User Experience Researcher

About the role

NextNow Ai is an embedded AI studio that partners with executives to identify high-value opportunities and transform them into practical digital solutions. The company designs and delivers tailored products, including web applications, mobile tools, and targeted automation, to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency. By integrating AI into key workflows, NextNow Ai helps organizations build a sustainable and evolving competitive advantage. Team members collaborate closely with clients to shape strategies, validate ideas, and deliver measurable business impact through innovative technology.

We are seeking an experienced UX Researcher to work closely with business stakeholders, end users, product leaders, and engineers on an on-site Bay Area contract engagement. This person will lead direct user research and turn what they learn into clear, detailed, actionable product requirements that an engineering team can confidently build. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable interviewing users in the field, mapping complex workflows, identifying points of friction, and documenting the specific functional, usability, and data requirements needed to improve a product or business process.

Responsibilities

• Plan and conduct hands-on user research, including interviews, workflow observation, usability testing, and feedback sessions.
• Build a strong understanding of users' day-to-day work, goals, constraints, tools, and decision-making processes.
• Translate research findings into detailed user stories, process flows, journey maps, requirements, and acceptance criteria.
• Clearly distinguish between user needs, current-state pain points, product opportunities, and specific requirements for engineering execution.
• Partner closely with product, design, and engineering teams to clarify requirements, answer questions, and support delivery decisions.
• Facilitate working sessions with users and stakeholders to validate findings and align on priorities.
• Help define and prioritize product improvements based on user impact, feasibility, and business value.
• Create concise, well-structured documentation that enables engineers to execute with limited ambiguity.
• Participate in regular on-site meetings, workshops, and review sessions in the Bay Area.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in UX research, product discovery, business analysis, product management, or a closely related role.
• Demonstrated experience conducting direct, qualitative user research with customers or internal business users.
• Strong ability to synthesize interviews and observations into clear insights and concrete product requirements.
• Experience writing detailed user stories, functional requirements, workflow diagrams, and acceptance criteria for engineering teams.
• Ability to work effectively with both non-technical business users and highly technical engineering teams.
• Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience working in fast-moving environments where requirements need to be discovered and refined collaboratively.
• Comfort working on-site in the Bay Area throughout the engagement.

Skills

• Experience with enterprise software, workflow-heavy products, operational systems, or AI-enabled products is particularly valuable.
• Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, Figma, Miro, Notion, or similar tools.

Success criteria

Success in this role means developing a well-grounded understanding of users and their workflows, while producing a prioritized set of detailed, engineering-ready requirements that enable the team to deliver with clarity and confidence.