User Researcher (Consultant) – UK Government Programme
Location: Primarily Remote (Ad hoc travel to London – 2 days per month, back-to-back)
Contract Length: Initial 3 months (likely extension)
Day Rate: £370 per day (Inside IR35)
Start Date: ASAP
Overview
We are supporting a key UK Government programme seeking an experienced User Researcher (Consultant level) to join an established delivery team.
This role will play a critical part in shaping user-centred services within a highly governed environment, ensuring research drives decision-making across policy, service design, and delivery.
This is an excellent opportunity to contribute to a high-impact public sector initiative with strong potential for extension.
Key Requirements
- Proven experience as a User Researcher within UK Government environments
- Strong understanding of the GDS Service Standard and delivery phases
- Experience planning and executing end-to-end user research activities
- Ability to independently design, conduct, and deliver research insights
- Experience working in highly regulated or governed environments
- Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills
- Available to start and interview at short notice
- Comfortable working remotely with occasional travel to London
Technical Skills
Experience with the following is highly desirable:
- Qualitative and quantitative user research methods
- Research planning, recruitment, and ethics processes
- Creation of research artefacts (personas, user journeys, reports)
- Usability testing and user needs analysis
- Translating user insights into actionable recommendations
Desirable Experience
- Previous experience within government departments
- Exposure to policy-driven or transformation programmes
- Participation in GDS service assessments
- Experience working across multidisciplinary agile teams
What You’ll Be Doing
- Planning, designing, and conducting user research activities end-to-end
- Selecting appropriate research methods and managing recruitment and ethics approval
- Producing high-quality research outputs (personas, journeys, reports, insights)
- Sharing findings through playbacks, show & tells, and stakeholder sessions
- Championing user research across all GDS delivery phases (Discovery to Live)
- Ensuring research informs policy, service, and design decisions
- Contributing to communities of practice and promoting research best practices
Additional Information
- Must be eligible for BPSS clearance
- Candidates must be UK-based
- Occasional on-site collaboration in London required (2 days per month)