Your Career

 As a hybrid UX Researcher & Design Strategist at the Palo Alto Innovation & Research center (PAIR), you will help establish the design research practice and evangelize design research throughout the company. You’ll be responsible for strategic foundational research, design research, evaluative work, and Research Operations Development for Palo Alto Networks flagship products. You’ll use design thinking methods, in-depth interviews, contextual inquiries, and large and small-scale surveys. For this role, we're looking for individuals with strong qualitative and strategic research skills, with some experience in using quantitative research methods in order to size the qualitative insights, or gain further signal at scale.

 Your Impact

• Collaborate closely with designers, product managers, and engineers to identify and prioritize opportunities where research can help improve a product decision or customer experience or to inform a strategic decision
• Develop new tools, process, and practices to advance design research and design strategy at the company
• Demonstrate a strong understanding of strengths and weaknesses of different research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase
• Lead all aspects of a research project including: Meet with stakeholders, scope projects, choose methodologies, create research plans, write discussion guides, lead interview sessions, synthesize findings into meaningful themes, and write actionable and impactful reports
• Design and conduct evaluative studies to iteratively improve the design
• Communicate research findings to inform business decisions through rich storytelling via presentations, reports, workshops and any other novel, creative approach

Your Experience

• B.A./B.S. in Psychology, Human Factors, HCI, Design, Computer Science, or Social Sciences, Anthropology, or equivalent
• 2+ years conducting research for both digital products and experiences
• Track record of using foundational, formative, and evaluative research methods such as: in-dept-interviews, ethnographic-style fieldwork, surveys, testing of early designs and prototypes, usability studies (remote/in lab), basic quantitative analyses, A/B testing
• Experience combining quantitative and quantitative research methodologies
• Experience balancing multiple varied projects at once while performing at a high level
• Ability to work independently with little direct supervision and take initiative to solve problems
• A strong grasp on how to clearly, concisely, and persuasively communicate research findings
• Experience leading research projects that have had lasting impact on product and design decisions

Preferred 

• Masters or doctorate  in Psychology, Human Factors, Design, HCI, Computer Science, or Social Sciences, Business, Anthropology, or equivalent
• Training and experience in design strategy, running workshops, and developing Research Operations 
• User Research experience in technical B2B products