UX Research Lead, Travel

Google welcomes people with disabilities.

Minimum qualifications:

• 10 years of experience as a qualitative researcher and/or other relevant research work (e.g., human factors, anthropologist, UX, etc.)

• 4 years of experience integrating user research into product designs and design practices

• Experience in executive stakeholder management

• Ability to speak and write English and Japanese fluently

Preferred qualifications:

• Master's degree or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Anthropology, Information Science, Human Factors, Social Sciences, or a related field
• Experience managing and leading research teams in a dynamic environment
• Expertise in qualitative methodological with evidence of creative research methodologies
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including presentation writing and delivery
• Excellent problem-solving skills

About the job

At Google, we follow a simple but vital premise: "Focus on the user and all else will follow." User Experience Researchers (UXRs) make this possible.

Google User Experience (UX) is made up of multi-disciplinary teams of UX Designers, Researchers, Writers, Content Strategists, Program Managers, and Engineers: we care deeply about the people who use our products. The UX team plays an integral part in gathering insights about the needs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of people who use our products to inspire and inform design. We collaborate closely with each other and with engineering and product management to create industry-leading products that deliver value for the people who use them, and for Google’s businesses.

As a User Experience Researcher (UXR), you’ll help your team of UXers, product managers, and engineers understand user needs. You’ll work with stakeholders across functions and levels and have impact at all stages of product development. You’ll play a critical role in creating useful, usable, and delightful products. You’ll explore user behaviors and motivations by conducting primary research such as field studies, interviews, diary studies, participatory workshops, ethnography, surveys, usability testing, and logs analysis.

The UXR community at Google is unique and will help you do your best work. You’ll have the opportunity to work with and learn from UXRs across Google through regular meetups, mentor programs, and access to internal research tools.

As a UX Research Lead, you will have freedom to create products tailored to the local market while benefiting from the foundations created by the existing global efforts.

User experience is at the forefront of how we create intuitive, innovative, and beautiful products that people love. We strive to learn and understand our users’ needs, behaviors, and emotions to gather insights that inform product strategy and design. Our UX teams include designers, researchers, content strategists, and engineers who are passionate about quality, usability, and simplicity. We work on collaborative teams to solve complex challenges and craft experiences that highlight our products’ unique capabilities and personalities. Our work touches billions while exemplifying a key principle that is core to Google’s philosophy: “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”

Responsibilities

• Collaborate closely with other UX functions and with Engineering and Product Management to create innovative, usable products that people love to use.
• Manage all stages of the UX research process, throughout the entire product development cycle, from inception and strategy to execution. Lead research activities, synthesize data, and craft deliverables that point to clear product actions, and ensure effective communication of research findings to stakeholders.
• Collaborate with product leadership to define and prioritize user experience research priorities. Lead strategic research on horizontal initiatives.
• Participate in product discussions, design reviews, and strategic research planning. Identify new opportunities for high-impact research and execute on them.
• Grow and mentor your team, creating a culture of positivity, innovation, performance, and support.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form.