Senior User Researcher, WPP Open

WPP • Chicago, IL

73d • $75,000 - $180,000

About The Position

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities. Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 100,000 talented people dedicated to doing extraordinary work for our clients. We operate in over 100 countries, with corporate headquarters in New York, London and Singapore. WPP is a world leader in marketing services, with deep AI, data and technology capabilities, global presence and unrivalled creative talent. Our clients include many of the biggest companies and advertisers in the world, including approximately 300 of the Fortune Global 500. Our people are the key to our success. We're committed to fostering a culture of creativity, belonging and continuous learning, attracting and developing the brightest talent, and providing exciting career opportunities that help our people grow. We are looking for a Senior User Researcher to play a central role in shaping the user experience of our global GenAI-powered marketing platform, which is transforming how 150,000 employees across creative, media, and production deliver work. As a foundational part of our digital transformation, this platform blends intelligent automation, role-based AI agents, and new ways of working to streamline project delivery across the enterprise. You will co-create and scale our user research practice-capturing deep insights into user behaviours, needs, pain points, and emerging habits-to influence product direction, drive behavioural change, and ensure the platform is intuitive, efficient, and widely adopted. This role blends strategic thinking, research rigour, and storytelling to bring the voice of the user into every stage of the transformation.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in user research, design research, or human-centered design, preferably within enterprise platforms, digital transformation, or AI.
• Proficient in qualitative methods (interviews, ethnography, contextual inquiry, usability testing) and quantitative analysis (surveys, metrics interpretation).
• Experience conducting research in complex, multi-role enterprise environments with varied user behaviors and tech fluency.
• Strong understanding of behavioural research, digital adoption challenges, and designing research to support change programs.
• Comfortable working with AI-driven tools and emerging technologies such as LLMs, agents, or automation platforms.
• Skilled in storytelling and translating data into insights that inspire and influence decisions across diverse stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Background in psychology, HCI, sociology, anthropology, or a related research discipline.
• Experience with digital tools like Figma, Dovetail, Miro, Airtable, or survey platforms.
• Exposure to agile product teams and rapid, iterative research practices.
• Prior work in creative, media, production, or marketing sectors.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive the research strategy across the GenAI platform transformation, aligning with strategic goals, user adoption targets, and behavioural change objectives.
• Design and conduct mixed-methods research (qualitative and quantitative) to explore user needs, workflows, perceptions of AI tools, and barriers to adoption.
• Identify and segment user personas across functions (creative, media, production), roles, and maturity levels in AI literacy and digital tooling.
• Explore behavioural drivers and resistance points related to GenAI adoption, automation, and role-based agents.
• Assess how users currently complete tasks and how they react to automation or AI intervention.
• Partner with behavioural designers to support interventions that enable mindset shifts, habit formation, and sustained usage of new capabilities.
• Collaborate with UX, Product, and AI teams to design and execute usability tests, concept evaluations, and in-field studies.
• Evaluate AI agent usability, understand gaps in comprehension, and improve task-to-agent workflows to reduce friction and increase confidence.
• Test in-product micro-learnings and feedback systems for continuous learning loops.
• Build systems to capture ongoing user feedback, usage data, and experience metrics as part of a continuous discovery process.
• Translate research findings into clear, actionable insights that guide product development, UX design, agent strategy, and change enablement.
• Develop and maintain user insight dashboards or personas to make findings accessible to a broad internal audience.
• Partner closely with Product, UX, AI Coaching, and Change teams to embed user insights at every phase of design and rollout.
• Facilitate co-creation workshops, journey mapping, and collaborative discovery sessions across global teams.
• Act as a strong advocate for user needs and friction points in strategic planning and roadmap discussions.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range of $75,000-$180,000 USD.
• Hybrid work approach with teams in the office around four days a week.
• Culture that fosters creativity, collaboration, and connection.
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior
• Industry: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations