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Test Learn and Grow Unit User Researcher
Job summary
IMPORTANT - This vacancy is using the Civil Service Numerical and Verbal tests. The deadline for completing the tests is the same as the vacancy closing date. Please ensure you complete the tests with sufficient time to complete the written application.
At the Department for Education (DfE), we are striving for world-class education, training and care for everyone whatever their background. Our ambition is to have a more productive economy, giving everyone the chance to reach their potential and live a more fulfilled life.
We work in multi-disciplinary teams using Agile methods to innovate and radically improve services that:
- Raise education standards and provide the best start in life for children.
- Support disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people.
- Drive economic growth.
Our work and set up is truly end-to-end. We work closely with Ministers and our users on the design of our programmes and policies, through to successful implementation, through our research and analysis, finance and commercial, communications, technical design and programme management.
The Test Learn and Grow Unit
The DfE Test, Learn and Grow Unit will be a new, multidisciplinary team jointly delivered by the Department for Education (DfE) and the Cabinet Office to accelerate innovation across the education system. The unit will bring central government, local government, service providers, and users to tackle the challenges directly affecting people in the places they live.
Over 18 months, the unit will design, deliver and scale high‑impact Test & Learn projects across priority areas, including Cabinet Office “accelerator” projects, DfE place‑based missions as part of the Schools White Paper’s “Call to Action” to the sector, and other departmental innovation priorities.
Alongside delivery, the team will act as a centre of expertise for test‑and‑learn methods, build capability across the department, and develop a sustainable long‑term model for embedding innovation in policy and operational practice.
The Unit brings together expertise from the Behavioural Insights Unit, Regions Group, Cabinet Office TLG, and the Education Policy Innovation Centre (EPIC) — a multidisciplinary team with strengths in participatory policymaking and systems change.
This role will be hosted in EPIC and will work on priority Test, Learn and Grow (TLG) projects as part of a dedicated satellite team.
Job description
We are looking for an outstanding User Researcher who is ready to apply their research skills in a policy and service context. This is an exciting and dynamic role, which will involve in-person fieldwork in local areas alongside place-based partners.
As an SEO User Researcher, you will often be working as the sole UR in a multi-disciplinary team. You will plan and deliver research throughout the design process with the aim of bringing in the perspectives of front-line delivery, users and other stakeholders to better understand and generate solutions to complex challenges. You will work closely with TLG Product and Strategy Leads; Policy leads and other members of a multidisciplinary team to deliver Test and Learn demonstrator projects in high priority areas for the DfE.
A core set of qualitative research skills is essential for this role. Beyond this we are open to applicants from different research disciplines and backgrounds (e.g. social research, user research, citizen participation) and the role has the flexibility to develop around your interests.
The DfE’s Test, Learn and Grow Unit is not part of the Digital, Data and Technology Profession so, whilst borrowing from the capability framework, user researcher should expect to work on diverse services and policies which may include digital, where appropriate.
You will use your practical research skills to:
- Diagnose policy and innovation challenges in complex systems, for example by facilitating workshops bringing together diverse actors or conducting interviews with sector experts to understand the parameters of the problem.
- Understand user perspectives to gain insight into possible intervention opportunities, for example by planning and conducting user / social research, testing the best ways to gather user feedback on policies and public services; or by commissioning contractors.
- Take a participatory approach to developing solutions, for example by planning and leading co-design workshops or designing new mechanisms to include stakeholder and citizen participation throughout the policy process.
- Develop and evaluate potential policy solutions using a test and learn approach, for example by working with designers to create prototypes and leading user testing in interviews or pilots.
Across these activities you will use your skills to plan and deliver robust, ethical and inclusive research, feeding into each stage of the design and innovation process. This will include assessing which methods to use; overseeing and doing research operations; conducting research activities remotely and in-person; and leading the delivery of analysis, synthesis and research outputs. Working as part of an interdisciplinary team you will also identify opportunities for non-researchers in the team to contribute to the research process.
Beyond core project work you will have the opportunity to explore and influence how we use innovative research methods to improve policymaking, including helping other civil servants to understand and embed participation, design and innovation into the policy process.
Please note that this role focuses on feeding into strategic policy decisions rather than working on detailed service experiences in digital teams. You’ll need to be willing to travel to wherever participants are located around the country for in person engagements.
Person specification
We are looking for an experienced researcher who works with minimal support and can influence others. You will be adaptable; capable of and comfortable doing a diverse set of tasks all in the same week (e.g. facilitating stakeholder workshops, conducting user research, testing and evaluating or service pilots) and borrowing approaches from different disciplines in order to achieve the best outcomes for a project. Finally, you will be curious and brave; interested in emerging research and design practices, willing to test new approaches and excited by the question of how we can use innovation to make policymaking better.
Essential Criteria:
- Research planning and methods: You’re able to plan and deliver complex research working as part an interdisciplinary team. You have experience conducting research using a broad range of methods including evidence reviews, semi structured interviews, surveys and/or workshops. You draw on different disciplines to plan the best research approach for the policy challenge in question and are willing to learn from other disciplines.
- Analysis and synthesis. You’re able to analyse and synthesise complex research data, involving teams and stakeholders. You draw on different disciplines to present and share research outputs that are engaging that colleagues and commissioners can easily understand.
