Senior Design Researcher

Company Overview

Job Overview|Job Description

Intuit is a global technology platform on a mission to power prosperity around the world. We help over 50 million consumers, small businesses, and self-employed customers overcome their most important financial challenges, building intuitive, AI-driven experiences that generate more money, more time, and more confidence for the people who need it most.

The design research team in Intuit’s Consumer Group is at the heart of that mission. We work in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment where curiosity is valued, technology moves quickly, and every decision comes back to the customer. Our team leverages qualitative and quantitative research methods to deeply understand consumer attitudes, needs, and motivations in order to guide the development of innovative tax and financial experiences that truly make a difference in people’s lives.

We are looking for a curious and collaborative senior design researcher who is passionate about solving tough business and customer problems and advocating for exceptional end-to-end experiences. This role requires someone who can go deep into the details while also stepping back to connect the dots at a strategic level, thriving in ambiguity, moving with urgency, and

Responsibilities

• Minimum of 5 years of UX/design research experience, working cross functionally with design, product, development, and analytics teams

• A track record of successfully scoping and managing research engagements throughout the human-centered design process in close collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders (marketing, design, product managers, customer success, etc.)

• Ability to lead multiple projects at a time in a fast-paced and results-oriented environment

• A desire to contribute to a community of design research practice across Intuit and beyond

• Depth of qualitative research craft:

  • Demonstrated ability in designing and leading strategic qualitative research across a wide range of generative and evaluative methodologies, grounded in a deep understanding of best practices

  • Strong moderation skills, able to adapt to the flow of conversation and probe to uncover deeper insights

  • Proficiency in using a wide range of digital UI research and mobile ethnography tools, including AI-assisted research tools, applied thoughtfully and with integrity

  • Comfort experimenting with mixed methods (qual/quant/analytics) and novel approaches to open-ended problems, including leveraging AI to accelerate the research process while maintaining rigor and human oversight

  • You value process and rigor but thrive in a fast-paced environment and bring creative problem solving to research

• Some experience with quantitative research a plus:

  • An appreciation for the value of hard data in complementing qualitative findings

  • Some experience designing quant UX studies, experiments, and/or surveys and analyzing data

• Strong synthesis and communication skills:

  • Ability to translate research data into clear insights, durable frameworks, and actionable recommendations, including leveraging AI synthesis tools while maintaining accuracy and a clear POV on when and how to use them

  • Strong storytelling, data visualization, and presentation skills, with the ability to bring insights to life and provide clear implications and recommendations that elicit action

  • Comfortable presenting findings in front of leadership and large audiences of key stakeholders

How You Will Lead

• Guide product, design, and marketing stakeholders in reframing their questions and assumptions into clear research goals, testable hypotheses, and learning plans. Use inquiry to challenge assumptions and stretch what’s possible. Clearly articulate methodology recommendations and industry best practices, including the effective and ethical use of AI, to educate teams on quality research.

• Plan and conduct a wide range of research projects end-to-end, applying a broad research toolkit with rigor and inclusivity. Experiment with AI-assisted approaches where appropriate to accelerate learning, while ensuring human oversight and research integrity.

• Coach designers, PMs, and other cross-functional partners on how to participate in and conduct their own research, including the thoughtful use of AI to advance their team’s effectiveness and customer empathy.

• Synthesize data from multiple sources, including qualitative data, product analytics, secondary research, trends, and AI-assisted synthesis, into holistic frameworks and a strong POV that informs product strategy decisions. Develop compelling, well-organized stories that bring insights to life and drive action.

• Partner with other data teams and bring in additional data sources to develop a holistic, data-backed perspective.

• Bring a positive, solution-centric and growth mindset. Work independently across multiple stakeholders and workstreams, gaining alignment on priorities, timelines, and trade-offs as necessary.

• Contribute to the evolution and upleveling of the research team’s craft and culture, including sharing best practices around AI use in research. Mentor and coach more junior team members.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Design, HCI, Human Factors, or a related field/equivalent preferred but open to candidates with various backgrounds

• Experience with Service Design methods, framing, and mapping holistic multi-actor experiences to identify dependencies and implications (including designing experiences for virtual workers)

• Systems thinker; you can think and organize for scale, re-usability and visual frameworks

• Experience or passion for behavioral science/behavioral design, design ethics, or design strategy a plus

• Along with your resume, we’d love to see work samples

Intuit provides a competitive compensation package with a strong pay for performance rewards approach. This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards and benefits, in accordance with our applicable plans and programs (see more about our compensation and benefits at Intuit®: Careers | Benefits). Pay offered is based on factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and work location. To drive ongoing fair pay for employees, Intuit conducts regular comparisons across categories of ethnicity and gender. 

The expected base pay range for this position is:
San Diego $143,000 - $193,500
Mountain View, CA $155,500- $210,500