Senior User Researcher Job at The National Archives – In this role, you’ll lead a programme of research across a variety of digital services, helping us understand how users interact with a range of official records and services over time. You’ll work closely with multidisciplinary teams to shape services that meet real user needs from requesting copies of historic records, searching the online catalogue or discovering the stories within The National Archives.
You’ll have the opportunity to:
Lead an inclusive research program that delivers actionable insights across multiple services and delivery phases (Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live)
Advocate for a range of user needs, influencing strategic and product decision making to balance stakeholder and user needs
Grow a collaborative user research culture and mentor others in best practice, accessibility and service standards
Maximise the impact of user research to support emerging user groups to use The National Archives services
Role 2: Fixed-Term – Senior User Researcher, Find Case Law (Maternity Cover)
This role sits within the Access Digital Records team in our Digital Archiving Department, focusing on the Find Case Law service. You’ll lead research that supports open justice and public access to court records, including improving usability, accessibility, and the API experience.
You’ll be responsible for:
Shaping and delivering research with a range of users of the Find Case Law service including : members of the public, self-represented litigants, legal professionals, journalists, academics, government departments, data re-users and law librarians
Leading user research across the different delivery phases (Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live)
Translating complex findings into actionable insights and supporting transparency and access to digital legal information
Playing an active role in The National Archives’ and cross government User research communities.
This is a full-time maternity cover for 6 months, with the possibility of extension up to 12 months. Flexible working arrangements, including part-time and job share, will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department.
Person specification
Essential criteria:
- Multiple years of leading user research for many types of digital products and services and different development stages (Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live) to meet Government Digital standards and service assessments.
- Deep understanding of applying qualitative and quantitative research methods to maximise insight in complex problem spaces. A strong desire to support other user researchers to diversify and stay up to date with the latest methodologies.
- Established ways of working that supports collaboration within a multidisciplinary team, stakeholder groups and User experience community across public sector
- Experience supporting other user researchers to follow ethical and inclusive research practices, collecting and managing personal data safely in compliance with GDPR
- Experience designing user research activities for users with diverse access needs and supporting services to meet accessibility guidelines and digital inclusion principles
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, with an instinct to work in the open, identify significant opportunities to deliver value to users and shape strategic decision making
- Organisational skills with experience of strategic planning and scaling research work and managing documentation over the lifespan of a service
Application Process:
• Interview: Interviews will be held on-site and part of the interview process will contain a scenario based element relevant to the responsibilities of the role.
• Personal Statement: We ask all applicants to submit work history details and a personal statement, not exceeding 1200 words, addressing the essential criteria listed above.
Selection for interview will be based on how you meet these criteria, so please ensure that your statement demonstrates in detail how you meet these requirements, using subheadings for each criteria where possible.
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 visit the Civil Service Careers website where you can find further information on the use of AI in the application guidance section.
Sponsorship: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
Closing Date: Sunday 2nd November 2025