Posted 10 days ago
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**Senior User Researcher (12 month FTC/Secondment) - Bank of England, Leeds** - Lead user research across full lifecycle, from planning to actionable insights - Collaborate cross-functionally, influencing decisions with evidence-based findings - Strengthen user research practice, mentor junior team members - Excel in complexity, comfort with ambiguity, experienced in regulated industries - Proven expertise: 6+ years, degree or extensive experience in user research - Excellent communication, workshop facilitation, problem-solving skills - mínimo 40% office attendance, rising to 50% later this year
- Compensation
- Not specified
- City
- Leeds
- Country
- United Kingdom
Currency: Not specified
Full Job Description
Location: Leeds, United Kingdom
Leeds only based role for external hires. Please ensure you are happy to be based in Leeds, office attendance is minimum of 40% (rising to 50% later this year).
About the Bank of England
We are the UK's central bank - and we are a bank like no other; known by our peers for our world-leading thinking on policy and strategy.
Our mission is to promote the good of the people of the UK by maintaining monetary and financial stability. We seek to keep prices stable and people's money safe. We know our work matters to people, to families, up and down the UK. We are driven by curiosity and the desire to do important, challenging work.
It takes a great team to run the Bank of England. We rely on each other to play our part. We benefit from a collaborative culture and long-established flexible ways of working, supporting our colleagues balance their work and personal lives. We strive to be a place where people feel they belong and have equal access to opportunities, because different perspectives help us make the best decisions for the public.
Role Overview | Senior User Researcher
This role will join the Banks User Centred Service Design team, working across a range of programmes and projects to ensure decisions are grounded in a clear understanding of users. The team applies user-centred design to complex challenges, using research to shape strategy, inform design, and support effective delivery.
Our team includes User Researchers, Service Designers, Product Designers, and Content Designers. We work closely with a wide range of specialists and stakeholders, including economists, data specialists, change managers, business analysts and external partners.
The Senior User Researcher will lead research across the full lifecycle, from shaping research objectives and the approach, through to delivering clear, evidence-based insights that influence decision. They will plan, conduct, and analyse research to develop a strong understanding of users, their contexts, needs, behaviours, and pain points. It will test and evaluate concepts, prototypes and solutions to determine how well they meet user needs. They will use this understanding to inform priorities, evaluate concepts and prototypes, and helps teams make better decisions about services, products, and experiences.
The role will also play an important part in strengthening the user research practice at the Bank. This includes improving ways of working, contributing to team capability, and helping to build the visibility, credibility, and impact of user research and user centred design across the organisation.
While the Bank is a public organisation, we are independent of the UK government and do not follow DDAT or GDS frameworks. We seek practitioners who can adapt their approach to navigate our complex environment, demonstrate flexibility and pragmatism when needed, and bring a proactive, solution-focused mindset to their work.
Role Requirements
About you:
- Curious, inquisitive, open-minded, and open to diverse perspectives
- Creative problem solver
- A team player
- User-centred
- Passionate about your practice
- Iterative in your approach to shaping and refining solutions
- Natural inclination to shift between macro and micro lenses
- Natural drive for self-development
Minimum Criteria:
- A degree related to user research (e.g. psychology, sociology, human factors) or extensive experience
- Minimum 6 years industry experience as a user researcher or similar role
- Ability to align stakeholders and guide cross-functional teams by earning trust and demonstrating credibility
- Experience in sharing insights that are actionable for your stakeholders and drive business decisions
- Hands on experience leading and conducting generative, formative, and summative user research. Experience using a range of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research methods and approaches, and knowing when to use which
- Strong capability across the whole user research lifecycle from defining participant specifications and research objectives, recruiting participants, formulating the user research study approach, conducting user research, through to sharing insights
Essential Criteria:
- A desire for and interest in mentoring and coaching junior user researchers and other user centred design professionals
- Excellent communication skills able to turn complex research into compelling stories for non-technical audiences
- Workshop design and facilitation skills
- Comfortable working in highly complex environments with esoteric subject matter
- Comfortable with ambiguity
Desirable:
- Experience working in a highly regulated industry
- Experience working with complex data services
- Turning user research findings into user stories
- Advocating for user centred design across a range of stakeholders, including senior leadership.
- Currently a non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/80th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/65th) or decrease (to 1/105th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year. The Bank has the discretion to vary standard accrual rates and dial up and dial down rates at any time and to withdraw dial up and dial down options at any time.
- A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
- An 8% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits.
- 26 days annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
- Private medical insurance and income protection.
The Bank of England welcomes applications from all candidates, but as a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approved sponsor, we have a responsibility to comply with the Immigration Rules and guidance. As such, our ability to employ individuals who require sponsorship for immigration purposes is limited. The Bank cannot guarantee that you and / or the role you are applying for will be eligible for sponsorship and that any application made to UKVI will be successful. Eligibility will therefore be considered on a case by case basis.
