User Experience Researcher

Senior UX Researcher

Location: London

Length: 5 Months

Rate: £48.56 p/h PAYE (Approx. £101k per annum)

Hours: 9am – 6pm

This client is a top 5 tech giant and one of the world's most popular search engines. This is a hybrid role, so you will split your time between home office and the clients offices in central London. On-site you will be able to access their amazing facilities and quirky working spaces, as well as free breakfast/ lunch/ dinner, on-site gyms, outdoor spaces and roof gardens, wellness rooms and sleep pods.

Job description:

• Influence across teams with shared objectives to align resources and direction.
• Build strong working relationships cross-functionally, and offer support and direction as needed.
• Formally or informally lead and mentor others to grow UX design talent.
• Guide the momentum of multiple adjacent design efforts by aligning goals and objectives to the larger product or program initiative.
• Increase adoption of user-centered design principles and Product Excellence at the team, product, or organizational level.
• Act as a subject matter expert in UX design principles, user-centered product development methodologies, style guides, and research tools.

Responsibilities:

• Build consensus across teams and gain support for design strategy across stakeholders. Communicate design approach to other designers or stakeholders (e.g., product manager), addressing and anticipating challenges and questions.
• Collaborate with engineers to communicate, negotiate, and/or influence design intention. Guide design specifications (e.g., red-lines, mock-ups, or product models) for implementation.
• Create innovative design solutions to user, product, and business problems. Anticipate evolving design constraints and communicate rationale of choices related to design solutions.
• Apply, adapt, and/or define UX writing and content design frameworks for user experiences, including principles, patterns, and systems. Leverage writing and design tools to visualize ideas or develop mock-ups or prototypes to drive the product vision forward. Tailor deliverables based on product or platform requirements independently. Identify and follow writing and design templates, style guides, and accessibility guidelines.
• Lead a holistic design process, design system, or design language across teams or products. Perform design and testing processes and help develop and generate support for a design vision with partners.
• Create design solutions based on user insights, business needs, and industry trends that further business objectives. Support stakeholders in achieving key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Guide UX designers in creating design concepts for product ideation and/or user research/testing or conduct research independently to inform design. Seek research insights to develop the appropriate design direction.
• Drive improvements in design based on UX testing and stakeholder input and provide input and feedback to engage stakeholders on product design and achieve product goals.
• Contribute to developing project priorities in alignment with larger project goals, and coordinate allocation of resources within the project. Act on opportunities to expand responsibilities within the immediate product team.
• Use and propose new, key data and metrics to evaluate product impact, understand the product ecosystem, user trends, and industry (e.g., competitors) by collaborating across teams when developing design solutions.
• Propose ideas to improve UX by analysing or anticipating user needs through collaboration with others, and solve constraints in strategy, product, or technology.

Skills/Experiences/Education

• Ability to make design decisions that result in a coherent product, platform, or user experience, including the ability to question and assess execution, craft, longevity, and scale of designs.
• Ability to analyse information, draw conclusions, generate alternatives and solutions, and evaluate outcomes. This includes the ability to use data to add value to business planning and strategies.
• Knowledge of how people use and interact with technology in order to influence the design, evaluation, and iterative improvement of interactive hardware and software systems.
• Ability to prepare effective presentations in content and function, and to speak competently to the level of the audience.
• Knowledge of product design principles and user-centric processes.
• Knowledge of the overall process for developing products. This includes knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of engineering and other functions, major phases, checkpoints, and deliverables. This also includes the ability to identify common issues and considerations for delivering a product.
• Ability to analyse situations or problems at the system level or from a broader technical or organizational perspective. This includes the ability to consider how factors or components in a system interrelate and work over time within the context of larger systems.
• Ability to influence and inspire an audience by crafting stories using data that elicit empathy or create buy-in.
• Knowledge of principles and methods for defining and measuring UX, and the ability to adapt UX research methods to the appropriate user interface and platform.
• Knowledge of behavioural characteristics of users and their goals with regards to the problem being solved. This includes the knowledge of how user behaviour informs product design and development.