Senior Design Researcher

Job Description

Pay Range: $100.01hr - $106.01hr

• The Sr. Design Researcher is responsible for defining and executing a clear research vision that aligns with business goals and product strategy.
• This role champions a research-driven culture by deeply understanding user needs, mentoring team members, and ensuring research insights are effectively integrated into design and product development.
• The role works closely with cross-functional teams to translate complex requirements into intuitive, user-centered solutions.

Responsibilities

• Shape and drive a clear research vision aligned with business and product goals.
• Prioritize research opportunities and promote best practices across the organization.
• Mentor and coach team members to strengthen research capabilities and impact.
• Plan and conduct user interviews, workshops, and usability testing with end users.
• Collaborate with UI/UX Designers, Technical Product Owners, and Business Analysts during research activities.
• Identify explicit and latent user pain points and opportunities.
• Synthesize research findings into actionable insights and visual artifacts such as personas, archetypes, and user journey maps.
• Present research insights clearly and effectively to diverse stakeholder groups.
• Translate complex business rules, licensing data, and forecasting logic into user-friendly design insights.
• Advocate for the end user throughout iterative design and development processes.
• Collaborate with functional and technical delivery teams to ensure research insights are incorporated into designs, user stories, and final products.

Requirement/Must Have

• Proven experience conducting user interviews.
• Eight or more years of experience eliciting user pain points and requirements.
• Strong experience with quantitative measurement and behavioral data analysis.
• Eight or more years of experience capturing and analyzing user behavior data to inform system design.
• Five or more years of experience mentoring and coaching team members toward a user-centric mindset.

Experience

• Experience working on moderate to high complexity projects.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional agile product delivery teams.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Comfort working in fast-paced, evolving environments.

Should Have

• Design Thinking certification.
• Experience designing enterprise products or tools.
• Experience in software design and development.
• Background in Media and Entertainment industry.
• Background in Sales Planning and Execution business capabilities.
• Branding experience.

Skills

• Deep knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
• Strong ability to connect with users and uncover needs and motivations.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Proven mentoring and coaching capabilities.
• Strong resiliency and adaptability when facing challenges.

Technology Requirements

• Prototyping tools such as Figma or Adobe Creative Suite.
• Survey tools such as M365 Forms or SurveyMonkey.
• Miro for whiteboarding and collaboration.
• Documentation and reporting tools including Jira, Confluence, and M365.

Qualification And Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Sociology, Psychology, or a related field.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating the research process and impact, including research roadmaps, personas, archetypes, user journey maps, experience maps, mental model diagrams, and research reports or presentations.