User Researcher

Job Description

This is an exciting opportunity to become part of SPARCK. Were a small, but rapidly growing team, who lead transformation projects with top tier clients, formulate research and innovation ventures and collaborate with the brightest minds in Digital.Theres no typical SPARCK project but to give you a flavour, in the last 6 months weve been conducting international customer research, developed AI driven assistants and embarked on designing a new service to transform the UK medical industry.

1. With room to shape SPARCK and our clients businesses, youll get opportunities to hone your UX prowess and achieve ambitious career goals.
2. With a fresh new team, there is no "this is the way its always done". In fact, we expect you to contribute to the direction we take, and maybe lead the practice in the future.
3. At SPARCK we take pride in acting on ideas. We dont shelve good thoughts for a rainy day - we get to work on it. We collaborate with our technology partners and parent company BJSS, who we conveniently share the office with.

About You

• Youll be confident shaping rigorous research projects- drawing from eclectic styles and methodologies to inform the best possible outcomes.
• Youll have a background in psychology, anthropology, or even design, and you cant get enough of how the mind works- keenly sharing the latest research, or a recent eye-opening encounter.
• You have respect for tried and tested ideas, but are keen by push boundaries and break new ground.
• Youre pragmatic and hands on when it comes to turning ideas into reality- using an evolving set of tools and techniques to collaborate across disciplines.
• You believe in the long-term application of Human Centred Design and Digital technology, holding informed opinions on emerging trends like Circular Design or the implications of AI.
• Bonus points for experience of Agile methodologies, co-working with clients and contributing to the UX community.
• GDS experience is highly preferable, but not essential

About the Role

• Lead client engagements, design, plan and lead user research, and usability testing activities
• Uncover, synthesise and communicate behavioural insights from discovery and incorporate into UX deliverables
• Produce high-quality User Experience outputs such as user journeys, wireframes, test plans, research briefs, insight reports and personas/ archetypes
• Pragmatic design recommendations, balancing user needs, business requirements and technical constraints
• Engage in usability testing to continuously iterate ideas and designs
• Work collaboratively with agile working teams alongside business analysts, system architects, developers and testers
• Keep up and disseminate UX design best practices & trends and incorporate into deliverables
• Design and lead workshops with our clients and present deliverables to senior stakeholders
• Help define the UX process working alongside other disciplines

Some of the Perks

• Flexible benefits allowance - you choose how to spend your allowance (additional pension contributions, healthcare, dental and more)
• Industry leading health and wellbeing plan - we partner with several wellbeing support functions to cater to each individuals need, including 24/7 GP services, mental health support, and other
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary)
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Hybrid working - Our roles are not fully remote as we take pride in the tight knit communities we have created at our local offices. But we offer plenty of flexibility and you can split your time between the office, client site and WFH
• Discounts - we have preferred rates from dozens of retail, lifestyle, and utility brands
• An industry-leading referral scheme with no limits on the number of referrals
• Flexible holiday buy/sell option
• Electric vehicle scheme
• Training opportunities and incentives - we support professional certifications across engineering and non-engineering roles, including unlimited access to OReilly
• Giving back - the ability to get involved nationally and regionally with partnerships to get people from diverse backgrounds into tech
• You will become part of a squad with people from different areas within the business who will help you grow at BJSS
• We have a busy social calendar that you can chose to join- quarterly town halls/squad nights out/weekends away with families included/office get togethers
• GymFlex gym membership programme