Lead User Experience Researcher

Cisco • Milpitas, MI

4d

About The Position

Cisco is hiring a Lead User Experience Researcher for its AI Software & Platform Team, working on Cisco Cloud Control, AI Canvas, Studio, and Marketplace. Cisco Cloud Control is a unified operations platform designed for AgenticOps, bringing Cisco domains—including networking, security, compute, observability, and collaboration—into one consistent environment so IT teams can manage, govern, and operate their IT estate from a single experience while retaining existing product dashboards.

This is a quantitative-research-heavy role focused on understanding users and shaping platform and AI-powered experiences. The researcher will define, baseline, and track UX metrics for important platform journeys, build measurement plans with cross-functional partners, and interpret quantitative evidence from telemetry, surveys, and benchmarks. When quantitative findings are inconclusive or surprising, the researcher will identify and conduct qualitative follow-up to explain the underlying user experience. The role also designs, executes, analyzes, and communicates quantitative and qualitative research, including surveys, benchmarks, A/B tests, interviews, and concept evaluations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of related experience, or a master’s degree and 6 years of related experience, or a Ph.D. and 3 years of related experience, or equivalent related work experience.
• 7+ years leading end-to-end quantitative and qualitative UX research.
• Experience partnering with Product, Design, Data Science, and Engineering teams to define and execute user-centered success measures and measurement plans.
• Quantitative research experience, including surveys (such as SUS, CSAT, NPS, and SEQ), statistical analysis, benchmarking, A/B testing, and multivariate testing.
• Qualitative research experience, including user interviews, moderated and/or unmoderated usability testing, concept evaluations, and journey mapping.
• Experience applying AI to augment and accelerate research work.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Amplitude or equivalent platforms.
• Experience conducting research on AI software or related topics.
• Ability to translate behavioral data into clear, decision-ready narratives.
• Demonstrated experience building and owning UX measurement frameworks or success-metric programs, rather than conducting only individual studies.
• Comfort working directly with product telemetry or instrumentation data.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and bring clarity to it.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Curiosity and confidence in asking questions to uncover stakeholders’ true research needs.
• Ability to challenge traditional assumptions about UX research by inventing, testing, and sharing new approaches.
• Experience in a large-enterprise B2B environment.

Responsibilities

• Define and track key UX success metrics across priority platform journeys with Product Management, Design, Data Science, and Engineering.
• Build and maintain measurement plans, aligning partners on what is being measured, why it is being measured, and how success is defined.
• Baseline platform journey quality and track it over time.
• Analyze and communicate quantitative findings in actionable terms for partners.
• Identify inconclusive or surprising quantitative signals and scope qualitative research to understand the reasons behind them.
• Work cross-functionally across business units and connect measurement findings across the broader platform.
• Design, execute, and analyze quantitative studies, including large-scale surveys such as SUS, CSAT, and SEQ, benchmark studies, and A/B tests.
• Design, execute, and analyze qualitative studies, including interviews and concept evaluations.
• Lead end-to-end UX research, including discovery, planning, recruitment, execution, synthesis, analysis, and presentation.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• 401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
• Paid parental leave
• Short- and long-term disability coverage
• Basic life insurance
• Paid holidays
• Floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• Paid day off for employee’s birthday
• Paid year-end holiday shutdown
• Paid personal wellness days
• Paid vacation or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
• Sick time off
• Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
• Optional paid volunteer days
• Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales roles
• Eligible employees may receive Cisco restricted stock unit grants

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior