Associate Manager - User Experience Research

Meijer•Grand Rapids, MI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Manager, User Experience Research leads the UX Research practice across Meijer Technology. This role is accountable for establishing research strategy, growing and managing the research team, and ensuring customer‑ and team member‑centered insights directly inform technology, product, and service decisions. The Associate Manager partners with Product, Design, Engineering, and Business leaders to plan and execute qualitative and quantitative research, lead service design activities, and measure experience impact across customer‑facing and team member‑facing technologies. Position will follow our hybrid schedule: Monday-Wednesday in office, Thursday-Friday remote. Occasional travel as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human‑Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Design, or related field, or equivalent experience.
7+ years of experience in UX Research, Experience Strategy, or Service Design.
Prior experience leading research initiatives across multiple teams or products.
Demonstrated expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Experience managing and developing team members.
Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder‑influencing skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience building or scaling a UX Research practice in a large or complex organization.
Experience supporting both customer‑facing and internal (team member) technologies.
Familiarity with service design methods and systems‑level thinking.
Retail, digital commerce, or enterprise technology experience.

Responsibilities

Establish and lead the enterprise UX Research practice across Meijer Technology.
Define research standards, frameworks, and ways of working to ensure consistency and quality across teams.
Align research priorities to business objectives, technology roadmaps, and experience outcomes.
Serve as a subject‑matter expert and advisor to Product and Technology leadership.
Lead and oversee qualitative and quantitative research initiatives, including usability testing, interviews, surveys, ethnographic research, and analytics‑informed studies.
Guide synthesis of research findings into clear insights, opportunities, and recommendations.
Lead service design activities, including service blueprints, journey maps, and end‑to‑end experience analysis.
Ensure research is integrated throughout discovery, delivery, and optimization phases.
Define and track UX and experience metrics to measure research effectiveness and business impact.
Partner with analytics and product teams to connect insights to outcomes such as adoption, satisfaction, efficiency, and experience quality.
Communicate results through clear storytelling, executive readouts, and artifacts that support decision‑making.
Hire, coach, and manage UX Researchers.
Set performance expectations, provide feedback, and support career development.
Scale team capacity and capabilities to support multiple product and platform teams.
Foster a culture of learning, collaboration, and customer advocacy.
Partner closely with UX Design, Product Management, Engineering, Data & Analytics, and Business stakeholders.
Facilitate strategy sessions, research readouts, and workshops with cross‑functional teams.
Advocate for customer‑ and team member‑centered decision‑making across Meijer Technology.