Job Description
Company Description
Snook is a design agency with real, human experiences at its heart. We’re passionate and talented people who share our expertise in: service design, interaction design, content design, user research, development, strategy and more.
We’ve designed user-centred services for government agencies including: Home Office Department for Education (DfE), NHS Digital and NHSX.
We’ve also designed digital products and solutions for organisations including Lloyds, Cancer Research UK and Comic Relief.
Location: UK Based - we have studios in London and Glasgow which you may be asked to work in on a hybrid basis if you live in a commutable distance
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £59,800 - £69,000 with a London-weighting of £65,000 - £75,000
Job Description
What we’re looking for
Principals at Snook are experts in their fields with a significant amount of experience. There are three key strands of work that the User Research Principal will be involved in. We do not expect candidates to have expertise in each of these fields.
Leadership
Our Principals play a key role in shaping the development of the Snook team. The postholder will manage several senior researchers, supporting them to develop and to mentoring them.
The postholder will also work with the Head of Research and the other Principals to ensure the smooth running and quality assurance of work of the research team.
The role will include recruiting new members of the team when required.
Practice
The postholder will be an expert in the field of user research, having run multiple, complex research projects within the context of product and service design and development.
The role will involve not only setting direction and assuring the quality of research practice across Snook, but also helping ensure that Snook’s research work is best in class.
Principals at Snook are able to set direction, lead multiple complex projects and ensure effective collaboration when working with other disciplines (research ops, interaction designers, service designers, developers, etc).
Commercial
The postholder will be actively involved in our new business activities, working with the wider team to scope our new opportunities, create proposals and attend and run client pitches.
Our Principals play a vital role in not only ensuring that our projects are delivering high quality outcomes, but also in building great relationships with our clients. A significant number of our projects come from repeat business with clients, so the post holder will be expected to be able to build rapport and strong relationships with clients, funders and other key stakeholders.
Qualifications
We’d like to hear from you if you have any of these skills or experiences:
Delivering successful, impactful research projects and knowing how to develop a roadmap for discovery, alpha, and beta projects.
Leading complex projects with clients and partners and managing teams. Undertaking difficult digital transformation projects and understanding how to deliver services at scale.
Leading and training internal teams, clients and partners to understand and apply inclusive and accessible practices.
Leading in application of robust methods for analysis and synthesis and can train internal teams and clients and partners in these.
Supporting internal team members who are involved in research in sensitive subject areas to make sure their wellbeing is considered as well as that of participants.
Contributing to the development of the company Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and leading on the development of the Research team OKRs
Training the internal team in ethical research and compliance with GDPR
Additional Information
How we work
We’re the ‘user-centered design partner’ for the Home Office, Department for Education, the NHS and others. We also work with local government, charity and private sector organisations.
Often, we’re embedded in our clients’ teams for projects. We want you to get a variety of experiences, from applying GDS (government digital service) standards to innovating the entire user journeys of smaller organisations, so you’ll move on to different sectors after 3 - 12 months.
All offers are subject to satisfactory security vetting and reference checks. As standard, all roles undertake a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check. As a provider of services to the UK Government, where necessary we adhere to HMG’s personnel security and vetting policy requiring that minimum personnel security controls are checked as specified in the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). Some roles may require national security vetting clearance at the Security Check (SC) level and Non-Police Personnel Vetting (NPPV) Level 3. Where applicable local (non-UK) security checks and vetting schemes will be used to provide sufficient personnel security controls.
What we offer
Generous holidays giving you 29.5 days holiday (including bank holidays), 4 of which are fixed to be taken at Christmas. Plus there are up to an additional 5 discretionary days for Christmas Closure
A supportive maternity package
Flexible working hours through discussion to support family friendly working and other commitments you may have
A bike to work scheme
A vibrant and supportive online and studio culture
Access to Snook social clubs, and opportunity to run your own
Membership to Headspace, the meditation app
Annual team away-day and quarterly show and tells where we come together as a company, taking time out to learn, reflect, and eat snacks
Weekly learning sessions plus an annual training budget
Snook group pension plan
We support you with a Snook buddy when you join to get you started
How to apply
Go to our listing and select ‘I’m interested’
Upload your CV
Add your cover letter - tell us why you think you’d a good fit for the role and why you want to work for Snook
Include a portfolio, featuring projects you’ve worked on. Don’t have one?
We’re recruiting continuously so please do apply as soon as possible. This vacancy will close as soon as the position is filled.
Any questions?
If you have any questions please get in touch with us at
Remote interviews
Due to Covid-19, all interviews will be done remotely. We can offer interview times that suit you including outside of work hours. If you have children, caring during or any other circumstances we’re happy to find an interview time that works for you.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
We strive for diversity in our team. If we’re going to design services for the public we need to ensure our team is inclusive. Snook encourages applications from all backgrounds, abilities or impairments, communities and industries. We’re committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities. Therefore we strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply for this role