User Experience Researcher

UX Researcher Full Time | 12 Month Fixed Term Contract | £35,010.00 - £40,845.00 (dependent on experience) Hybrid | Southampton Who we areWe are Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping service and a pioneer in geospatial technology. With over 230 years of trusted data, we empower better decisions, deeper understanding, and meaningful connections to the places we live, move through, and care for.

About the role

We are looking for a UX Researcher to support a new discovery phase for a government and commercial-focused digital application. This is an opportunity to play a key role in shaping the direction of a complex, high-impact service by ensuring that user needs are clearly understood and evidenced from the outset.

You will work directly within a multidisciplinary product team, alongside a UX Designer, Product Owner, engineers and stakeholders, helping to define and validate the direction of the service through high-quality research and insight. The role is research-focused, with design collaboration forming an important part of how your work informs and shapes the product.

About You This is an excellent opportunity for someone who is self-motivated and inquisitive, who is comfortable working in discovery, bringing structure to ambiguity and translating complex problem spaces into clear user understanding.

What we're looking forWe're seeking a UX Researcher with proven experience planning and delivering user research within digital product or service environments. You will lead on research activity to better understand user needs, behaviours and pain points across a range of user groups, helping the team make informed, evidence-based decisions.

As a UX Researcher, you will be responsible for generating clear, actionable insights that inform service and product direction. Your work will focus on answering the "desirability" question-ensuring that what is being proposed meets genuine user needs-while working closely with the wider team who will collaboratively assess feasibility and viability.

The role will require you to translate high-level questions into structured, practical research plans, balancing methodological rigour with real-world constraints such as time, access and policy. You will conduct research across diverse user groups and contexts, ensuring that findings are inclusive, ethical and grounded in real user needs.

You will work closely with a UX Designer to test concepts, validate ideas and iterate designs, ensuring that research insight is embedded throughout the discovery and early delivery phases. The role balances strong analytical and research skills with hands-on project involvement, stakeholder collaboration, and clear communication of insight.

Main Responsibilities of a UX Researcher Your responsibilities will include:

Planning and conducting user research during the discovery phase

Translating high-level questions into clear, structured research plans

Conducting qualitative research including user interviews and usability testing on concepts and prototypes

Working closely with the UX Designer to test ideas, validate assumptions and iterate designs

Recruiting participants and ensuring research is conducted ethically, inclusively and accessibly

Analysing research data to identify user needs, behaviours and pain points

Synthesising findings into clear, evidence-based insights and recommendations

Producing research outputs such as insight summaries, personas, journey maps and problem statements

Presenting findings through read-outs, presentations and written documentation to a range of stakeholders

Collaborating effectively within a multidisciplinary agile team Feeding research insights into sprint planning and design iterations

Supporting service assessments by providing evidence of user-centred decision making

Maintaining research documentation and contributing to shared insight repositories

Advocating for user needs and ensuring they are represented in product and service decisions

Communicating the value and limitations of research to non-research specialists

Essential Skills Proven experience conducting and delivering user research in a digital product or service environment

Strong qualitative research skills, particularly in user interviews and usability testing

Ability to analyse research findings and translate them into clear, actionable insights

Experience working collaboratively within multidisciplinary agile teams

Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex findings clearly to a range of audiences

Ability to advocate for user needs using evidence-based approaches

Understanding of how research informs design and service decisions

Awareness of working in complex, regulated or public sector environments

Familiarity with inclusive and accessible research practices

Understanding of data protection, consent and ethical research standards

Awareness of  Service Standard and GDS research principles is desirable

A proactive, curious mindset with strong attention to detail

Ability to…