Lead UX Researcher

The Enterprise Digital & Analytics (EDA) team is passionate about creating a better journey for every user from beginning to end – and we're continually evolving our User Experience (UX) practice to meet our Card Members’ changing digital needs.

Within EDA, the User Experience Research (UXR) & Insights team is looking for a Lead UX Researcher. Reporting to the Director of UX Research and Insights, you’ll be responsible for leading a number of related projects, uncovering and translating user needs that drive customer-centered design solutions across our membership experiences, in our website and mobile app. 

The right candidate will have demonstrated expertise in User Research, Design Thinking, and a proven track record of successfully consulting and partnering with Product Owners, Designers, and business stakeholders.

Primary responsibilities:

• Transform ideas, business opportunities, and creative vision into desirable outcomes for our users – establishing user needs and goals from the outset.

• Work under the guidance & direction of a Principal researcher, consulting with Product Owners and Designers to determine their insight needs, make appropriate recommendations, and craft research plans that align with their product roadmap.

• End-to-end responsibility for leading a number of research projects. From identifying the appropriate methods to get the data; to establishing timelines and dependencies; to conducting the research itself and delivering the results in a compelling way.

• Lead both generative and evaluative research - using a combination of methods, to drive product development and improvement.

• Work in a hybrid model, where research may be undertaken directly by you as a practitioner, in partnership with a vendor, or delivered entirely by a 3^rdparty, but led by you.

• Synthesize learnings across projects, integrate with other functions (e.g. Analytics) and lead socialization of findings.

• Drive the continuous improvement of the UXR team as we build the maturity of our function, helping educate stakeholders, as well as sharing best practice with peers and junior colleagues.

• Work across multiple markets to identify global solutions, across all stages of the customer lifecycle.

• May involve line management or contractor management responsibility, if leading an Analyst level role within the team.

• Portfolio of work as a research practitioner on end-to-end projects, demonstrating craft: from screener and test plan creation, to moderation/facilitation, and storytelling to socializing results and recommendations.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Interaction Design, Computer/Information Science, or similar; or equivalent practical experience.

• 3-5+ years of UX Research / Digital Interaction experience with consumer facing digital products, websites and mobile experiences.

• Proven experience in identifying research needs, matching those needs to research methods, and aligning approach with overall business strategy.

• Experience conducting research using of a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, from usability testing and contextual inquiry; to survey design and remote testing (using UserZoom or Qualtrics); to participatory design, ethnography, etc.

• Ability to synthesize multiple insights to arrive at recommendations that deliver customer-focused outcomes for the organization and communicate them effectively to Product Owners and Designers.

• Ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional partners to drive multiple research projects at pace and scale.

• Can manage multiple stakeholders and vendor partners effectively, to ensure project delivery.

• Strong communication, story-telling, influencing and relationship-building skills.

• Comfortable working independently, and as part of a larger specialist team, with team members spread across multiple locations and timezones.

• Flexible, able to adapt to change in a fast-paced matrix environment and be able to hit the ground running.

• Experienced facilitator, running collaborative design workshops on topics such as design thinking, empathy + journey mapping, persona creation, etc.

• Experience guiding junior colleagues, coaching and guiding them in Analyst level roles.

Desirable:

• Experienced facilitator, running collaborative design workshops on topics such as design thinking, empathy + journey mapping, persona creation, etc.

• Experience guiding junior colleagues, coaching and guiding them in Analyst level roles.