User Research

We are seeking a User Researcher to be a key part of our teameam. You will collaborate with other members of an Agile product team to understand users and their needs so you can deliver the best solutions for the most important problems. You will work to put your users first, whether they are consumers learning about financial literacy, financial advisors working with underserved groups, or analysts using mortgage data to research housing trends. You will apply a human-centered design approach based on research to ensure that solutions meet the needs of users and our client. 

Responsibilities:

• Develop research questions, form hypotheses, and select appropriate methods that effectively uncover crucial insights that drive product and user experience decisions
• Guide agile teams to user-centered solutions by driving empathy and validating concepts with user interviews, surveys, developing personas, and other research
• Contribute to discovering and developing user solutions by participating in and leading ideation sessions, rapid testing, and concept validation
• Ensure teams solve problems effectively by leading usability testing, user feedback sessions, and related research
• Work with product leadership to research, understand, and communicate user outcomes effectively
• Contribute to client and stakeholder management by communicating compelling insights grounded in data, advocating for users, and clarifying the rationale of the research process

Qualifications:

• 5+ years working in the field of User Experience and design or in User Centered Design
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Experience conducting user research especially usability tests and prototype tests
• Experience using Human Centered Design processes to develop a research plan that guides the application design
• Experience Research skills across one or more methods including qualitative, quantitative, and design-based methods
• Experience facilitating user interviews, as well as creating research plans, moderator guides, personas, and recommendations reports
• Experience with usability testing using design prototypes or existing digital systems, as well as with information architecture testing methods such as card sorting or tree testing
• Experience in collaboration and innovation techniques, ethnographic research, tree testing/information architecture evaluations
• Basic graphic design skills
• Understanding of usability and accessibility including heuristic and expert methods
• Demonstrated resiliency and experience in client-facing roles requiring tactful communications within fast-moving environments
• Ability to collaborate with teams using an Agile process across many workstreams to iterate user experience and improve user outcomes
• Able to provide a portfolio or examples demonstrating research/design process and deliverables
• Demonstrated experience working on Agile development projects
• Experience in the financial industry or federal government
• Strong critical thinking and analytical skills
• Ability to work successfully with a cross-functional, diverse, and distributed remote development team
• Strong technical communication skills; both written and verbal
• Strong problem solving and structuring skills
• Demonstrated time management skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Attention to detail to produce client-ready reports and presentations
• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail
• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, library science, or a related field
• Must be a US Citizen 
• Ability to obtain a US Government security clearance/public trust