User Researcher

Successful candidates may be based in any of our office locations – Cardiff, Glasgow or London. We especially welcome applicants from Cardiff and Glasgow.

Job Summary

Ofgem is the leader in the Energy Sector for supporting the public and making sure the industry has the direction it needs to make the right choices. We’re looking for a User Researcher to lead research on how people interact with our services, helping us create accessible and effective solutions that support energy consumers.

Ofgem is Great Britain’s independent energy regulator. We ensure that every household and business has access to a safe, affordable, and sustainable energy supply. With the energy sector undergoing rapid transformation, our work has never been more vital - or more exciting.

You’ll play a key role in developing research-led insights that shape service design and policy. This is an opportunity to influence high-impact projects and improve digital and operational services across Ofgem.

As a User Researcher, you will ensure our services meet users' needs by leading in-depth research on how people interact with them. You will be involved in exciting work to discover users’ needs, analyse their behaviours and create solutions that deliver for them. At every step of the journey, you will be vital to informing, testing and supporting projects and will work with a huge range of engaged parties across Ofgem and beyond to make sure our solutions are the best they can possibly be, and user-centred thinking is at the heart of our decision-making.

We’re looking for someone with professional experience as a User Researcher, working alongside User Centred Design disciplines. You should have experience influencing and engaging stakeholders, including sceptical colleagues, and be confident in conducting inclusive research to ensure services meet the needs of all users. The ability to select and apply the right qualitative and quantitative research methods to deliver meaningful insights is essential.

In return, we offer an environment where you have everything you need to thrive, from flexible working options to outstanding perks and benefits. What’s more, you’ll have access to professional development opportunities to support your growth, whilst contributing to a mission-driven organisation that’s shaping the future of the UK energy sector and leading the drive towards Net Zero.

We have a critical purpose to ensure that the public have an Energy Industry that works for them and services that are designed around their needs.

Read on and apply today.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan, design and prepare a range of user research methodologies to support the design, development and continuous improvement of complex government services;
• Carry out a wide range of user research operations including recruiting participants, and managing research contacts;
• Independently carry out research activities, aligning research needs and questions, preparing discussion guides, moderating research sessions, and analysing and synthesising research findings for stakeholders;
• Lead and support colleagues to analyse research data and synthesise clear and actionable findings
• Communicate user research findings to inform decisions in the wider team and organisation through user understanding and user needs;
• Work closely with product managers, designers, developers, business analysts, and internal stakeholders to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product and service features;
• Contribute to UCD strategic planning, to align user research activities with wider strategic plans to inform service propositions;
• Help build and advocate for user-centred practices in project teams;
• Develop and ensure good user research practice, sharing knowledge with other user researchers;
• Contribute to the wider user research community - including presenting at meetups, writing blog posts and leading on aspects of practice development.

Key Outputs and Deliverables

• Research plans
• Research findings; reports, presentations, etc
• Insights and user needs from research
• Input into designs, and iteration of research plans to integrate designs

Essential Criteria

• Professional experience as a user researcher, working with other User Centred Design disciplines (Lead Criteria).
• Experience advocating for user research and engaging sceptical colleagues and stakeholders.
• The ability to include all kinds of users in appropriate research activities to help teams understand the diversity of users of government services.
• Ability to select appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods, aligning with the research needs of the team and project.