User Researcher - Digital Services

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About the Role

This role sits within Digital Services which is aligned with the Digital, Data and Design Profession which provides for communities of practice which support professional development. The initial focus of this role will be to support the Student Services Portfolio whose ambition it is to ensure services and products are highly customer-centric and designed with the user, whether student or colleague, in mind ensuring best possible outcomes.

As a User Researcher - Digital Services (known internally as a User Researcher) you will work in a multi-disciplinary service team and be responsible for helping your team develop a deep understanding of the people who use the end-to-end service. Your findings will allow teams to design, build and develop better, more joined up services more quickly and at lower cost and risk. You’ll be helping to embed user centred research principles and processes to inform the development of new products and the continual improvement of existing products.

This role is especially suited to researchers with experience in practical UX research methods, for example usability testing, prototype testing, tree testing and other evaluative approaches used within digital product and service teams. Experience of applying research findings directly to the design and improvement of services is particularly important.

This role requires a working or practitioner level of proficiency. You’ll need to demonstrate sufficient experience to enable you to work independently and apply UX user research methods across varied contexts and guide others.

We are currently recruiting for the following contracts:

• 1x Permanent, full-time (37 hours per week)
• 1x Fixed-Term Contract (12 months), full-time (37 hours per week)

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate in a multi-disciplinary service team to reduce complexity and improve service outcomes, leading on planning, designing, and preparing a range of user research activities to support team understanding of users, the service and how it should be designed.
• Lead on the design of user-centred UX research activities, selecting the most appropriate research methods and ensuring all activities are inclusive.
• Run a wide range of user research activities including recruitment of participants, preparation of data collection methods, moderation of research sessions.
• Analyse research data and trends to synthesise clear and actionable findings, including working closely with analytics colleagues to create a rich picture of user behaviour.
• Communicate user research findings to help the team and wider organisation develop a deep understanding of users and their needs.
• Work closely or consult with other user researchers, product managers, designers, developers, and operations teams to turn user research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product features, development, and service touchpoints.
• Be an active member and ambassador of the Open University’s User Centred Design Communities of Practice, contributing to our collective knowledge and skills, sharing best practice, and joining up to make the understanding of our users and design of our services more consistent.
• Understand the needs of a range of users, ensure their requirements are considered during user research activities, and design inclusive research sessions open to all users.
• Understand and apply data protection, security, and ethics requirements for handling user information in research.
• Keep up to date in developments in user centred design, user research, trends, technologies and AI, and share with the wider user research team to build a deep understanding and appreciation of best practice in this field.
• Line manage other team members as needed, supporting their professional development, providing pastoral care and supporting them to do their best work within their teams.

About You

• Experience of advocate for user research and effectively engaging non-specialist stakeholders and being able to represent user research at internal and external events.
• Ability to understand the problems a team is trying to solve, and align user research activities to inform decision making and action.
• Experience of independently applying a range of applied UX research methods, analysis techniques, and insight-sharing approaches.
• Ability to confidently moderate user research activities, ensuring participant comfort, focus and timekeeping.
• Ability to analyse and synthesise qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable, presentable insights.
• Have a commitment to inclusive research, and experience of researching with and advocating for a wide range of users.
• Have and maintain strong understanding of research ethics, data protection, and participant safety.
• Experience of working effectively in fast-paced, agile environments whilst managing priorities independently to meet deadlines.
• Ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines and actively engage others in the research process.
• Demonstrate commitment to continuous personal development of the knowledge and skills related to user research for services.
• Ability to work in accordance with the University’s values and relevant policies and apply inclusive and fair practices in the delivery of the role.
• Demonstrates openness to constructive feedback and provides thoughtful, constructive critique to support the development of others’ work.
• Demonstrates an understanding of accessibility principles, and how accessibility aligns with UX design principles

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be approximately twice a month.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

We anticipate that interviews for this role will be taking place online via Microsoft Teams during either the week commencing 16 or 22 November 2026.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following documents:

• CV, including how you meet the skills and experience required.
• Complete the additional role specific application questions within the online application form.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.