Manager, UX Research

Role Summary

• Lead and evolve a comprehensive UX Research strategy across a multi-product ecosystem, ensuring user insights directly inform critical product and business decisions.
• Drive the development and implementation of a scalable research operating model, focusing on both direct research by the team and enabling research across other functions.
• Manage, mentor, and develop a team of UX Researchers, upholding high standards of research quality and ethical practice.
• Integrate advanced methodologies, including AI, into research workflows to enhance efficiency, rigor, and impact.
• Partner closely with Product Management, Design, and Engineering to translate user needs and feedback into actionable product strategies and impactful customer experiences.

Primary Responsibilities

• Define and refine the overarching UX Research strategy, aligning it with the company's product roadmap and business objectives across multiple product lines.
• Translate complex business and product questions into well-defined, actionable qualitative and mixed-methods research plans.
• Design, implement, and continuously optimize a scalable research operating model that ensures consistent, high-quality user insight generation and dissemination.
• Provide leadership, mentorship, and professional development to a team of UX Researchers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance research culture.
• Clearly articulate the roles and responsibilities of UX Researchers versus other team members involved in user research activities (democratization).
• Strategically incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and techniques into research workflows to improve efficiency, data analysis, and insight generation.
• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional stakeholders in Product, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Data Science to ensure user insights are integrated into strategic planning and decision-making processes.
• Champion the voice of the user throughout the product development lifecycle, ensuring user needs and pain points are understood and addressed.
• Support the development and execution of product strategies informed by robust user research findings.
• Maintain research quality and integrity, especially in environments where research responsibilities are shared or democratized.

Skills & Qualifications

• Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Computer Science, or a related field is typically expected for senior research roles.

• Experience:

  • Minimum of eight (8) years of hands-on experience conducting primary user research using a variety of qualitative and mixed methods.
  • Minimum of two (2) years in a direct management or leadership role, responsible for mentoring, developing, and leading a team of UX Researchers.

• Required Skills:

  • Deep expertise in qualitative research methodologies (e.g., interviews, usability testing, ethnography, diary studies).
  • Proficiency in mixed-methods research, blending qualitative and quantitative data for comprehensive insights.
  • Demonstrated ability to design and implement scalable research operating models and frameworks.
  • Strong leadership and team development skills, with a track record of mentoring and growing research talent.
  • Strategic thinking and the ability to translate research findings into clear, actionable product and business recommendations.
  • Experience in developing research systems or guidelines that enable non-researchers to conduct effective user research.
  • Skill in maintaining high standards of research quality and rigor in democratized research environments.
  • Thoughtful experience i