Senior UX Researcher, Design Strategy, XR

Applicants in San Francisco and Los Angeles County: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with local Fair Chance Ordinances and the California Fair Chance Act. This role may also be located in Playa Vista, CA. Preferred working locations: San Francisco, CA; San Jose, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY.

About the role

At Google, we "Focus on the user and all else will follow." As a User Experience Researcher (UXR), you make this possible. You will join our multi-disciplinary UX team, collaborating with Engineering and Product Management, to gather insights and create industry-leading products. You’ll play a critical role in helping your team understand user needs and will drive impact at all stages of product development, ensuring products are useful, usable, and helpful.

You will explore user behaviors and motivations by conducting primary research, including: field studies, interviews, diary studies, ethnography, surveys, usability testing, and logs analysis. You will also grow within a supportive UXR community offering mentorship, regular meetups, and exclusive internal tools.

Google's XR team is at the forefront of the next major leap – the convergence of AI and XR. This is more than just new devices – it's about reimagining how we interact with the world around us. We're building a future where lightweight XR devices like smart glasses and headsets pair with helpful AI to augment human intelligence, offering personalized, conversational, and contextually aware experiences.

Responsibilities

• Provide user-centered insights to inform near and long-term product strategy and roadmap development.
• Conduct research to inform product-market fit and value propositions, drive strategic research perspectives across teams, and raise what's next for product teams.
• Deploy creative and co-design research methods to inform north star experiences.
• Develop and maintain a prioritized research roadmap aligned with product strategy and business goals.
• Design for scale and systems through research programs such as critical user journeys (CUJs).

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 6 years of experience in an applied research setting (e.g., product or academic), or similar.
• Experience with research methods (e.g., usability studies, contextual inquiries, 1:1 interviews, unmoderated research studies).
• Experience with design strategy and product definition research.
• Experience creating research programs such as critical user journeys.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Statistics, Psychology, Anthropology, or related field.
• 5 years of experience conducting UX research on products and working with executive leadership (e.g., Director level and above).
• 3 years of experience managing projects and working in a large, matrixed organization.
• Experience conducting research with emerging technologies and devices (e.g., VR headsets, smartphones, wearables).
• Experience partnering closely with cross-functional teams.
• Applied experience conducting research in AR/VR product environments, Android systems, system UI, or app scaling.

Pay

US: $159,000 - $230,000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits.

Benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.