Junior User Researcher

Job summary

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

At HMRC, we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who works for us, and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make an exciting career at HMRC accessible to you.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we encourage applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

Job description

As part of the Research Operations (ResOps) team, you will play a key role in ensuring HMRC's user research includes participants with a diverse range of accessibility needs, helping services meet accessibility standards and deliver better outcomes for all users.

Working as part of the team you will help ensure research activities are accessible, ethical and compliant with data protection and GDPR requirements. You will use recruitment data, participant feedback and inclusion metrics to identify opportunities for improvement and help strengthen HMRC's approach to inclusive research.

This is an exciting opportunity to influence how HMRC engages with users, improve representation in research, and build relationships that help ensure services are designed with the needs of all users in mind.

Person specification

You will lead on the recruitment of participants with low digital skills or accessibility needs, both internally and externally, working closely with researchers, charities, disability organisations and advocacy groups to build inclusive and representative participant panels. Acting as a specialist in inclusive recruitment, you will provide advice and guidance to colleagues and help embed best practice across the user research community.

You will be responsible for delivering and supporting a range of user research activities, including participant recruitment. The role also involves developing and improving processes, templates and guidance to support the delivery of high-quality, efficient and consistent research across HMRC as well as supporting the management and development of staff and contributing to team capability and performance.

Essential Criteria

• Experience of recruiting participants, customers or users for research, engagement or service improvement activities.
• Ability to lead, support and develop others, building capability, managing wellbeing and fostering a positive and inclusive team culture.
• Knowledge of inclusive recruitment practices and accessibility considerations when engaging with users.
• Experience of building effective stakeholder relationships and communicating with a range of audiences.
• Experience of managing competing priorities and using data and insight to improve outcomes and solve problems.
• Understanding of data protection, GDPR and the handling of personal information.

Please ensure that you only apply for a location that you are willing and able to work from, as we will only make one offer of employment. Any additional notes included in a ‘Further Location Preferences (optional)’ field within the application form, will not be considered. Please be aware that you cannot change your location preference after submitting your application.

Office closures

For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.

If your location preference is for the following site, it’s important to note that this is not a long-term site for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.

The site is:

• Benton Park View, Newcastle - moving to Pilgrims Quarter, Newcastle

You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.

Leeds Locations

Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC’s Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,682, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £10,916 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development.

To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRChear from our insiders or visitThinking of joining the Civil Service

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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