard and design principles, and that our research follows ethical, safeguarding, and data‑protection best practice. You’ll lead and mentor our user research profession, championing collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, and strengthening our research and insights capability.

Beyond CPS, you’ll join up user insight across the Criminal Justice System to help shape genuinely end‑to‑end services that deliver meaningful outcomes for users and the organisation.

This is a leadership role where you’ll report to the Head of User‑Centred Design and Analysis and help shape the future of our profession.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 before starting in this role. The start date is expected to be 8-12 weeks after the application deadline.

Job description

As a lead user researcher, you will:

• Work with service owners and programme leadership to build a shared understanding of user needs and behaviours and develop data-driven research strategies that align with organisational goals.
• Set direction and assure the quality of user research across teams, aligned to the Service Standard and government design principles.
• Lead on the user-centred research and iteration of multiple or highly complex services, you will ensure our services are inclusive, accessible, and meet users’ needs.
• Build the user research capability and lead the profession within CPS, to help the organisation improve and innovate how we approach user research and apply insights to decision making.
• Create an inclusive, productive environment for user researchers to work in, enabling them to apply best practice.

A copy of the job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need:

• Significant hands-on experience leading user research in complex organisations, ensuring effective and user-centred service delivery.
• An understanding of the Government Design Principles, Service Standard and agile ways of working.
• A deep understanding of user research ethics, safeguarding, and data‑protection best practice.
• Strong stakeholder influencing and collaboration skills, to support user centred-design decisions at all levels.
• The ability to help teams understand how user-centred design helps them meet their goals and align work and research strategy to the goals and vision of the organisation.
• Experience in embedding inclusive user research and insights led design iteration and decision making in agile teams.
• Experience of creating an inclusive and productive environment for user researchers to work in.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,330, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £16,898 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact benjamin.ross-russell@cps.gov.uk.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

The Crown Prosecution Service has fixed rates for its Higher Executive Officer grade – a developing rate (the starting salary) and a spot rate (the maximum salary). Applicants typically join us on the developing rate and, after completing a 18-month development period, move to the spot rate – this is subject to your line manager confirming that you’re performing the role to a satisfactory standard.

If you’re joining the Crown Prosecution Service on a lateral transfer from another government department, you should contact us about the impact on your salary and the implications of any time you’ve already spent at that grade before applying or accepting an employment offer. Your salary may be adjusted if your location changes when you join us. This adjustment also takes into account any existing allowances that may have previously been consolidated into your basic pay – there’s no guarantee that you can retain these when you transfer.

The Crown Prosecution Service also has a range of development programmes to support all aspiring, new and experienced managers with developing the skills, behaviours and knowledge to build their confidence and capability. Our Manager Induction Programme is mandatory for all newly appointed managers. This is a fantastic opportunity to support all our new Crown Prosecution Service managers with the tools required to perform effectively in their roles.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Recruitment process

The recruitment process consists of an online application, interview and assessment. These are expected to take place on 4, 5 & 6 March 2026.

Your interview takes place online through Microsoft Teams. A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact the Izichi.Elenwo@cps.gov.uk

You should keep this week or notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

Assessment

We ask you to complete an assessment as part of the recruitment process for this role. We will provide details once you are invited to interview.

Personal statement

We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 750 words. You need to demonstrate the following experience required for this role:

• Significant hands-on experience leading user research in complex organisations, ensuring effective and user-centred service delivery.
• An understanding of the Government Design Principles, Service Standard and agile ways of working.
• A deep understanding of user research ethics, safeguarding, and data‑protection best practice.
• Strong stakeholder influencing and collaboration skills, to support user centred-design decisions at all levels.
• The ability to help teams understand how user-centred design helps them meet their goals and align work and research strategy to the goals and vision of the organisation.
• Experience in embedding inclusive user research and insights led design iteration and decision making in agile teams.
• Experience of creating an inclusive and productive environment for user researchers to work in.

In addition, you need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

Behaviours

You are also asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each behaviour setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements.

1. Seeing the big picture
2. Making Effective Decisions
3. Communicating & Influencing

You also need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

Interview/Assessment

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against Grade 7 in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing Grade 7 behaviours at interview.

1. Seeing the big picture - Interview
2. Making Effective Decisions - Interview
3. Communicating & Influencing - Interview
4. Essential Experience - assessed at interview and assessment.

We understand interviews can be stressful, and we want to ensure you are able to best represent your skills, so the interview questions will be provided in advance, five working days prior to your interview.

CV

You’re not required to upload your CV. However, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section’. You are required to provide information about your employment. The CV section will be assessed as part of your application.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified information in the requested format to ensure that you're considered for the post.

If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.

Strengths

Strengths are tested at interview stage - the strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. Therefore, if you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to secure a Disclosure and Barring Service check/Security Clearance for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form and nationality and immigration questionnaire and a national security vetting form.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply.You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

To be cleared to Security Clearanceclearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service they are:

• Security Clearance – three years within the last five years

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/civilservicerecruitmentcomplaints/

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.

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.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 : Izichi Elenwo
• Email : Izichi.Elenwo@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk

Attachments

Level D - Lead User Researcher Opens in new window (docx, 31kB)CPS Terms and Conditions 2025 Opens in new window (docx, 255kB)NEW CPS Personal Statement Guidance 2023 Opens in new window (docx, 269kB)