Senior UX Researcher / UX Strategist
Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid)
Compensation: $65–$72/hr plus Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, and 401(k) Match
Duration: Long-Term Contract
We are seeking a Senior UX Researcher / UX Strategist to help shape user experiences across complex digital products and enterprise platforms. This role will focus on understanding user needs, facilitating research, translating insights into actionable recommendations, and documenting user experience strategies that drive product direction.
Responsibilities
- Conduct and facilitate user research activities including interviews, usability testing, field studies, and discovery sessions.
- Translate research findings into actionable, prioritized recommendations for design and product teams.
- Clarify user, customer, and business needs and transform them into compelling user experiences.
- Partner closely with Product Owners, Designers, Engineers, and stakeholders to define and validate solutions.
- Create UX artifacts such as journey maps, user flows, personas, storyboards, and research reports.
- Develop and document UX strategies, guiding principles, workflows, and experience requirements.
- Support concept development, prototyping, testing, and iterative improvement efforts.
- Prioritize research initiatives based on product goals and roadmap objectives.
- Present research insights and recommendations to stakeholders and leadership teams.
- Ensure user-centered design practices are integrated throughout the product development lifecycle.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of UX Research, UX Strategy, Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, or related experience.
- Strong understanding of user research methodologies and usability testing practices.
- Experience integrating research findings into product design decisions.
- Ability to synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into clear recommendations.
- Experience creating journey maps, user flows, personas, storyboards, and other UX deliverables.
- Experience working in enterprise, corporate, or B2B environments.
- Strong stakeholder management, facilitation, and communication skills.
- Experience managing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
- Portfolio demonstrating your research process, strategic thinking, and problem-solving approach.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human Factors, Psychology, UX Design, or a related field.
- Experience with Figma and modern prototyping tools.
- Project management experience.
- Experience supporting complex operational, workflow-driven, or enterprise software products.
Key Traits for Success
- Empathy and the ability to understand, organize, and synthesize stakeholder and user perspectives.
- Adaptive thinking and comfort navigating changing requirements and ambiguity.
- Strong collaboration skills with cross-functional teams.
- Exceptional storytelling and presentation capabilities backed by research-driven insights.
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