Director of User Research, AEC

Autodesk•Boston, MA

About The Position

The Director, AEC User Research will lead the User Research function within the AEC User Success organization, part of the broader Experience Foundations team. This role is responsible for advancing research excellence, defining the research operating model, and embedding a journey-centric, mixed-methods approach across AEC. This leader will manage a team of research managers and senior individual contributors, ensuring high-quality, scalable research that integrates qualitative and quantitative insights. Working closely with cross-functional partners across product, analytics, growth, and design, this role ensures that user insights are clearly understood, effectively communicated, and translated into impactful decisions. The Director plays a critical role in helping AEC evolve from fragmented research practices to a mature, AI-enabled product insights function—ensuring the voice of the user is consistently represented, understood, and acted on across the organization, while enabling the shift toward more intelligent, automated, and agentic user experiences.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in user research, product insights, or a related field
5+ years of experience leading research teams, including second-line leadership
Deep expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods
Experience working in complex, cross-functional environments
Strong ability to translate insights into strategic recommendations and business impact
Excellent communication, storytelling, and stakeholder influence skills
Familiarity with AI-enabled product development and its implications for user experience and research
Business acumen and the ability to connect insights to outcomes are as important as subject-matter expertise
Ability to interpret complex business challenges and influencing decisions across multiple teams and leadership levels

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of research managers and senior ICs, building a high-performing and scalable organization
Establish and uphold high standards for research quality, rigor, and craft across all work
Develop team capability in mixed-methods research and journey-centric practices
Define and evolve the AEC research operating model, including methodologies, standards, and prioritization
Embed journey-centric approaches (e.g., Critical User Journeys) to connect insights to end-to-end user experiences
Partner with Product, Analytics, Growth, and Strategy to deliver integrated, cross-functional insights
Ensure insights are communicated through clear, compelling storytelling that drives understanding and action
Drive activation of research into product decisions, innovation, and experience design outcomes
Establish and track how research influences decisions and business impact, communicating that impact across the organization
Lead high-impact, cross-AEC initiatives where research drives key business outcomes
Oversee research prioritization, resourcing, and delivery across multiple business units
Advance adoption of AI-enabled tools and workflows to scale research speed, quality, and impact
Stay informed on emerging technologies, particularly AI and agentic systems, and translate their implications into research strategy and practice
Enable the team to research and inform AI-enabled, automated, and agentic user experiences, ensuring they are grounded in real user needs and behaviors
Partner with Product, Design, Engineering, and Content Strategy to ensure research effectively shapes human–AI interaction models, trust, and experience quality at scale