Senior UX Researcher, Smarsh

• If you thrive on deep human understanding, are fluent in both discovery and validation methods, and know how to turn research into decisions — this is built for you
• 5+ years of UX research experience, with a demonstrated mixed-methods practice spanning both generative and evaluative approaches
• Deep fluency in qualitative methods (interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies) and strong working knowledge of quantitative methods (surveys, behavioral analytics, A/B test interpretation)
• Experience recruiting and managing research participants across diverse populations
• Proven ability to design research that drives product decisions — not just informs them
• Familiarity with research operations: managing vendors, tools, panels, and research repositories
• Ability to produce polished, well-structured synthesis artifacts — journey maps, mental model diagrams, opportunity frameworks — that designers and PMs can act on directly
• Proficiency with Figma or equivalent tools for creating research communication materials and lightweight prototypes
• Understanding of interaction design principles sufficient to critically evaluate design decisions and contribute meaningfully to design reviews
• Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript at a level that enables building and modifying interactive prototypes for research purposes
• Comfort contributing to an existing component library — reading documentation, following established patterns, and making targeted changes
• Familiarity with design systems concepts (tokens, component patterns, variants) is a plus; deep front-end engineering expertise is not required
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of influencing product direction through research
• Experience facilitating workshops, alignment sessions, and research readouts with cross-functional teams
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity; able to scope and prioritize research independently in a fast-moving environment
• Mentorship experience or genuine interest in developing junior researchers
• Nice to Have
• We are looking for someone who leads with research and complements that with design and code skills — not the reverse

Desirable

• We are looking for a Senior UX Researcher to contribute to our end-to-end research across our product organization
• This is a research-first role: you will spend the majority of your time generating and evaluating user insights that directly shape product direction
• You will also bring light design sensibility to the way you communicate findings, and contribute modestly to our design system at the code level
• This is not a design engineering role
• Research (Primary — 80%)
• Plan and execute generative research: user interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, and ethnographic observation to uncover unmet needs and opportunity spaces
• Design and run evaluative research: usability studies, concept testing, prototype reviews, and survey-based validation at key product milestones
• Define research questions collaboratively with product, design, and engineering partners, then own execution from recruitment through synthesis
• Develop and maintain a research repository that makes insights discoverable and actionable across teams
• Communicate findings clearly to audiences ranging from ICs to senior leadership, adapting depth and format to the audience
• Advocate for the user in roadmap and prioritization conversations, backed by evidence
• Contribute to and evolve team research standards, tools, and practices
• Design & Communication (20%)
• Create clear, well-structured deliverables that translate research into action: journey maps, synthesis artifacts, storyboards, annotated findings decks, and opportunity frameworks
• Collaborate closely with product designers to ensure research insights are reflected in design decisions and interaction patterns
• Facilitate participatory design activities and co-creation sessions with users and internal stakeholders
• Front-End Contribution (Light)
• Make targeted HTML, CSS, and JavaScript contributions to our design system — primarily to support research prototypes and interactive stimuli for studies
• Work within existing component library patterns; you won’t be architecting systems or building production features from scratch
• Collaborate with design engineers to ensure research prototypes accurately represent intended interactions