About Us:
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF AWARD-WINNING CARBON SAVINGS ON HIGHWAYS PROJECTS
The Finance Team in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where we go above and beyond for our residents – in all sorts of pioneering ways. By being smart and courageous with the council’s finances we can achieve more for our residents and wider society, especially when working closely with other council departments.
Our approach to responsible procurement and the way we work collaboratively with our suppliers can bring significant benefits, including huge reductions in environmental impact.
Take the award-winning Kings Street footway scheme. This was the first scheme of its kind in the UK to switch all possible high carbon materials and equipment for zero and low carbon alternatives. This included using electric tools and excavators, low carbon foundations, concrete and paving and zero-emission deliveries to site. The result? a 79% carbon saving compared to traditional techniques.
And why does this success matter? Because Kings Street has formed a blueprint for future projects. Its success has been translated to five further paving schemes, which have achieved savings of up to 94% operational carbon against comparable sites. A subsequent resurfacing project in Third Avenue achieved another UK first in its use of 85% recycled material on the roadway. These schemes demonstrate that partnership working with our suppliers can help us meet the councils net zero carbon targets.
Please view the extraordinary story of the King Street footway scheme here
The Role:
As a Senior User Researcher for our Report it service you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. This service allows residents and businesses to report street-based issues such as fly tipping, potholes, abandoned vehicles, faulty lighting or graffiti, and has been designated as a council priority. When you join us you’ll be involved in running discovery projects with a diverse range of stakeholders, and work closely with design colleagues, developers and business analysts. Over the last year or so the service has been undergoing a considerable transformation, and you’ll have a proactive and relentless focus on research and delivery as you operate at the heart of our ambition to improve life for the people of Westminster.
You’ll be asked to work in a number of ways – from being part of a Product team focused on improving the needs of our users, to joining a Project team using Agile methodology to deliver agreed outcomes, or being a key member of a Service team delivering against a set of requirements – you’ll work to drive change to the culture of our organisation. And acting as the bridge between data and lived experience, we’ll expect you to use qualitative and quantitative evidence to help senior leaders and service areas understand what people want and how to design services that meet our residents’ needs.
But your work won’t stop here – you’ll create evidence bases to help guide assisted digital delivery, engage with residents to understand the diversity of needs, and make design recommendations to meet these. Dedicated to building trust with different groups across the city, and helping our organisation develop empathetic relationships with our most vulnerable residents, you’ll devise innovative ways to listen to everyone we work with. Additional tasks will include helping to join up policymaking and operational practice, advocating for user-centred design and development, and engaging with senior leaders to help them understand Agile ways of working.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
With a deep understanding of the user research profession, product thinking and the product development lifecycle, you should have good knowledge of cloud technology, architecture, Agile delivery methods and software practices. It’s vital that you have well developed experience of user-centred and service design, software development practices, digital inclusion and how to build accessible online services, and we’ll also look for a successful track record of working across multi-disciplinary teams to deliver digital products using Agile methodology in an organisation of similar size and complexity to ours.
We’ll expect you to have a well grounded understanding of the cross-government DDAT framework and wider developments in government digital transformation, and significant experience of balancing client, organisational and technical needs when recommending decisions. Capable of persuading organisations which have not yet embraced digital ways of working to adopt product and design thinking, you’ll also possess the skills to navigate ambiguous environments and bring clarity by understanding core needs and requirements.
You should have the ability to use diverse research methods to elicit insights into user needs, be capable of gathering, distilling and simplifying large amounts of data, and be skilled at writing reports that help others understand the problem to be solved. Ready to advise on the best research methods and best practice, your strong communication skills will allow you to explain to a diverse, non-expert audience exactly what our users need.
Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.
The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster.
Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties
As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application , we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.
We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.
