Good Growth is responsible for delivering and implementing the Mayor’s environment, transport and economic strategies and for the effective implementation of the London Plan. The Directorate is also responsible for regeneration (where the programme is not housing led), enterprise, growth, capital projects and design work.
London is a city recognised as the global capital for arts and culture. Our theatres, music venues, museums and galleries are renowned across the world. Our creative industries are vital to London’s success and the recording studios, rehearsal spaces, artists' workspaces, grassroots music, and LGBTQ+ venues all contribute to this success.
The Culture, Creative Industries and 24-Hour London portfolio at the Greater London Authority focuses on supporting London’s cultural and creative economy, strengthening cultural infrastructure, and ensuring the city functions as a global, inclusive 24‑hour city. This includes overseeing major projects such as Creative Enterprise Zones, London Borough of Culture, the Fourth Plinth commission, and initiatives that support the night‑time economy. Alongside programme delivery, the team is preparing for devolved powers of licensing to the Mayor — working with boroughs, the police, industry and communities to ensure that licensing and regulatory frameworks support vibrancy, safety and economic growth while balancing local impacts.
The Culture, Creative Industries and 24-Hour London Unit, in partnership with teams across the Greater London Authority (GLA), is leading an exciting new government-backed pilot to establish strategic licensing powers for the Mayor of London. This high-profile initiative is a cornerstone of the Government’s and Mayor’s shared growth agenda—unlocking opportunities for London’s hospitality, cultural and nighttime economies.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Culture, Creative Industries and 24 Hour London (CCI24) Unit delivering the Mayor’s and the Strategic Licensing policy.
You’ll be at the heart of a fast-paced, cross-organisational effort to design and implement new licensing powers—with the ambition to launch by Summer 2026.
This is a unique opportunity to:
As the Senior User Researcher, you will lead the planning, design and delivery of user research activities to help the GLA get a deep understanding of the people that use our digital and data services and products, to support delivery of London’s Strategic Licensing policy.
To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:
- Proven deep experience of the user research profession and skills and user-centred design and service design. Ability to use diverse research methods to elicit insights into citizen and staff need, designing comprehensive research exercises, and translating these into recommendations and reports.
Can show evidence of experience in product thinking and leading a user research function that functions effectively within the product development lifecycle as part of an agile delivery function. Ability to build and execute a backlog of work, translating user need into user stories for the product team to deliver against.
Experience of working across modern technology platforms, including cloud technology, architecture, agile delivery methods and software practices.
Can demonstrate a deep understanding of digital inclusion and how to build accessible online services.
Can demonstrate strong research communications skills. Able to gather, distil, and simplify large amount of data, judging what is and isn’t important, including writing reports that quickly help someone understand the problem to be solved. Can explain what users need from us succinctly, to a diverse, non-expert audience.
Can demonstrate experience of advising organisations on the best research methods and best practice and implementing standards frameworks and training that guide the delivery of best practice across an organisation.
Communicating and Influencing (core)
… is presenting information and arguments clearly and convincingly so that others see us as credible and articulate, and engage with us.
Level 4 indicators:
Stakeholder Focus (core)
… is consulting with, listening to and understanding the needs of those our work impacts and using this knowledge to shape what we do and manage others’ expectations.
Level 4 indicators:
Problem Solving (core)
… is analysing and interpreting situations from a variety of viewpoints and finding creative, workable and timely solutions.
Level 3 indicators:
Strategic thinking (core)
…is using an understanding of the bigger picture to uncover potential challenges and opportunities for the long term and turning these into a compelling vision for action.
Level 3 indicators:
Responding to pressure and change
… is being flexible and adapting positively, to sustain performance when the situation changes, workload increases, tensions rise or priorities shift.
Level 3 indicators:
Planning and Organising
… is thinking ahead, managing time, priorities and risk, and developing structured and efficient approaches to deliver work on time and to a high standard.
Level 2 indicators:
Decision making
… is forming sound, evidence-based judgements, making choices, assessing risks to delivery, and taking accountability for results.
Level 2 indicators:
The GLA Competency Framework Guidelines further detailing each competency and the different level indicators can be found here: GLA Competency Framework
This role is based at London Fire Brigade’s Head Office (Union Street SE1 0LL).
