Head of User Research

Job summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) helps businesses invest, innovate, export and grow across the UK. Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) helps deliver this by designing, building and running the services, platforms and technology that businesses and colleagues rely on every day.

Our teams work on a wide range of services and technologies, including:

• digital services that help businesses access government support, guidance and opportunities
• data and AI products that support decision making and enable innovation
• internal tools and services that help colleagues work more effectively
• secure technology and platforms that support critical government services
• cyber security services that protect systems, data and users

By joining DDaT, you'll work on services used by businesses, colleagues and citizens across the UK. You'll be part of multidisciplinary teams focused on improving services, solving complex problems and delivering better outcomes for users.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace. In recognition of this, we were named Best Public Sector Employer at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2025 !

Job description

As Head of User Research, you will provide senior leadership for the user research profession in BIST while contributing directly to high-priority user-centred work. This role is expected to be split broadly 50:50 between Head of Profession responsibilities and individual contributor work. The Head of Profession element includes line management, coaching, capability development, professional standards, quality assurance, community leadership, workforce planning and senior advocacy for user research. The individual contributor element could include enabling delivery teams without dedicated user research capacity to undertake appropriate lower-risk research activity, particularly usability testing, under clear guardrails. This would involve providing expert coaching, templates, assurance and advice so teams can generate useful evidence safely and proportionately, while ensuring more complex user research activity continues to be led by user researchers.

Main responsibilities

You will be:

• Provide senior professional leadership for user research across BIST, setting expectations for high-quality, ethical, inclusive and proportionate research practice.  
• Line manage, coach and support Lead User Researchers and other members of the profession, helping them develop capability, confidence and judgement.  
• Lead and sustain the user research community of practice, creating the conditions for researchers to share learning, support each other, improve standards and contribute to shared profession priorities.  
• Assure the quality of user research across portfolios, including research planning, methodology, ethics, safeguarding, data handling, participant recruitment and the use of evidence in decision-making.  
• Act as a senior escalation point where teams need expert user research judgement, particularly where delivery pressure creates risks to research quality, participant welfare, inclusion or the truthful representation of user needs.  
• Work with senior portfolio leadership, service owners, delivery, product, policy and other UCD professions to ensure research is focused on the most important organisational priorities and is used to inform strategy, service direction and delivery decisions.
• Enable delivery teams without dedicated user research capacity to undertake appropriate lower-risk research activity, particularly usability testing, under clear professional guardrails.
• Provide expert coaching, templates, advice and assurance to help teams plan, run and interpret proportionate usability testing safely and effectively, while being clear about where light-touch activity undertaken by non-researchers is appropriate and where specialist user research support is required.
• Support workforce planning for the user research profession, advising on role design, recruitment, deployment, contractor use, capability gaps and sustainable line management arrangements.
• Represent user research in senior DDaT and cross-government conversations, advocating for user-centred, evidence-led decision-making and the value of understanding users in the delivery of public services.

As an individual contributor, you may also lead or support complex or cross-cutting research activity where senior expertise is needed. This could include shaping research for ambiguous or high-risk areas, synthesising insight across portfolios, advising on strategic service questions, supporting service assessments, or helping teams use evidence to make proportionate decisions at pace. 

Person specification

Skills and experience

It is essential that you have:

• Significant experience operating at senior level in user research , with strong professional judgement and the ability to lead user research across multiple teams, services, or portfolios (LEAD)
• Experience setting, assuring and improving user research standards, including research ethics, safeguarding, participant recruitment, data handling, inclusive research and proportionate methodology
• Strong people and profession leadership skills, including coaching, developing capability, supporting performance, and building an inclusive community of practice where researchers can share learning, support each other and contribute to profession-wide priorities
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders, mediate between user needs and delivery constraints, and communicate research insight and professional advice clearly to non-specialist audiences
• Experience leading research in complex, ambiguous or fast-paced environments, making pragmatic choices about research scope, confidence levels and methods while maintaining appropriate standards

It is desirable that you have:

• Experience coaching non-researchers or multidisciplinary teams to undertake appropriate lower-risk research activity, particularly usability testing, with the judgement to set clear guardrails and identify when specialist user research support is required

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Agile research practice
• Inclusive research
• Research management, leadership and assurance
• Stakeholder relationship management
• User-centred practice and advocacy

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £74,639, Department for Business and Trade contributes

£21,622 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

How to apply

As part of the application process you will be asked to upload a two-page CV and complete a 1000-word personal statement outlining how you meet the essential skills and experience listed above. You can use bullet points and subheadings if you prefer.

Sift will be from week commencing 7/09/2026

Interviews will be from week commencing 21/09/2026

Please note these dates are indicative and may be subject to change.

If there is a high volume of applications, we will sift looking at your Lead Criterion - Significant experience operating at senior level in user research , with strong professional judgement and the ability to lead user research across multiple teams, services or portfolios (LEAD) only. You may then be progressed to full sift or straight to interview.

At the interview stage for this role, you will be asked to demonstrate relevant Technical Skills and Behaviours from the Success Profiles framework. These are role specific and in line with the DDaT Capability Framework .

You will also be asked to deliver a presentation and will be informed on the topic following the sift.

Technical Skills

• Agile research practice
• Inclusive research
• Research management, leadership and assurance
• Stakeholder relationship management
• User-centred practice and advocacy

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership 
• Making Effective Decisions

How we offer

Offers will be made in merit order based on location preferences. If you pass the bar at interview but are not the highest scoring you will be held on a 12-month reserve list in case a role becomes available. If you are judged a near miss at interview, you may be offered a post at the grade below the one you applied for.

This role requires SC clearance . BIST's requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years. Failure to meet this requirement will result in your application being rejected and your offer will be withdrawn.

Checks will also be made against:

• departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• security services record
• location details

More about us

This role can only be worked from within the UK, not overseas. If you are based in London, you will receive London weighting. BIST employees are contracted to work in a hybrid pattern, spending 2-3 days a week (pro rata) in the office. Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by BIST, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

You can find out more about our office locations, how we calculate salaries, our diversity statement and reasonable adjustments, the Recruitment Principles, the Civil Service code and our complaints procedure in the candidate pack attached to this advert.

Find out more about life at BIST, our benefits and meet the team by watching our video or reading our blog!

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerl