Lead User Experience Researcher

About the Role

Join a dedicated and high-achieving team focused on impactful outcomes within an inclusive and high-performance culture. As a Lead User Experience Researcher, you will support digital and business teams by helping them thoroughly understand client needs, identify opportunities, and confidently guide experience-related decisions. Your role involves enhancing research efficiency and spearheading discovery research to address ambiguous and open-ended challenges by integrating evidence from client journeys, products, and needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery research initiatives that address complex, ambiguous challenges, managing the process from framing the problem to synthesizing findings and activating insights.
• Apply systems thinking to interrelate client needs, user journeys, products, channels, and organizational components.
• Design research methodologies tailored to the situation, combining qualitative, quantitative, participatory, and innovative techniques as required.
• Engage proactively with executives and stakeholders to clarify research questions, question assumptions, and ensure alignment with decision-making needs.
• Translate complex data and evidence into clear insights, opportunity areas, and actionable recommendations that inform UX strategy and priorities.
• Lead internal workshops to help extract priorities, align strategic direction, emphasize key implications, and deliver findings with clarity, confidence, and acknowledgment of evidence limitations.
• Develop and influence research roadmaps to help teams focus on the most valuable questions.
• Link client insights to business outcomes, investment choices, and overarching strategic goals.
• Advance the research function by improving methodologies, standards, governance, and operational processes.
• Manage research tools, templates, and evidence repositories to facilitate easy capture, retrieval, reuse, and cross-team connectivity of research data.
• Oversee the integration and quality control of AI-supported synthesis and search tools within the research practice to enable trustworthy rapid insights.
• Coordinate and deliver enablement programs including curriculums, templates, and coaching to empower designers and product partners to conduct quality research aligned with team standards, expanding capacity efficiently.

Required Skills and Experience

• Minimum 7 years of experience in UX research, design research, service design, or related insight and strategy roles.
• Preferred experience in financial services, regulated sectors, or complex service environments.
• Proven ability to lead discovery research addressing ambiguous or complex questions and to convert findings into strategic directives.
• Experience influencing senior leadership, shaping strategic decisions, and driving organizational actions through research.
• Practical expertise in participant recruitment, managing incentives, using research tools, maintaining repositories, conducting surveys, and preparing research reports.
• Strong systems thinking, synthesis capabilities, skilled facilitation, storytelling aptitude, and stakeholder management.
• A growth-oriented mindset with a proactive approach and strategic perspective, demonstrating curiosity and confidence when navigating uncertainty and optimizing research processes.

Benefits and Inclusion

• Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Allyship with a culture empowering all employees to thrive in a bias-free and inclusive environment.
• Access to Employee Resource Groups spanning diverse identities including gender, ethnicity, race, age, ability, and veteran status.
• Provision of workplace accommodations to ensure an accessible and supportive environment for all employees.
• Opportunities for skill enhancement through online courses, cross-functional development, and tuition assistance.
• Competitive rewards including bonuses, flexible vacation, personal and sick leave, and benefits commencing from day one.
• Encouragement of community engagement through various programs such as hackathons, contests, and internal initiatives enhancing team belonging.

Additional Information

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This is an onsite role with a prominent financial institution committed to inclusion and accessibility. Candidates requiring accommodation during recruitment or the selection process can request assistance.