Principal User Experience Researcher

Full-time - Senior

California, MD

Publishing Industries

About the position

Splunk, a Cisco company, is building a safer and more resilient digital world with an end-to-end full stack platform made for a hybrid, multi-cloud world. Leading enterprises use our unified security and observability platform to keep their digital systems secure and reliable. Our customers love our technology, but it's our caring employees that make Splunk stand out as an amazing career destination. No matter where in the world or what level of the organization, we approach our work with kindness. So bring your work experience, problem-solving skills and talent, of course, but also bring your joy, your passion and all the things that make you, you. Come help organizations be their best, while you reach new heights with a team that has your back. We're looking for a Principal User Experience Researcher to join Splunk's Research & Insights team! As a Principal User Experience Researcher, your hands-on, multi-method abilities will define a northstar vision and drive the user research strategy forward for the AI team. These multi-methods include leading foundational studies, conducting interviews with key customers, using statistics to analyze data, and traditional design research like usability and participatory design. You will proactively drive a research roadmap and partner with cross-functional teams to identify high priority research opportunities, rooted in user problems, that align to business goals. You will inspire teams to push their current boundaries of what is possible, identify and set product strategy, while helping teams understand complex UX ecosystems through seamlessly synthesizing data into engaging reports and other artifacts. You have a clear vision of what the future of user experience for Splunk products is, and have the courage to uphold that vision through forward-thinking research. In this role, you'll build empathy and understanding of what users need, while closely collaborating with designers, engineering, product management and various other functions daily, to help define the future of Splunk. We're looking for thinkers and innovators who are willing to challenge the status quo and are energized by developing creative solutions to complex problems. This role requires managing diverse partners across Design, Engineering, Product, that span across multiple product verticals.

Responsibilities

• Be a thought leader on how to use research and data to inform the product experience.
• Foster and grow user research for AI and a data driven product design culture.
• Manage stakeholders dynamically that includes guiding stakeholder discussions with the appropriate user research methods to achieve business goals.
• Partner with design, design managers, engineering, product and executives on research execution and/or design workshops.
• Identify and garner buy-in for new research opportunities.
• Propose, plan, execute, and deliver user research at various stages of the product development lifecycle to drive decisions.
• Create deliverables in the form of engaging reports, journey maps, or other materials as needed by the project team.
• Develop unique research insights and deliver to cross-functional partners to create a smarter, more informed, and more user-focused team.
• Manage participant recruitment, data collection (includes moderating sessions), data synthesis and analysis, and delivery of findings and recommendations.

Requirements

• 8+ years' experience doing applied product mixed method, qualitative and quantitative user research on products
• Degree in the field of HCI, Human Factors, Design, Psychology, Anthropology or a related field / relevant work experience (advanced degree a plus)
• A curiosity for technology, how data is shaping the future of software development and the future of cloud.
• Extensive experience identifying research needs, transforming ambiguous partner problems into research plans, planning and executing different types of research and analysis methods
• Expert understanding of the strengths and shortcomings of different research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase.
• Unafraid of creating new systems and processes as needed.
• Strong sense of independence, ownership, and initiative with an ability to self-direct and manage what to work on, how to get it done, and when to deliver, ability to unblock most challenges independently.
• A strong track record of building respect for User Research and impacting product decisions with high quality data and insights.
• Excellent organization skills and the ability to manage multiple high-profile projects in a dynamic organization.
• Engaging, detail oriented written and verbal communication skills. Strong analytical and presentation skills.
• Effective interpersonal, communication, negotiation and collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated success scaling best research practices and helping lead a community of practice with thought leadership, new process and mentoring to improve research quality.

Nice-to-haves

• Demonstrated success conducting research in the field of AI (not required)

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• 401(k) plan and match
• paid time off
• competitive benefits package