Introduction

A career in IBM Software means you'll be part of a team that creates industry-leading solutions that meet our customers' challenges.

We are an infinitely curious team, always seeking new possibilities, and dedicated to creating the world's leading AI-powered, cloud-native software solutions. Our renowned legacy creates endless opportunities for our network of IBMers. We are a team of deep product experts, ensuring exceptional client experiences, with a focus on delivery, excellence, and obsession over customer outcomes.

IBM's product and technology landscape includes Research, Software, and Infrastructure. Entering this domain positions you at the heart of IBM, where growth and innovation thrive. At IBM you will be joining us in serving as a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

Your role and responsibilities

You will be part of the IBM HashiCorp group within IBM Software. We build solutions that simplify and automate enterprise cloud infrastructure, so teams can focus on high-value work instead of repetitive tasks. Our portfolio spans two product groups: Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Security Lifecycle Management, each with multiple products serving global enterprise customers.

We believe everyone involved in product definition should be able to conduct meaningful, reliable research. This is how we build deep customer empathy and generate actionable insights.

Our new UX Research team is an enablement-first function:

We empower Product and Design teams with coaching and operational support, helping them meet day-to-day research needs.
We lead cross-team, cross-product, and cross-functional research that informs strategy and benefits multiple stakeholders.
In this role, you will support one of the two product groups, in a dual capacity.

As a Research Coach, you will

Coach Product Managers and Designers on research and effective communication skills so they can independently conduct high-quality, everyday research for their areas.
Standardize and scale methods by creating reusable templates, guides, and knowledge-sharing practices tailored to your group's needs.
Ensure quality and rigor across research efforts, raising the bar for best practices within your product group.
Inspire engagement by making research not just robust and actionable, but also energizing and memorable.

As a Researcher, you will

Lead high-impact studies that span teams and products, where expert research execution is required to shape a group's strategy.
Synthesize insights across projects, helping teams see broader patterns and think beyond immediate roadmaps.
Connect knowledge across IBM, bringing relevant insights into your group and contributing back to IBM's research ecosystem.
Elevate impact through collaboration, partnering with UXR teammates to ensure all programs deliver actionable, high-quality outcomes.
Champion UX Research across IBM Software and with senior leadership.

This job can be performed from anywhere in the US

Required education

High School Diploma/GED

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

Strategic research leadership: 7+ years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research across the product lifecycle. Proven ability to lead cross-product or cross-team initiatives that shape product strategy, not just feature direction. Skilled at synthesizing findings across studies to reveal broader patterns.
Coaching and mentorship: Demonstrated ability to mentor Product and Design partners in research methods, tailoring your approach to different levels of skill and confidence. Experience enabling non-researchers to run reliable studies.
Operational enablement: Experience building and scaling research playbooks, templates, repositories, and knowledge-sharing systems that raise organizational research maturity
Influence and evangelism: Proven ability to align research with business and customer goals, and to make insights inspiring, actionable, and persuasive across teams and leadership levels.
Enterprise product experience: Background in SaaS, developer platforms, or other technically complex domains, where research must bridge diverse user types and stakeholders

Preferred technical and professional experience

Making others successful. You believe customer empathy is everyone's responsibility - and that insights aren't just "delivered" but co-developed. You coach others to experiment, learn, and grow.
Research innovation. You recognize patterns where others see noise, surfacing observations no one else noticed. You enjoy experimenting with methods, always finding the best fit for the context - and when the right method doesn't exist, you invent one.
Stakeholders as customers. You treat stakeholders as you do customers, designing research programs and deliverables around their needs and constraints.
Influence through engagement. You value research that is not only robust and insightful, but also engaging and inspiring.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Software infuses core business operations with intelligence-from machine learning to generative AI-to help make organizations more responsive, productive, and resilient. IBM Software helps clients put AI into action now to create real value with trust, speed, and confidence across digital labor, IT automation, application modernization, security, and sustainability. Critical to this is the ability to make use of all data, because AI is only as good as the data that fuels it. In most organizations data is spread across multiple clouds, on premises, in private datacenters, and at the edge. IBM's AI and data platform scales and accelerates the impact of AI with trusted data, and provides leading capabilities to train, tune and deploy AI across business. IBM's hybrid cloud platform is one of the most comprehensive and consistent approach to development, security, and operations across hybrid environments-a flexible foundation for leveraging data, wherever it resides, to extend AI deep into a business.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you'll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you'll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM's greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we're also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it's time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being
Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs
Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law
Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals
Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.

This position is eligible for participation in an IBM Sales Incentive plan. Actual incentive opportunity will be based on performance and the eligible Target Incentive, as addressed in the applicable plan, all of which is subject to change. The compensation range listed for this position is the IBM Reference Salary that is used when you are not actively participating in a sales plan. Your actual base pay plus incentive opportunity will be determined by the Incentive Plan assigned to you.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

Sr UX Researcher/Coach

Job Type