Job Description

In Mixed Reality, people—not devices—are at the center of everything we do. Our tech moves beyond screens and pixels, creating a new reality aimed at bringing us closer together—whether that’s scientists “meeting” on the surface of a virtual Mars or some yet undreamt-of possibility. To get there, we’re incorporating diverse groundbreaking technologies, from the revolutionary Holographic Processing Unit to computer vision, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and more. We believe that technology is only as powerful as people who create experiences with it, so we are building a robust Mixed Reality ecosystem including Azure Mixed Reality services and Developer Platform. We’re a growing team of talented engineers and artists putting technology on a human path. We believe there has to be a better way. If you do too, we need you!

We are looking for an experienced Senior User Researcher who’s skilled in creating user journeys and working with multiple types of users, across consumer, enterprise, and developers. In this role, you’ll help guide our services and ecosystem engineering and design teams through user research, end user engagement, and activating human insight into our first party experiences and devices.

If you’re a great communicator who is always curious, searching to solve hard human problems, read on.

This team supports our employees in all locations around the country. This job has the option to be remote or located in one of our hubs.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute multi-method user research with target customer segments across public, commercial and consumer groups, discovering unmet needs, activating insights into actionable, measurable outcomes that solve human problems, leveraging Mixed Reality and AI experiences.
• Discover future business opportunities and influence product strategy through identifying unmet user needs and new applications of our technologies to meet those needs.
• Support identified new opportunities, as they arise and as needed, balancing business motivations and end-user value.
• Conduct research to support current products in development
• Collaborate closely with product teams, Microsoft designers, PMs, engineers, and business developers to plan, execute, measure and report findings and insights through user studies, juries, and touch points.
• Develop continuous improvement practices, leveraging the work of others, for efficient and effective research and insight delivery and communication into our experience designs, software, hardware, and human factors capabilities.
• Communicate and evangelize research results to partner teams.
• Develop repeatable practices that have been validated through previously shipped
  

Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands-on experience in user research, product planning and customer engagement methods, activities, practices, and planning.
• A minimum of MA/MS in Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Human Factors, Human-Computer Interaction, Design Research, Anthropology, Political Science or a related field OR several years of additional industry experience.
• Experience working through complete, complex product cycles with an understanding and application of human-centered design and prototyping approaches.
• Experience with a wide variety of research methodologies including, but not limited to: literature reviews, surveys, in-depth interviews, heuristic evaluations, concept validation, focus groups, competitive reviews, participatory designs, and surveys.
• Experience or expertise in the impact of technology on society, ethics, inclusive design, and accessibility
• Experience with Human-Computer Interaction as it applies to Mixed Reality and AI experiences
• Understanding and experience in the scientific method applies to commercial, consumer, and public sector experience development, design of experiments, and creative generative research approaches.
• Ability to balance strong empathy for users with the vision and constraints of business and engineering stakeholders
• Qualitative and quantitative data gathering, analysis, and insight discovery capability.
• A high tolerance for ambiguity and change.
• Excellent communication, design, and problem-solving skills
  

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.