Sr. UX Researcher

O.C. Tanner•Salt Lake City, UT

22h

About The Position

O.C. Tanner is the global leader in software and services that improve workplace culture through meaningful employee experiences. Our Culture Cloud is a suite of apps designed to enhance the employee experience with strategic recognition, service awards, wellbeing, leadership, and events that help people thrive at work. Our Culture by Design approach provides expert services to organizations looking to create great workplaces. Our global team of 1,500 people hail from 58 countries and speak 62 languages. As programmers, researchers, designers, client professionals and craftspeople we create the tech, tools and awards that connect employees to purpose at thousands of companies. Join us as we help people all over the world thrive at work. O.C. Tanner is seeking a Senior UX Researcher to lead high-impact qualitative and quantitative research that informs product strategy and drives measurable outcomes across the Culture Cloud platform. Culture Cloud is a unified suite of employee recognition applications and services that help employees thrive at work by connecting them to purpose, accomplishment, and each other. As a senior individual contributor, this role goes beyond executing research to shaping the research vision, influencing product direction, and ensuring research rigor and consistency across teams. The Senior UX Researcher partners closely with Product, Design, and Engineering leaders to identify opportunities, define success metrics, and translate complex insights into clear, actionable recommendations that advance both user and business outcomes. This role is ideal for someone who measures success through outcomes—such as changes in user behavior, product adoption, and business impact—and who thrives in ambiguous problem spaces, bringing clarity through research leadership.

Requirements

Master’s degree in a human behavior–related field (e.g., Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, Communication, Information Science) preferred with 5+ years of professional UX or Product Research experience, or Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of equivalent professional experience
5+ years of professional experience in UX Research or Product Research, with B2B/SaaS experience strongly preferred.
Demonstrated experience leading complex research initiatives that influenced product strategy or business decisions.
Strong portfolio showcasing research thinking, methodological rigor, and clear impact on product or organizational outcomes.
Deep expertise in a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and the ability to select the right approach for ambiguous problems.
Strong analytical skills, including experience using data and statistical concepts to inform and support hypotheses.
Proven ability to work autonomously, manage multiple research efforts, and navigate ambiguity.
Exceptional collaboration and communication skills, with experience influencing stakeholders at varying levels of seniority.
High degree of empathy for diverse user needs and contexts, paired with strong systems thinking.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end research initiatives, from problem framing and study design through synthesis, storytelling, and influence.
Partner with Product and Design leadership to define research roadmaps, ensuring research efforts are proactive, prioritized, and aligned with business strategy.
Establish and evolve research standards, frameworks, metrics, and baselines to ensure consistency and quality across teams.
Identify gaps in knowledge and proactively recommend research approaches to de-risk decisions and uncover new opportunities.
Design and conduct rigorous qualitative and quantitative research using a wide range of methods (e.g., generative research, usability testing, surveys, diary studies, concept testing, analytics-informed research).
Synthesize findings into clear insights that connect user needs, behaviors, and motivations to product and business outcomes.
Translate complex data into compelling narratives that influence decision-making at multiple levels of the organization.
Serve as a trusted research partner to Product Managers, Designers, Engineers, and other stakeholders to enable user-centered, data-informed decisions.
Facilitate research readouts, workshops, and working sessions to align teams around insights and implications.
Advocate for user needs and research-driven decision-making, helping teams understand when and how to apply research most effectively.
Mentor and provide guidance to junior or mid-level researchers, designers, or cross-functional partners on research best practices.
Contribute to growing organizational research maturity by improving processes, tools, and knowledge-sharing practices.
Stay current with industry trends, emerging methods, and evolving best practices, applying them thoughtfully to improve the quality and impact of research.