Design Researcher

Aim of the role

Care City is working hard to bring about radical change that realises a more relational approach to health and care. One that involves communities, new roles, and ways of working with public and health partners supported by better technology. 

We are looking for a talented design researcher to join our team, who wants to transform public and health services. You’ll be motivated by problem-solving and understanding the root causes through user research. You’ll enjoy getting to grips with policy and undertaking data analysis for our team. You’ll work with our local communities and our community board to conduct research that directly contributes to improved outcomes for people living in North East London and other places we work.

We are a small organisation that wants to make a big impact, and we recognise the need to have a diverse range of talent, skills and knowledge in our team. 

How it feels working at Care City

As our first permanent design researcher, this role represents the opportunity to help shape how we approach, develop and grow this practice through our work. We recognise we can’t provide an existing community of practice, and we value personal development highly. So, we would like to help the right candidate develop by supporting them in finding a mentor and offering to help find external coaching if they would like. We also work with a talented and senior bunch of associate designers and researchers who you would get to work with on projects.

We are a small team of 12, and whilst we work in multidisciplinary teams on projects involving different skill sets, you must also be confident working independently. 

Projects at Care City are complex and varied. We are trying to change how health and care systems work, and much of our work involves piloting new technology and innovative new ways of working in organisations and our communities. 

Examples of our recent projects that this role might have worked on:

• Research with the local community in Barking and Dagenham to understand their needs regarding the design of a new model for care campus 
• User research with people living with dementia and their carers to understand their lived experience and to help think about how new technologies like Dorothy could help them
• Research and co-design workshops with people with lived experience of organising their or a loved one’s care to help inform an understanding of how technology could improve their use of direct payments
• Research with our community in North East London, to understand how we could support residents at risk of fuel poverty, testing, implementing and evaluating ideas

You’ll also help work on internal improvement projects. For example, we want to develop more inclusive research approaches with our communities; how might we do this? We also want to learn from your skills, so sharing your work, tools and ideas for how we try new ways of working will be important.

You can expect to be involved in supporting project delivery for a range of clients and the organisation through:

• Working independently to initiate, run and communicate generative and evaluative research
• Qualitative and quantitative user research methods and analysis techniques, including ethnography, interviews, user experience testing, surveys etc.
• Research and analysis, including data analysis, interviewing and focus group delivery
• Conducting rapid literature reviews
• Supporting research recruitment and confidently facilitating research and design workshops with people
• Presenting your analysis through compelling reports, presentations and other written content
• Working with a multi-disciplinary project team to support the development of strategies, advice and recommendations for clients and internally
• Supporting effective project and client management
• Providing day-to-day support to the broader activities and operation of the business, such as policy briefings, external event summaries and supporting business development activity.

About you

Of course, we are looking for someone with research and project support skills. However, at Care City, behaviours are valued as highly as experience. You will be able to demonstrate:

• Building trust and motivating others – accepting people for what they are, identifying the values they can add, showing appreciation for their contributions and empowering them to succeed
• Effective communicator – maintaining and developing relationships with partners and stakeholders to build the Care City brand 
• Cultural awareness – not just within the team, but within our communities. It’s only by truly understanding what our communities’ needs are and how they are motivated that we will succeed.
• Determined and motivated – you are looking for a challenge and want to be inspired, with the determination to make a real difference in the lives of our East London community.
• Agile, adaptable, problem solver – learning from what does and doesn’t work, implementing changes that need to be made and overcoming obstacles to ensure successful outcomes.

Candidates are expected to:

• be curious about our clients, the role of healthcare systems, public services and communities
• be a university graduate with a relevant degree (e.g. Social Sciences, Politics,  Economics, Humanities) or have experience of conducting research and data analysis 
• be a motivated, proactive individual with a passion for solving important problems
• be able to adapt to changing priorities and work at pace
• be committed to personal development and open to learning
• be able to work collaboratively in a team
• have excellent written communication skills
• be able to demonstrate experience in analysing data and have good familiarity with Microsoft Excel

About Us

Care City is a non-profit project-based organisation with twelve smart, committed people working as a dynamic, supportive team. We help design and deliver the health and care systems and services that you’d want for your loved ones. We bring technology-enabled innovation, a deep understanding of how things work and design expertise, we deliver transformation of local benefit and national significance. Our mission is to help people across North East London to live healthier, happier lives.

We deliver diverse projects for local and national partners across health and care, including NESTA, The Health Foundation, local authorities and North East London Health and Care Partnership. At present, our work includes helping inspire young people and job seekers of East London to consider local careers in health and social care, improving hospital discharge processes with support from our local carers network and piloting innovative new care technologies to help people live more independent lives. 

Our team is our most valued asset, and we emphasise working with kindness, empathy and compassion towards each other, our community and our partners. We do not subscribe to traditional leadership models – but encourage compassionate leadership, which avoids hierarchies and places equal value on each voice within the team. 

To Apply

View the full job description here and if you like what you see and think you could be a match, send your CV to us at careers@carecity.org. We really want to know why you want the job and how you think you will succeed, so make sure you include a supporting statement to let us know a little more about you and your motivations.

Meet the Team

Interested to know who you could be working with? We are a diverse bunch with a variety of experiences and career backgrounds (and hobbies!). Meet us here.