Senior UX Researcher

Join us as a Senior UX Researcher

• In this dynamic role, you’ll have the chance to make a real impact by contributing to the user research and experience design strategy, and by helping shape experiences from early discovery through to design and delivery 
• You’ll lead user research for mid-size and increasingly complex projects, ensuring designs are user-centred, inclusive, and aligned with experience design, business area, and enterprise strategies
• You’ll bring research and design skills together, using insights to explore, develop and iterate potential solutions alongside other design discipline
• This is an opportunity for you, as an evolving leader, to lead teams toward achieving project goals while continuing to develop your leadership skills and capabilities
• You'll spend some of your time working at home but will also spend at least two days a week in the Edinburgh office

What you'll do

As a Senior UX Researcher, you’ll lead and deliver mixed-method user research for mid-size and increasingly complex projects and programmes, while contributing to the wider research strategy. You’ll make research decisions, resolve barriers and ensure insight supports informed, user-centred design decisions that balance user and business needs.

You’ll work across the end-to-end design process, from understanding problems through to exploring, prototyping and iterating solutions. You’ll use your own design skills where appropriate to turn insight into ideas and concepts, working with design specialists to develop them further.

You’ll collaborate across disciplines and with key stakeholders to ensure research translates into meaningful improvements to customer experiences. You’ll also help evolve research standards and build capability through coaching, mentoring and sharing best practice.

In addition, you’ll be:

• Leading collaboration across disciplines on complex projects and programmes, with clear responsibilities and deliverables

• Communicating the value and impact of research clearly and compellingly to different audiences

• Managing stakeholder expectations, influencing decisions and resolving risks or alignment issues within your authority

• Shaping research standards that improve quality, consistency, accessibility, inclusion and scalability

• Coaching and mentoring colleagues, sharing best practice and contributing to the research community

The skills you'll need

We’re looking for someone with a strong understanding of user-centred design and comprehensive knowledge of user research methods and practices. You must also have a solid grasp of how to embed accessibility and inclusion into both research and design. Experience delivering user research for mid-size and increasingly complex projects and programmes as part of digital product and service development is essential too.

To succeed in this role, you’ll need experience working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating effectively with cross functional partners, along with proven leadership skills. Strong stakeholder management is also key, with a focus on clear communication, expectation management, and the ability to present the rationale behind your work while advocating for the value and impact of design.

In addition, you’ll need:

• Experience defining and leading user research projects and programmes at pace, using agile delivery methods
• Strong skills in design thinking, research, data analysis, facilitation and story telling
• Practical design skills and experience contributing to the end-to-end design process, from exploring and developing ideas through to prototyping, testing and iteration 
• Experience supporting user research capability development including coaching and mentoring, as well as sharing constructive feedback and knowledge with colleagues

Hours

Job Posting Closing Date: