Senior Manager, UX Research Stores

About the role:

Stores UX Research focuses on understanding how store team members and leaders work across complex operational service and digital experiences. The team partners closely with Product Design Technology and Store Operations to simplify work improve decision-making and shape experiences that lead to better team member and guest outcomes.

As Senior Manager of UX Research for Stores you will lead the research strategy and team supporting these experiences and help focus UX Research on the problems and decisions where it can have the greatest impact. You will help ensure UX Research focused on the problems and decisions where it can have the greatest impact. Success in this role is measured by the impact research has on decisions experiences and outcomes not by the volume of research delivered. Your team will help partners identify the right problems make better decisions improve experiences reduce risk and influence meaningful outcomes.

This role requires a leader who operates as a strategic partner to Product Design Technology Store Operations Data Science and business teams. You will help shape priorities make sure research is present at the right planning moments and make sure user understanding is reflected in product strategy and decision-making.

You will set a high bar for the team while creating the conditions for researchers to operate with real ownership. You will coach researchers to build strong partnerships bring a point of view identify where research can add the most value and feel empowered to redirect or say no to work that does not meet that bar.

You will also help evolve how Stores UXR works as AI changes research practice identifying responsible ways to improve research speed quality synthesis reuse and insight activation while keeping human judgment research ethics and rigor central to the work.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Stores UX Research strategy making certain research is focused on the highest-impact user problems product decisions and business priorities.

• Set research priorities with senior cross-functional partners and ensure the team is involved in planning roadmap development prioritization and discovery at the moments where research can shape direction.

• Lead coach and develop a team of 3 researchers setting clear expectations for craft partnership ownership and impact and providing direct actionable feedback that helps them grow.

• Build trusted relationships with senior partners across Product Design Technology Store Operations Data Science and the broader business.

• Define and evolve research priorities and roadmaps across Stores balancing foundational understanding discovery evaluative research and longer-term strategic learning.

• Coach researchers to operate as strategic partners bringing a strong research point of view rather than waiting for requests and prioritizing where research can materially change an outcome.

• Empower the team to defer redirect or decline lower-impact work when appropriate so capacity stays focused on the most important questions and decisions.

• Champion durable understanding of store team members leaders workflows and experiences through personas journeys service design foundational research experience measurement and other reusable research assets.

• Help teams move from insight to action ensuring research translates into clear implications decisions priorities and measurable experience improvements.

• Create visibility into research priorities progress learning and impact and connect insights across product areas so learning can be reused instead of recreated.

• Explore and scale responsible uses of AI and automation that improve research planning analysis synthesis reporting and insight activation while maintaining quality ethics privacy and rigor.

• Contribute to broader Enterprise UX Research standards talent development ways of working and adoption of emerging research capabilities.

Core responsibilities of this job are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

About you:

• 7 years of experience in UX research product research applied research human-centered design behavioral science or a related field.

• Proven experience in a people management role including hiring leading and coaching high performing cross-geography or remote teams

• Strong understanding of qualitative quantitative evaluative foundational and strategic UX research methods and the judgment to apply them appropriately.

• Demonstrated ability to set a high bar provide clear and direct feedback and grow researcher ownership judgment and influence.

• Ability to connect research to product strategy business outcomes roadmaps and measurable impact.

• Strong cross-functional influence and experience partnering with Product Design Technology Operations Analytics Data Science and business teams.

• Ability to create clarity from ambiguity make prioritization tradeoffs and balance near-term product needs with longer-term learning.

• Strong written verbal and visual storytelling skills with the ability to turn complex insights into clear direction for partners and leaders.

• Interest in responsibly applying AI-enabled tools and emerging capabilities to improve UXR quality speed scale and reuse.

• Experience with retail frontline employee experiences enterprise tools operational workflows or similarly complex ecosystems is a plus.