Location
Richmond, with a combination of home and office working. Successful candidates must be able to travel regularly to our Kew site and work on-site for at least 60% of their time. Occasional travel for user research activities and very occasional out-of-hours working may be required.

Hours
Full Time. Requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share arrangements will be considered subject to business needs.

Salary
£42,000 per annum, plus a contribution of £12,167 towards membership of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

About the Role
We are seeking 2 User Researchers to help create outstanding user-centred digital services within Digital Archiving / Digital Services at The National Archives, the official archive of the UK Government and for England and Wales. Our collections span millions of public records, including government, courts and parliament, with some records over a thousand years old. We are committed to making these collections accessible through high-quality digital services for future generations.

As a User Researcher, you will help teams understand user needs and behaviours through evidence-based research. Using a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, you will generate insights that inform service design, support decision-making and ensure our products and services meet the needs of diverse users. You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams to identify opportunities, shape solutions and advocate for users throughout the product lifecycle.

This is a unique opportunity to undertake user research in an environment focused on complex information services rather than purely transactional services. You will collaborate with experts from across our collections and research communities while contributing to the future access of public records through our digital services.

Experience
- Experience conducting user research for digital products and services
- Demonstrable experience using qualitative and quantitative research methods to maximise insight, with a strong desire to stay up to date with emerging methodologies and standards
- Ability to collaborate within multidisciplinary teams, stakeholder groups and user experience communities
- Experience following ethical research practices, collecting and managing personal data safely in compliance with GDPR
- Familiarity with accessibility guidelines and digital inclusion principles and their application to user research
- Strong attention to detail with critical thinking and analytical skills
- Effective communication skills with an instinct to work openly by sharing research workflows and breaking findings into actionable insights
- Organisational skills with experience planning and iterating research work and managing documentation over the lifespan of a service

About you
This role suits someone who is curious, analytical and motivated by solving complex problems through research and evidence. You will enjoy working collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams, communicating insights to a range of audiences and helping teams make better decisions based on user needs. You will be comfortable balancing short-term delivery priorities with the development of longer-term organisational understanding of users and their behaviours.

Qualifications
Desirable qualifications include Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, Social Science, Digital Marketing, Product Design or similar disciplines.

Additional desirable experience includes:
- Knowledge of the Government Digital Service Standard and experience applying user research at different stages of digital service development (Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live)
- Awareness of technologies used to build and operate digital services
- Experience researching systems that use AI or Large Language Models

Desirable criteria will only be used if necessary to differentiate between equally qualified top candidates during final scoring.