Lead UX Researcher

Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.

This position is hybrid, and may be located in any of the following office locations: Atlanta, GA, Austin, TX, Kansas City, IN, North Hills, NY. A successful candidate is expected to go into the office 1 day / week.

The Lead User Experience (UX) Researcher will play a key role in ensuring that Cox Automotive Retail product experiences are intuitive, usable, and desirable. This individual will work closely with the Director of UX Design to establish research methods, processes, and best practices for the UX team and for our Product Management partners.

The Lead UX Researcher will oversee research planning and execution for a portfolio of products, including a solution at the heart of one of Cox Automotive's strategic focus areas. This role will work with UX leadership and senior company leadership to spread understanding of client goals and needs and to provide guidance to help our teams design and develop effective, easy-to-use digital products for both responsive web and mobile applications. They will engage and collaborate across a wide Product Management organization to rapidly increase both the quality and quantity of customer contact within discovery efforts.

The Cox Automotive work environment is highly collaborative and requires an individual with excellent communication skills and a keen ability to build and foster strong partnerships through an open and transparent working style. Our UX team is deeply embedded in a scaled Agile environment and has a substantial impact on our experiences and the business. This is a remarkable opportunity for a motivated individual to establish UX practices across major automotive brands.

Responsibilities

• Establish and manage new quantitative and qualitative UX research programs as needed.
• Charter, plan, execute and report on research studies, from the strategic to the tactical.
• Identify and apply the most appropriate research method, including, but not limited to, moderated and unmoderated usability studies, heuristic evaluations, card sorts, task-based analysis, surveys, and contextual inquiries.
• Prioritize and coordinate multiple simultaneous research projects based on business need.
• Create, model, and enforce research processes and best practices.
• Maintain and evolve research artifact templates.
• Develop or lead the development of user personas, journey maps, JTBD (Jobs To Be Done) frameworks, and other key research deliverables.
• Work with product managers, data analytics, and designers to identify user experience research focus areas and drive proposals to explore them.
• Proactively identify usability improvement opportunities and recommend research methods to understand them better.
• Deliver insights, findings, and design recommendations based on research and usability best practices to colleagues within UX and across the organization.
• Support the product team's continuous delivery approach with a research structure that fosters and encourages a continuous consumer feedback loop.
• Democratize research by administrating training for UX and Product Management professionals to conduct effective rapid discovery interviews.
• Manage a pipeline of rapid discovery studies from planning to recruitment, data collection, analysis, and dissemination of results.
• Stand up and scale evaluative research efforts for Agile UX design spanning multiple teams and products.

Lead and coordinate research repository efforts for a portfolio of work.

• Review online customer feedback and intercept surveys to identify themes and hot spots where users may be struggling.
• Serve as a thought leader by acting as an expert consultant in reviewing designs, communicating best practices, and championing usability throughout the organization.
• Develop and maintain relationships with vendors.
• Maintain strong relationships with other departments, including Product Management and Engineering.
• Maintain awareness of current human-computer interaction and usability research, theories, and methodologies.
• Act as a research ambassador, inviting Product and Engineering partners to client sessions and helping to normalize research as a well-understood foundational design and development task.
• Act as an advisor to the UX leadership team to ensure research has a voice in team strategy and major decisions.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

The candidate must have a proven track record of research expertise, strong moderation skills, mentoring, change management, communication, relationship management, and project coordination.

• Ability to provide thought leadership and engage with other senior leaders in addressing complex business issues.
• Leads by building trust to influence change and develop win-win strategies that deliver results for our clients and our business.
• Demonstrated analytical ability in understanding data and making information relevant and actionable across the organization.
• Good listener with outstanding interpersonal qualities and a natural, effective consultative style
• Advanced communication skills as a successful storyteller in our business that moves hearts and minds to action.
• Subject matter experience in the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in related discipline and 6 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as Master's Degree with 4 years experience, a Ph.D. and 2 years' of experience, OR 10 years' experience in a related field.
• Experience planning and executing usability research activities for both responsive web and native mobile applications.
• Experience using a variety of usability research tools (e.g., UserTesting, UserZoom, Ethnio, and Morae).
• Strong understanding of current usability research, theories, best practices, and methodologies.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with the principles of user-centered design.
• Understanding of mobile human interface guidelines and current possibilities and limitations of hardware and operating systems.
• Knowledge of Figma and experience creating prototypes for the purpose of testing digital interactive interfaces.
• Experience with in-person and remote testing a must.
• Excellent time management and prioritization skills.
• Demonstrated ability to direct and multi-task effectively under pressure.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to deliver concise research summarization.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong teamwork and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of and experience in web user interface design and technology.
• Understanding of project management principles.

Preferred

• Advanced degree in Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Design, Cognitive Science, or related field strongly preferred.

USD 116,200.00 - 193,600.00 per year

About Cox Automotive

At Cox Automotive, people of every background are driven by their passion for mobility, innovation and community. We transform the way the world buys, sells, owns and uses cars, accelerating the industry with global powerhouse brands like Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim and more. What's more, we do it all with an emphasis on employee growth and happiness. Drive your future forward and join Cox Automotive today!

About Cox

Cox empowers employees to build a better future and has been doing so for over 120 years. With exciting investments and innovations across transportation, communications, cleantech and healthcare, our family of businesses - which includes Cox Automotive and Cox Communications - is forging a better future for us all. Ready to make your mark? Join us today!

Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page .

Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer - All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual's age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship.

Statement to ALL Third-Party Agencies and Similar Organizations: Cox accepts resumes only from agencies with which we formally engage their services. Please do not forward resumes to our applicant tracking system, Cox employees, Cox hiring manager, or send to any Cox facility. Cox is not responsible for any fees or charges associated with unsolicited resumes.

About the Company:
Cox Automotive