11 West 19th Street (22008), United States of America, New York, New York

Lead Design Researcher

We are currently seeking a Lead Design (User) Researcher to join our team to focus on strategic level research. Because we are a human centered organization obsessed with delivering products and services based on customer research and feedback, design research is at the heart of our work. We believe using empathy, curiosity and asking questions to understand our customers is core to delivering best in class products and services. We represent the voice of our customers and focus on delivering customer insights.

The Design team at Capital One is at the forefront of enriching our customers’ digital and physical experiences. We champion a thriving environment of collaboration, authenticity and healthy critique, in which we honor diversity of thought, create a culture of belonging, and elevate one another. If you’re an innovator and storyteller who embraces an environment where you can experiment, learn, and change banking for good, we would love to hear from you.  

This Researcher would support initiatives within the Data, Models, Decisioning, and Credit Innovation (DMDC) team including Systemization (Card DS+ML Eng Experience Vision) and DDA (Domain Destination Architecture) to drive future of card data and platforms. 

What You’ll Do: 

As a leader and maker, you’ll be asked to handle responsibilities, including:

Strategy & Planning

• Collaborating with design, technology, product, and business teams to create intuitive and engaging associate and customer experiences across multiple projects simultaneously, start to finish

• Work within an internal / associate facing space that is highly technical related to data, ML, AI

• Translating findings into insights that guide the experience and product decisions

• Leading and shaping early product definitions with formative and foundational research.

• Engage in portfolio prioritization to help set the research strategy and road map for the team

• Manage through open ended problems and support early product definition 

• Advocate for the customer through human-centered research methods

•  Defining Adhering to research standards and best practices for how research is done 

• Champion the prioritization of research & analysis as a basis for making design centered product enhancements

• Working with partners and teams across various geographies

• Embracing and advocating for an experience mindset - this is as important to the work as the results

Lead & Develop Teams

• Building and leading successful teams through career development by mentoring, coaching, and elevating others

• Guide team members in research planning, alignment, execution, analysis, and follow-up 

• Navigating conflict resolution within your team as well as within projects, teams and partner relationships

• Participate in hiring by reviewing resumes, conducting interviews and attending consensus

Execution & Delivery

• Demonstrate fluency of research tools and techniques to measure success, present opportunities, and support decision-making and prioritization utilizing qualitative and quantitative research methods

• Practice and help evolve the team’s research techniques and toolset to work effectively in cross-team collaboration

• Participate in end-to-end product research by:

  • Conducting research studies at all stages from discovery to validation, using a variety of methods to understand customer needs and define opportunities which can include in depth/empathy interviews, field studies, prototype testing & usability benchmarking, contextual inquiry, surveys, card sorts, heuristic review and participatory design

  • Leading designers and non-designers on project teams to understand and apply research findings by framing problems, defining insights, and designing new methodologies/practices to serve research needs

  • Facilitate synthesis and knowledge mapping sessions, teaching research methodologies

  • Distilling findings into clearly articulated and actionable insights for stakeholders by clearly articulating strategies

  • Knowledge management and dissemination of insights, and creating standards for how research is done, shared, templatized and managed

  • Planning and facilitating workshops with internal and external stakeholders to align with business needs

  • Present and communicate research and analysis clearly and effectively across various organizations in any format required. Must be able to sell, support, explain, and simply present usability approach and research to various audience types

Basic Qualifications

• At least 7 years of experience with user, product, or market research

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in social sciences, human factor, cognitive science, human computer interaction or behavioral economics, or certifications in a design or research related field

• Experience leading large bodies of work, research strategy and teams

• Comfortable working with agile and legal teams

• Familiarity with conducting and analyzing research for cross channel experiences

• Comfortable working with a variety of business partners and delivering outcomes

• Experience managing a cross-functional team

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

New York City (Hybrid On-Site): $199,100 - $227,200 for Sr. Manager, DesignSan Francisco and San Jose, California (Hybrid On-Site): $210,900 - $240,700 for Sr. Manager, Design

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter.

This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions), race, color, age, national origin, religion, disability, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender reassignment, citizenship, immigration status, protected veteran status, or any other basis prohibited under applicable federal, state or local law. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at [email protected]. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One’s recruiting process, please send an email to [email protected]

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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).