Head of Experience Research

As we grow our multi-discipline team, we are seeking a research leader to head our Experience Research function for Wealth Management. In this  role, you will partner with design, product, and business leaders to shape the strategic vision for Wealth Management, helping navigate large-scale digital transformation across the business. We are looking for a seasoned mixed-methods practitioner and people leader who can champion research at the highest levels of the organization, build and scale research programs, mentor research talent, and conduct and oversee studies that deliver high-impact insights on user needs, workflows, and usability.

Experience Research is responsible for understanding and communicating user needs and reframing them into actionable insights that product and design teams can use to improve our products and services. As Head of Experience Research, you will collaborate with design, product managers, and developers, as well as members of other teams across sales, trading, marketing, and legal, to bring exceptional user experiences to life. You will set the standard for research excellence, define the research roadmap, and serve as the primary voice of the customer in executive and C-suite conversations. As a team, we transform large-scale, complex problems into intuitive, simple, and impactful products.
 

Responsibilities

Strategic Research Leadership

• Define and own the overarching research strategy and vision for Wealth Management, aligning research programs with business priorities and long-term product goals.
• Build, lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team of researchers, fostering a culture of curiosity, rigor, and user advocacy.
• Responsible for crafting research strategy, scoping and conducting research, and delivering actionable insights for strategic research programs within financial services.
• Partner with leadership to identify, define and track KPIs across all relevant programs to both track progress toward our collective goals and serve as the foundation for future planning and roadmap Development.   
• Establish and scale research operations including processes, tooling, participant recruitment, governance, and knowledge management to scale research efficiently and responsibly across the organization.
• Define and track measures of research impact and quality, demonstrating the ROI of research to senior stakeholders.

Mixed-Methodology Formation & Execution

• Lead and apply mixed methodologies including surveys, user interviews, usability testing, contextual inquiry, diary studies, and concept testing — to triangulate user needs and pain points and deliver well-rounded insights.
• Leverage heuristics, Voice of the Customer (VoC), statistical analyses, and other insightful methods to triangulate user pain points.
• Leverage AI and emerging tools throughout the research lifecycle — from study design and participant recruitment to transcription, qualitative synthesis, and insight generation — to dramatically increase research efficiency and scale.
• Pioneer responsible adoption of AI-assisted analysis to accelerate time-to-insight while maintaining rigor, quality, and ethical standards across all research outputs.
• Conduct competitive and comparative research and analysis to complement user research.
• Manage your team’s workload across multiple projects and teams simultaneously in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Cross Team Collaboration

• Drive user-centric product teams, strategy, processes, and products.
• Collaborate with designers, engineers, and product managers to balance the right process and methodologies with relevant business goals to ensure research delivers impactful results throughout the product lifecycle.
• Partner with data science and analytics teams to integrate behavioral and attitudinal data into a holistic view of the customer.
• Partner with stakeholders across sales, trading, marketing, and legal to bring exceptional, user-centered experiences to life.
• Above all, be a passionate advocate for the user throughout the product development lifecycle.

Executive Communication

• Communicate research findings, strategic recommendations, and the voice of the customer directly to executive and C-suite leadership, influencing high-stakes business and product decisions.
• Present complex research insights in a clear, compelling, and concise manner tailored to senior executive audiences, translating data into strategic narratives that drive action.
• Network with leaders across Wealth Management and the larger firm to identify opportunities for collaboration.

Basic Qualifications

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in mixed-method user research, including substantial experience in a leadership or management capacity, in the context of product management, interaction design, information architecture, and visual design for digital experiences.
• Demonstrated experience building, scaling, and leading research teams and functions.
• University Degree in a research or business-focused field (e.g., User Experience, Human Factors, Psychology, Anthropology, or related fields); advanced degree preferred.
• Deep, proven expertise across mixed methodologies including surveys, user interviews, usability testing, contextual inquiry - spanning both qualitative (usability testing, contextual inquiry, ethnographic research) and quantitative (survey design, max-diff, multivariate, conjoint analysis) approaches.
• Proven experience leveraging AI throughout the research lifecycle and product development process, including AI-assisted study design, synthesis, and insight generation, to increase efficiency, scale, and impact.
• Experience across the full product development and evaluation process, from early discovery and concept validation through design, build, launch, and post-launch measurement.
• Experience leveraging research software and tools (e.g., Pendo, UserTesting.com, Qualtrics, Wevo, dscout, and others).
• Experience with design software including Figma and working closely with design to build and test prototypes.
• Ability to connect research findings from multiple projects and sources and provide higher-order, strategic insights.
• Ability to clearly and effectively synthesize findings into presentations that extract actionable recommendations, including experience leveraging frameworks like user journey mapping, personas, and affinity diagramming.
• Exceptional executive communication and storytelling skills, with a proven track record of presenting to and influencing executive and C-suite stakeholders.
• Experience planning and facilitating workshops (hypothesis, concepting, design-thinking, insights) with senior stakeholders to generate impactful research insights.
• Self-motivated, self-managed self-starter with a high degree of analytical ability and intellectual curiosity, able to ascertain what the team needs and add value with little outside direction.
• Entrepreneurial drive and a desire to work in a commercially focused, fast-paced environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Relevant work experience in a large financial institution, especially within Wealth and Asset Management.
• Familiarity with financial markets and Wealth Management for High Net Worth Individuals
• Experience working with large data sets, quantitative research methodologies, and analytics.