Lead User Researcher

About NTT DATA and Tangity:

NTT DATA is a trusted global innovator with over 100,000 professionals in 50+ countries. Headquartered in Tokyo, we bring elements of our Japanese heritage—precision, long-term thinking, and social responsibility—into our UK work. In the UK, we work across telecoms, financial services, manufacturing, and the public sector, delivering end-to-end services from strategy to implementation.

Tangity, part of the NTT DATA Design Network, is a global design studio dedicated to humanising complexity. We combine Strategy, Technology, and Design to create meaningful, inclusive, and impactful services that improve lives and systems. Our studios work closely with delivery teams to embed design deeply into every project and across every touchpoint.

What you'll be doing:

As a Lead User Researcher at Tangity, you’ll play a critical role in shaping meaningful, accessible public services that deliver lasting value to users. You’ll lead research initiatives across the full delivery lifecycle—helping agile teams validate assumptions, reduce delivery risk, and prioritise work based on real user needs.

You will work autonomously, collaborating with designers, BAs, developers, and product managers to ensure evidence drives decisions at every stage. You’ll also contribute to service strategy, guide team ways of working, and foster a user-first mindset across the wider project and client organisation.

What You’ll Do:

• Plan, lead, and deliver user research for public services across Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases
• Apply a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods—e.g. depth interviews, usability testing, contextual inquiry, surveys—to surface behavioural insights
• Establish and maintain lightweight feedback loops with target user groups, ensuring continued insight into live service usage and evolving needs
• Synthesise research findings into clear, actionable outputs such as problem statements, user journeys, personas, and pain point maps
• Translate insights into backlog priorities and design recommendations that inform product strategy and roadmap decisions
• Collaborate with Business Analysts and UX/UI Designers to ensure proposed solutions are evidence-based and grounded in actual user behaviour
• Support design iteration and decision-making by testing early service concepts, prototypes, and touchpoints
• Communicate findings to varied audiences—through visual artefacts, research reports, presentations, and stakeholder playbacks
• Facilitate design and research workshops, playback sessions, and show-and-tells to drive cross-functional understanding and alignment
• Embed a user-first culture across agile teams by encouraging regular exposure to user feedback and service impact
• Ensure inclusive and accessible research approaches that align with GDS and WCAG standards
• Mentor junior researchers and help shape Tangity’s research practice, contributing to tools, templates, and team capability building

Responsibilities:

• Lead and execute design solutions for complex, high-impact projects with strategic oversight
• Proactively contribute to client meetings, presentations, and workshops
• Mentor and guide team members, ensuring design standards are maintained
• Foster client relationships by anticipating needs, presenting recommendations, and driving outcomes

Expected Behaviours:

• Demonstrates strong ownership and leadership across design deliverables, ensuring alignment with project goals
• Anticipates client needs and addresses design challenges, delivering proactive solutions
• Exhibits excellent communication, both with clients and within the team, and is a trusted design voice in meetings
• Takes responsibility for fostering a collaborative and productive team environment, including mentoring and upskilling peers

What experience you'll bring:

Must Have:

• 8+ years of hands-on experience in user research, human-centred design, or service design
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in User Research, Psychology, HCI, Anthropology, or a related field
• Extensive experience leading user research across complex digital services in agile environments
• Strong portfolio or case studies showing research that informed successful service or product outcomes
• Proficiency with research tools and methods including usability testing, depth interviews, journey mapping, and persona creation
• Comfortable presenting findings to senior stakeholders and advocating for users in delivery decisions
• Working knowledge of GDS service standards, assessments, and digital service design principles
• Strong understanding of inclusive design and accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.2)
• Eligible for SC clearance (British citizen or equivalent, with 5 years continuous UK residency)

Nice to Have:

• Experience working on UK government or local authority services
• Familiarity with GOV.UK design system, forms, and content patterns
• Understanding of digital analytics tools and the role of behavioural data in triangulating insight
• Exposure to service blueprinting or policy/service integration

Why Join Us:

At Tangity, we believe in designing with purpose and delivering with impact. You’ll join a growing design community embedded within a global consultancy, working on services that matter—with clients who are committed to transformation. We support your personal and professional development through mentoring, training, and a culture that values experimentation and learning.

Join us to humanise complexity—and help shape better systems, services, and experiences for everyone.

Who we are:

At NTT DATA, you have endless opportunities to think big, act bold and take ownership. As a $30+ billion business and technology services, AI and digital infrastructure leader, we co-innovate solutions with clients and partners globally for business and societal impact. Serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100, with experts in over 70 countries, we encourage experimentation and recognize great work. Proudly a Global Top Employer, NTT DATA is part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion annually in R&D. Make this the place where you belong, learn, and build your network. Make this the place where you grow.

what we'll offer you:

We offer a range of tailored benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. Our Learning and Development team ensure that there are continuous growth and development opportunities for our people. We also offer the opportunity to have flexible work options.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We believe in the fair treatment of all our employees and commit to promoting equity and diversity in our employment practices. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively collaborate with individuals who have disabilities and long-term health conditions which have an effect on their ability to do normal daily activities, ensuring that barriers are eliminated when it comes to employment opportunities. In line with our commitment, we guarantee an interview to applicants who declare to us, during the application process, that they have a disability and meet the minimum requirements for the role. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know. Join us in building a truly diverse and empowered team.