Experience Research Senior Specialist

Mastercard•Toronto, ON

56d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are excited to announce a new opportunity for an Experience Research Senior Specialist in our Experience Strategy and Research team, within the Customer Experience and Design team within Mastercard Foundry. The Mastercard Foundry - an interdisciplinary group, including CXD (Customer Experience and Design) teams, data scientists, technologists and more – is the new product development group of Mastercard, focused on de-risking and delivering new and differentiated customer-centric solutions. Our Experience Strategy and Research team, within Foundry, leads early-stage product innovation by uncovering customer needs, identifying opportunities, and translating insights into strategic direction for product and business teams. We operate across discovery, problem definition, and concept development, ensuring that new products and experiences are grounded in customer needs, market dynamics, and organizational objectives. We focus on de-risking key customer, product, and business assumptions throughout the product innovation lifecycle, while fostering a continuous learning culture that drives more informed decisions and accelerates innovation. The Experience Research Senior Specialist is a key member of the team who supports research initiatives that reveal deep customer understanding and de-risk emerging assumptions. This role partners with other experienced researchers and works closely with experience strategists, designers, product managers, and technologists to uncover evidence-based insights that guide product innovation from early discovery through validation of MVP and roadmap assumptions. The Experience Research Senior Specialist is an individual contributor who will be expected to support the design, execution and synthesis of research across diverse methodologies, including exploratory, generative, and evaluative research. These aim to uncover actionable insights to inform strategic decisions and derisk critical assumptions across the product development lifecycle.

Requirements

4 years’+ experience in user experience research, market research, behavioral research, or related fields within innovation-driven organizations.
Proven experience in a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods including ethnography, contextual inquiry, usability testing, surveys, analytics interpretation, and experimental design.
Experience in synthesizing complex data sets and translating research findings into clear, actionable insights that influence product and business strategy.
Familiarity with product development lifecycles, MVP concept testing, and iterative design processes.
Storytelling and communication skills, with experience presenting research findings to diverse audiences.

Nice To Haves

Degree in a research-related field, for example, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Behavioral Economics, Marketing, etc.
Curious about AND/OR direct experience with the following areas — payments, financial technology, business analytics, small business, digital identity, marketplaces, loyalty, and beyond.
A collaborative and inclusive team player.
Passionate about improving the world through “doing well by doing good”.

Responsibilities

Support the lead researcher or strategist in identifying and prioritizing the riskiest assumptions to subsequently de-risk
Support in choosing the optimal research approach and methodology to de-risk priority assumptions, taking into consideration business needs and project phase
Aid in the design and conducting of rigorous, mixed-methods research studies to uncover customer needs, motivations, behaviours, and pain points, across all phases of the product development lifecycle -- from framing the problem to testing and iterating concepts.
Help the lead researcher or strategist in defining research plans, goals and objectives, and develop recruitment screeners, discussion guides and surveys focused on testing assumptions, and informing actionable product and business decisions
Support in the partnering with third-party vendors to execute and scale research plans as needed.
Aid in the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative data into clear insights, opportunity areas, and actionable recommendations that inform product and business strategy.
Support the communication of research findings through compelling storytelling, presentations, and reports to senior stakeholders.
Collaborate closely with other researchers and strategists to translate insights into strategic frameworks, value propositions, and MVP hypotheses.
Support the planning and facilitation of cross-functional design thinking workshops
Collaborate with the CX team to support the design of optimal testing stimuli based on research needs.
Contribute to a collaborative and inclusive environment, where diverse perspectives shape research questions.
Help the team to champion a research-driven culture within the organization by sharing knowledge and advocating for user-centred decision making.
Support in adapting research approaches and plans based on new learnings and business constraints.
Support multiple research projects simultaneously in a fast paced, dynamic environment.
Continuously learn and experiment with new tools and methodologies, and contribute to evolving best practices.
Utilize your curiosity for cultural and technology trends to help the team identify opportunities for innovation.
Learn about emerging research methodologies, tools, and best practices to continuously improve research rigor and impact.