The United Nations Development Programme (UNDis the knowledge frontier organization for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG. Over the recent years, Armenia made good socioeconomic progress and set forward ambitious reforms. However, recent crisis events, including COVID19 and military escalations in the region and beyond threaten to reverse hard fought development gains, poverty reduction efforts, exacerbating vulnerabilities and disproportionally affecting various vulnerable groups and regions, at the same time making room for new types of vulnerabilities and inequalities. These crises have underscored – more than ever – the need for a robust and shockresponsive social protection system in the country. In alignment with these objectives, the joint Action pursued by UNICEF, UNDP and WFP under the strong leadership of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs aims to contribute to inclusive, resilient and sustainable socioeconomic recovery and growth in the postcrisis period, in line with the EUArmenia CEPA provisions. This will be achieved through the specific objective of the Action of putting in place an agile, integrated, humancentered and shockresponsive social protection system that builds a person’s resilience to vulnerability, deprivation, and crises across the lifecycle through four interlinked components, showing a sequenced logic of interventions across policy and legal framework development, administrative data system strengthening and integration, capacity building and prototyping. The digital transformation in social protection is pivotal in enhancing the effectiveness and accessibility of services for vulnerable populations. The project aims to develop usercentric digital tools that support social protection initiatives in Armenia. The tools are intended to streamline processes, improve user engagement, and ultimately ensure better delivery of social protection services.

To achieve this, UNDP SDG Innovation Lab is looking for a User Researcher who will contribute to the user research efforts, ensuring that the developed tools meet the needs and expectations of its target users.

The User Researcher will contribute to SDG Innovation Lab’s activities by performing the following functions:

User Research Planning and Execution:

• Develop a comprehensive research strategy, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods;
• Identify and engage with key user groups, including beneficiaries, service providers, and other stakeholders within the social protection framework.

Data Collection and Analysis:

• Conduct user interviews, surveys, focus groups, and usability tests to gather insights into user needs, behaviors, and pain points;
• Analyze data to uncover trends, patterns, and actionable insights that will inform the design and development of the digital tool.

Development of UserCentered Artifacts:

• Create and maintain user personas, journey maps, and other relevant research artifacts that reflect user insights;
• Collaborate with User Experience/User Interface designers to ensure that design decisions are grounded in research findings;
• Support in iterative design cycles with rapid prototyping and testing to validate assumptions before development.

Usability Benchmarking and Testing:

• Support in establishing usability benchmarks for the digital tool and conduct comparative tests to assess performance against these benchmarks throughout development;
• Support in usability testing sessions to expand user participation.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Present research findings and recommendations to project stakeholders;
• Facilitate workshops and discussions to align stakeholders on user needs and project objectives.

Continuous Improvement:

• Establish mechanisms for continuous user feedback throughout the development process;
• Work iteratively with the development team to refine the tools based on user testing and feedback.

Documentation and Reporting:

• Produce detailed reports on research findings, including actionable insights and recommendations;
• Maintain thorough documentation of research processes, methodologies, and outcomes;
• Perform other duties as required to ensure uninterrupted, timely, efficient, and effective project implementation.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

The User Researcher will work under the overall guidance of Innovation, Acceleration and SDG Finance Programme Analyst and direct supervision of the SDG Innovation Lab Manager. Innovative and Participatory Policymaking Project Analyst will guide the professional development of the candidate.

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible.
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross Functional and technical competencies:

• Business DevelopmentKnowledge generation
  • Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for content, or responsive to a stated need.
• Business ManagementWorking with Evidence and Data
  • Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decisionmaking.
• Digital and InnovationData Storytelling and communication
  • Skilled in building a narrative around a set of data and its accompanying visualizations to help convey the meaning of that data in a powerful and compelling fashion.
• Digital and InnovationUsercentered design, user research, user testing              
  • Knowledge of usercantered design methodologies, and ability to apply them practically.
• Digital and InnovationCollective intelligence design
  • Ability to design, lead or manage processes that help a collective to become smarter together by bringing together diverse groups of people, data, and technology.
• Digital and InnovationCreative facilitation
  • Ability to design workshops that considers and addresses multiple interests, agendas, worldviews; set out clear objectives and engaging activities; select appropriate tools, materials and resources that are needed to enable or support the activities.
• Digital and InnovationPrototyping
  • Ability to make ideas tangible, at low costs early in the innovation process, to test and improve them through iteration.

• Secondary education is required.
• A university degree (bachelor’s degrein Social Sciences, Economics, Political Science, Business/Public Administration, or related field will be given due consideration but is not a requirement.