Strategic UX Researcher II

Microsoft

2d • $100,600 - $199,000 • Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a Strategic UX Researcher II to join our multi-disciplinary team of over 80 researchers, engineers, designers, writers, and planners working on a breadth of AI experiences. You will work closely with designers, product managers, and engineers to ideate, define, and deliver innovative AI powered solutions that empower people and teams to work more effectively and efficiently.
We’re a forward-looking team passionate about building innovative technology and shipping delightful experiences—especially where AI changes what products can do. We invest in rapid prototyping, model tuning and evaluation, data experiments, and AI-related explorations to help explore the future of intelligent Microsoft products. Our team brings diverse backgrounds in multiple disciplines, from engineering, design, management consulting or research to behavioral sciences or medicine; we come in all shapes and sizes. We love pushing boundaries and helping evolve Microsoft’s products. Our current focus is on Copilot in the M365 Enterprise world.
If you’re looking for a change and wanting to make an impact – we invite you to join us in our mission and vision to build the future of UX for Microsoft.
This role is intentionally conceptual, integrative, and pre-alignment. Its value lies in strategic research domain expertise, mapping uncertainty, and providing guidance to stakeholders on how to move forward.
To succeed in this role, you will need to have a mixed methods research background, effective communication and storytelling skills, and the ability to drive product vision and strategy based on user and market insights. You will need to be innovative, challenging the status quo, and inspiring new ideas. You have a working knowledge of generative AI solutions and how they can improve both individual and group work. You thrive at systems thinking, understanding how complex systems work and how they can adapt as technology progresses. You are comfortable being ahead of the curve, and new technologies inspire you to see possible futures and outcomes well ahead of when they take hold. You work productively with conceptual ambiguity and incomplete information, and can operate comfortably in advance of internal alignment, framing questions before they are widely recognized. Deep familiarity with product design, prototyping, and coding would be complementary to your success in this role.
We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and contribute. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, and perspectives. This role is based in Redmond, WA and we are open to other locations across the US and remote work.

Requirements

• Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 1+ year(s) User Experience Research experience
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 2+ years User Experience Research experience
• OR equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

• Non-linear reasoning and pattern recognition
• High comfort with ambiguity, operating with incomplete information, and have sound judgment about what matters before it is widely recognized
• Hands-on research experience, with demonstrated skill in collecting and analyzing human behavioral data to uncover actionable insights and improve plans and UX in an AI-forward technology industry setting
• Experience impacting both product direction and experience design on products leveraging AI and large language models (LLMs)
• Proficient with futures or foresight research approaches, comfortable to bring scope and definition to highly ambiguous topical areas, resulting in clear frameworks to drive understanding and improve decision making with stakeholders
• Utilize scenario modeling as a tool where needed to land insights or future oriented frameworks
• Use of AI to augment daily workflows (planning, moderating, analysis, reporting)
• Experience designing and experimenting with approaches to model evaluation and the creation of quality rubrics

Responsibilities

• Work across organizational boundaries and across disciplines with UX Designers, Planners, UX Researchers, Data Science, Product Managers, Marketers, Writers and Engineers to ensure that we’re addressing the most critical business and technology objectives to meet the right user needs and opportunities, landing impact with our products from your strategic research domain expertise.
• Identify stakeholders across Microsoft and bring them along as you provide research-driven insights to influence product development at different levels of granularity, from product strategy to cross-platform coherence to feature usability. Your work will deliver the perspectives these stakeholders need to make product development decisions across M365.
• Tackle problems that require an understanding of complex technical constraints across multiple applications (M365 applications, operating system, web browser), platforms (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android) and devices (Desktop, Web, Mobile) while working to guide near and longer-term investments. You should have the organizational agility and acumen to know when to push against product team resistance and when to fold constraints into your recommendations.
• Understand complex systems by looking at the relationships and interactions between their parts, rather than just the individual parts themselves. Demonstrate the ability to generate insights about how these systems impact the user experience of using the product across multiple dimensions. Anticipate shifts in technical, business, and human contexts and their potential impact. This role’s value lies in mapping uncertainty and providing guidance to stakeholders on how to move forward.
• Create research strategies and plans that leverage existing data and complement additional research that you need to execute. Derive insights from qualitative and quantitative data. Create clarity of purpose through scoping, alignment with stakeholders, and prioritization. Key to this accountability will be identifying opportunities for growth and opportunity gaps with insight on how to address them through adaptation of a complex system.
• Define UX approaches, metrics, and work with others on research planning. Innovate and develop new approaches to measure user experience.

What This Job Offers

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