User Researcher – MUST HAVE SC CLEARANCE – Worthing or Telford and remote – 4 months+ Full Time NEW

Worthing, Sussex
Octopus Computer Associates

User Researcher – MUST HAVE SC CLEARANCE – Worthing or Telford and remote – 4 months+/RATE: £350-£415 per day inside IR35

One of our Blue Chip Clients is urgently looking for a User Researcher.

Please find some details below:

Clearance Required: SC

Location: Worthing or Telford with 2 days/week in office

Description and Location

Role Purpose

The User Researcher will lead user research activities for the Agents workstream within the CESA Futures programme. Initially focused on a four-month Discovery phase, the role will be responsible for understanding how agents currently interact with Self Assessment and CESA services, identifying user needs, behaviours and pain points, and ensuring these insights directly influence product, service and technical decisions.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, the User Researcher will collaborate closely with Product Managers, Service Designers, Business Analysts, Architects and stakeholders to build a robust evidence base for future services. The role is expected to continue into Alpha and subsequent delivery phases, providing continuity of user insight throughout the life cycle of the programme.

Key Responsibilities

The User Researcher will plan, design and deliver research activities to understand the needs of a diverse range of agents, including complex and large-scale organisations whose current operating models may be heavily dependent on Legacy CESA functionality.

They will be responsible for developing research strategies, selecting appropriate research methods, recruiting participants, facilitating interviews and workshops, and analysing qualitative and quantitative data to generate actionable insights. The role will ensure that user needs are consistently represented in decision-making and that discovery findings are translated into clear recommendations for product, service and technical teams.

The successful candidate will work closely with Service Designers and Product Managers to map user journeys, identify pain points, validate assumptions and test emerging concepts. They will help the team understand how current services are used, what challenges users face today, and what capabilities will be required in the future state.

The User Researcher will also be responsible for communicating findings through clear and compelling outputs, including research reports, insight packs, personas, user needs, journey maps and presentations. They will act as a strong advocate for users across the programme and help stakeholders make evidence-based decisions.

Experience Required

We are seeking an experienced User Researcher with a strong background in complex digital services and large-scale transformation programmes. The successful candidate will have experience planning and conducting end-to-end research activities within multidisciplinary Agile teams and using a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Experience in the following areas is highly desirable:

• User interviews and contextual research
• Usability testing and concept validation
• Requirements and needs discovery
• User journey mapping and persona development
• Research planning and strategy development
• Workshop facilitation
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis
• Accessibility and inclusive design considerations
• Government Digital Service (GDS) environments and standards
• Knowledge of CESA, Self Assessment, agent services, systems or complex Legacy modernisation programmes would be particularly advantageous.

Key Skills

• Strong understanding of user-centred design and research methodologies.
• Ability to gather, analyse and synthesise complex research data into actionable insights.
• Excellent interviewing, facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong communication and storytelling capabilities.
• Ability to influence product, service and technical decisions using evidence.
• Experience working within Agile, multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Comfortable operating in complex and ambiguous environments.
• Passion for championing user needs and driving evidence-based decision making.

Location

The role can be based in either Worthing or Telford, working closely with multidisciplinary teams across the programme.

Business Value

This role is critical to ensuring that decisions made throughout the CESA Futures discovery are grounded in genuine user needs and operational realities. The User Researcher will provide the evidence and insight required to shape future agent services, reduce delivery risk, validate assumptions and ensure that future solutions are both effective and usable for the wide range of agents impacted by the retirement of CESA.

Initially for a 4 month Discovery. Likely to be extended into Alpha and build phase.

Candidate will ideally have knowledge of CESA.

Please send CV for full details and immediate interviews. We are a preferred supplier to the client.