- Inclusive research. You have experience of researching with and advocating for a wide range of people that might include children, young people and those from hard-to-reach groups and understand how to adapt research around their needs.
- Research management, ethics and safeguarding. You are comfortable setting up and managing the logistics of complex research studies with multiple groups and/or phases. You have a good understanding of research ethics, and how to keep participants, teams and yourself safe in research.
- Leadership & Advocacy. You understand the role user centred design and participatory approaches, play in the innovation process and can communicate this to stakeholders and peers. You are comfortable presenting research outputs to different audiences to influence decision-making.
Desirable Criteria:
- Hypothesis driven innovation: Experience applying user research across end‑to‑end Test & Learn or experimental projects (hypothesis‑driven design, prototyping, experimentation or evaluation through multi‑disciplinary teams).
- Participatory methods: You have experience identifying where participatory approaches, including co-design, can make a difference. You're confident facilitating co-design workshops and designing methodologies to bring diverse stakeholders together to frame problems, agree on shared purpose and deliver desired outcomes.
- You have experience using a range of quantitative methods and understand how these can be used alongside qualitative approaches for the most effective outcome. This might include accessing and conducting analysis on administrative datasets and panel surveys.
- Evaluation methods: You have experience designing and implementing evaluation frameworks assessing the impact of policies or major programmes of work.
- Interdisciplinary working: You have experience working in teams with and learning from people from diverse professional backgrounds. You are comfortable drawing on ideas and practices from disciplines outside of research and applying them within your own work.
- Understanding of the education policy landscape and/or experience working with policymakers, local authorities, schools, MATs or other place-based delivery partners.
Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview in the event of a tie break situation to make an informed decision.
We welcome applications from candidates seeking part time or compressed working patter. However, due to the nature of the work and the shift coverage required, the minimum number of contracted hours for this role is 30 hours per week over a 4 day period.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £42,806, Department for Education contributes £12,400 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.
As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.
You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.
We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.
Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.
As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.
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.To apply for this role, please select 'Apply Now' at the top or bottom of this advert. CV details need to be included in the template within the application form; attached or emailed CVs will not be considered.
Please be advised there are four stages to the recruitment process for this role, these are outlined below.
Stage 1: Civil Service Numerical Test (CSNT)
When you have completed your personal information, you will be asked to complete the CSNT. You must achieve the minimum pass mark to progress to the next stage.
Stage 2: Civil Service Verbal Test (CSVT)
When you have completed the CSNT, you will be asked to complete the CSVT. You must achieve the minimum pass mark to progress to the next stage.
We reserve the right to increase the minimum pass mark for the CSNT and CSVT where there is a high volume of applications or a particularly strong field of candidates. Where this occurs, candidates who do not meet the revised pass mark will not progress further, and their written application will not be assessed.
Stage 3: Sift
At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience in line with the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job advert.
To apply for this role, please provide:
- A ShortCV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
- Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 750 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.
To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 750 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 750 words will not be taken into account.
Should there be a high volume of applicants, candidates may be sifted on the first three (3) essential criteria. and the Technical Statement.
Please note, CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.
Application sifting will commence 3rd August 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.
If you are successful at application sift stage, your application will be progressed onto Stage 4 of the selection process.
Stage 4: Interview
The interview will be a 2-part process:
Part 1 - Prepare and deliver a short presentation (approx.10 minutes) to the panel. Please be prepared to answer follow up questions on the presentation. Presentation details will be provided at least 1 week prior to interview. You may use AI to support your research and thinking, but you should not use AI to generate your presentation and script wholesale. The Presentation will be assessed using the Essential criteria listed in the advert.
Part 2 - The interview will last approximately 60 minutes. You will be asked questions on the Behaviours listed in the advert. We may also ask you some follow-up questions. You will also be asked some Strengths questions.
Strengths are a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We don’t advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.
Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.
We receive many applications, and unfortunately, we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.
Important Information
If you fail to complete the tests before the deadline, your application will be withdrawn. Guidance will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are untimed, administered via Civil Service Jobs, and applicant guidance is available during the test and online on GOV.UK Online Tests guidance.
Applicants must complete the test on their own, without help, and Departments reserve the right to retest applicants under supervised conditions at later stages of the selection process. Doing this can provide reassurance to recruiters who are concerned about the authenticity of one or more test results.
Please ensure you allow yourself sufficient time to complete both assessments and submit your application before the advertised deadline.
Reasonable adjustments & test accessibility:
See our reasonable adjustments guide for candidates (online tests), or some example case studies, to act as a guide. You can use these to help you decide whether to ask for help or take the test without help.
More information about online tests can be found here: Preparing for the Civil Service Verbal and Numerical tests - GOV.UK. You will also find practice tests on this page if you would find them helpful prior to completing the live test.
Other Information
Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.
In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.
This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).
Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:
- name/title
- educational institutions
- age
- gender
- email address
- postal address
- phone number
- nationality/immigration status
We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.
The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs
Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.
Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.
Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.
Reasonable adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.
Childcare Vouchers
Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming 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/
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
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 : Sanjan Sabherwal
- Email : Sanjan.sabherwal@education.gov.uk