User Researcher III

Salary

• AL, FL, GA, TN Residents: $90,015 (min) - $117,019 (mid) - $144,024 (max)
• NC Residents: $92,799 (min) - $120,639 (mid) - $148,478 (max)
• DE, MD, PA, TX, VA Residents: $97,439 (min) - $126,671 (mid) - $155,902 (max)
• DC Residents: $109,503 (min) - $142,354 (mid) - $175,204 (max)
• CA & NY Residents: $113,215 (min) - $147,179 (mid) - $181,143 (max)

Location

• In-person, hybrid, and remote options are available. Our offices are located in Baltimore. Must be willing and able to work at client site in Northern Virginia, as needed.

Employment Type

Full-time

What you’ll be doing

We’re looking to change the world by building software with a soul, and we want your help.

The User Researcher III collaborates with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to evaluate current and upcoming user research needs. They work to improve the definition of products and services which can then be used to determine user, customer, and organizational requirements. They set the direction of delivery and operationalize research efforts to provide actionable and meaningful data-driven insights representing actors, tools, and processes. They are experienced practitioners who are able to plan and facilitate user research activities for larger teams and more complex services.

We need your User Research skills! What other skills will help you succeed at Fearless? Glad you asked! We’re excited about candidates who can accomplish the following:

Responsibilities and Contributions 

Organizational and Leadership Role 

• Builds scalable user research solutions for multiple cross-functional teams, as well as Business Development strategies for new opportunities. 
• Cultivates a community of growth and development through coaching and mentoring others to develop their professional skills.
• Grows our design community and strategies, leads discussion of design practices and standards, and contributes to practice area communities and activities. 

Functional Role 

Collaboration & Communication

• Advises designers, researchers, and other team members on usability trends, practices, and the choice and application of research methods to assure best practice.
• Coaches and mentors inexperienced teams to adopt user-centered practices and embed them into an agile workflow. 
• Mentors, stewards, and directs other Designers and Researchers to improve the quality of their work.
• Ensures cross-disciplinary involvement in carrying out research plans by assigning and managing progress toward research and participant management tasks, working with the Scrum Master to remove any blockers.
• Advises the team and customer on how to adopt a user-centered, evidence-based approach to defining requirements and implementing solutions. 
• Builds, maintains, and promotes a research repository for teammates that enable teams to continually assure, improve, and innovate their practices to generate clear and valuable findings. 
• Works with Visual Designers to help translate insights into visual artifacts and products.

Research & Analysis

• Analyzes and synthesizes qualitative and quantitative data to generate strategic and tactical insights along with actionable recommendations that drive product design, service improvements, and innovations that improve user experience.
• Develops and executes well-crafted research plans with clear research objectives.
• Strongly adheres to research ethics and privacy guidelines for specific client needs, clarifying privacy restrictions with the client and teammates and triaging efficiently in the event of a privacy breach.
• Sets the direction of delivery and the collection of user experience metrics in the course of collaboration with Designers, Engineers, Product Managers, and Product Owners. 
• Defines and champions research processes and tools that enable teammates to better incorporate and improve research in their work.
• Advocates for inclusive practices and helps teams design and deliver accessible products and services that work for all users.
• Plans and facilitates participatory and iterative design activities, such as observational studies, customer interviews, usability testing, and other forms of requirements discovery.

Essential Skills, Experience, or Competencies  

Must-Have Skills

• Demonstrated expertise in the sustainability and consequences of design decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to make decisions characterized by managed levels of risk and complexity. 
• Demonstrated expertise in using strong influencing and communication skills to identify solutions that meet user and business needs. 
• Demonstrated expertise in managing stakeholder relationships and expectations.
• Industry expertise in recruiting public and Government-targeted end-users for specific research. 
• Demonstrated expertise in implementing a wide variety of research and synthesis methods applied across complex products and services. 
• Demonstrated expertise in understanding behavioral analysis and statistical concept studies. 
• Demonstrated mastery of practice in communicating and creating presentations of visually and verbally engaging content. 
• Knowledge of the social and technological context for Government services. 
• Excellent attention to detail and strong organizational and time management abilities.
• Advanced knowledge of technologies used to build and operate Government services.
• Experience with DesignOps and ResearchOps, operationalizing processes such as participant recruitment and screening, transcription, and knowledge management.
• Ability to operate and manage work, strategically reason, build relationships, and influence others.

Highly Desired Skills and Experience

• Experience with remote testing tools.
• Broad knowledge of service design, visual design, interaction design, content design and/or user research.
• Experience working with Government customers.
• Advanced understanding of agile processes and ability to advise colleagues on how and why agile methods are used and be able to provide a clear, open, and transparent framework in which teams can deliver. 
• Develops format-free structured content models so that content can be written in a consistent way to support multi-channel publishing (mobile, web, print).
• Supports development of content deliverables including copywriting, editing, and design of visual storytelling elements. 
• Owns and champions the team's content strategy practices and standards, through assessing and improving the quality, impact, and strategic planning of outcomes and outputs. 
• Structures and implements digital content publishing platforms, such as CMSs and email marketing software.
• Creates scalable solutions to develop governance, processes, and workflows based on delivering strategy and policy intent.
• Defines strategies and policies, and provides guidance to others working in the strategic context as well as evaluate current strategies to ensure business requirements are being met and exceeded where possible.