UX Researcher

About Places for People and the Team

Places for People prioritizes hiring dedicated individuals who embrace our core values over mere qualifications. We encourage applicants who are motivated, community-oriented, respectful, and passionate about their roles to apply. As the UK's leading social enterprise, we strive to build inclusive, thriving communities for both our customers and employees.

Our UX team is an integral part of IT, responsible for shaping the usability and design of our digital products. They align user needs with business objectives to develop intuitive, functional, and accessible solutions.

Role Overview

Reporting directly to the UX Manager, this permanent full-time position involves working closely with various stakeholders to steer design and development decisions backed by strong research and evidence. The role entails crafting and maintaining personas, journey maps, and service blueprints to enhance user understanding. You will employ both qualitative and quantitative research techniques to generate insights that inform product improvements and measure impact.

Clear communication of research findings to influence design direction effectively is crucial, ensuring the digital user experiences we provide are accessible, intuitive, and significantly beneficial to users.

Candidate Profile

We seek an experienced UX Researcher or a professional from a related field with a proven history in planning and executing impactful user research. The ideal candidate will combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze user needs, minimizing risks and facilitating informed decisions that balance user and business goals.

An inclusive mindset with a focus on accessibility and diversity, and strong collaboration skills with teams across product, design, and engineering, is essential. Experience with agile development environments and continuous discovery practices is expected.

Key Responsibilities and Skills

• Plan and conduct user research using multiple qualitative and quantitative methodologies
• Translate complex data into actionable insights and recommendations
• Create and update user personas, journey maps, and service blueprints
• Collaborate closely with design, product, and engineering teams in an Agile setting
• Ensure inclusivity by integrating accessibility considerations and diverse user perspectives into research
• Utilize collaboration and research tools such as Miro

Desirable Experience

• Experience managing research operations including ethical considerations, consent processes, GDPR compliance, and participant recruitment
• Skills in prototype testing and iterative design validation
• Working on complex digital projects with multiple stakeholders involved

Benefits and Culture

• Competitive salary with annual reviews
• Employer pension contributions matched up to 7%
• Generous holiday allowance with options to buy or sell leave (up to 35 days)
• Healthcare cashback plan up to £500 annually
• Bonus scheme at 2% for all employees
• Opportunities for learning and professional development
• Access to various employee discounts and perks including shops and entertainment

Diversity, Inclusion and Safeguarding

We are committed to creating an inclusive, accessible recruitment process, offering guaranteed interviews to disabled, neurodiverse candidates, and Armed Forces veterans who meet essential criteria. Reasonable accommodations can be provided during application or interview.

Safeguarding is a paramount responsibility; all employees must uphold standards to protect vulnerable individuals in our communities. Pre-employment checks, including mandatory DBS clearance, are required to maintain a safe work environment.

Additional Information

Flexible working arrangements such as reduced hours, flexible start/finish times, or compressed workweeks are open for discussion. We advise applying promptly as the vacancy may close earlier depending on the volume of quality applications.