Senior User Researcher


Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Salary:	£44,241 - £44,241
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Southampton
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	14 Aug 2026
Closing date:	6 Sept 2026

Apply for this job

Summary

Can you lead, plan, design, and deliver impactful user research activities within an Agile environment, ensuring insights are embedded throughout the product lifecycle?

Have you analysed both qualitative and quantitative research data to create clear user experience artefacts, recommendations, and actionable insights that influence decision-making?

Are you passionate about user-centred design and committed to conducting inclusive research that ensures products and services are accessible and effective for diverse user groups?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The MCA Digital and Technology function delivers world-class services through technology innovation, strategic transformation, and customer-focused solutions. The Digital and AI team leads the Agency's digital, AI, and innovation strategies, while the User-Centred Design team ensures services are designed around user needs and business objectives. Through expert user research and service design practices, they help create accessible, effective, and user-focused digital services that support the MCA's mission and deliver meaningful outcomes.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at MCA:

MCA roles: MCA Homepage | Civil Service Careers

The Senior User Researcher leads the planning, design, and delivery of user research to understand user needs, shape services, and inform policy, strategy, and product development. Working within multidisciplinary teams, they champion the voice of the user, ensuring services are accessible, intuitive, and aligned with GDS standards. They manage supplier research outputs, influence decision-making through evidence-based insights, and help deliver inclusive digital services that meet both user and business needs.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

Responsible for leading user research that helps shape digital experiences across complex service areas.

Generate insights gained from research into formulas to increase the understanding of user needs by developing user personas, journey maps, stories and other artifacts.

Understand and engage with end users and target audiences to gather information about their needs and how they interact with products and services, to discover what requires research, design, usability testing and continuous improvement.

Evaluate qualitative and quantitative research to uncover user needs and behaviours.

Confidently present and promote findings to set out robust and actionable recommendations for services.

Leading on the user research component in GDS assessments.

Ensures research includes a diverse range of users with access needs and low digital skills to deliver accessible and inclusive digital services.

Develops and manages effective relationships with stakeholders.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Apply for this job

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

About Disability Confident

Disability Confident is a government scheme. It encourages employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions.