Senior UX Researcher (Mixed Methods)

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they’re going. Since our start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has been focused on building the World’s Most Experienced Driver in hopes of improving the world's access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. Our Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, our fully autonomous ride-hailing service, as well as Waymo Via, our trucking and local delivery service. To date, Waymo has driven over 20 million miles autonomously on public roads across 25 U.S. cities and conducted over 20 billion miles of simulation testing.

Waymo takes an integrated approach to building the world’s first fully autonomous driving technology, with researchers, designers, product managers, and technical program managers working side by side. We seek to understand the needs of our users and the opportunities of the technology to ensure we build the best product. From autonomous driving behavior to user interfaces, we work to inspire the product vision and make it a reality.

The Waymo Insights Team inspires teams across the Waymo org to make decisions based on human-centered research. Our work spans the breadth of some of Waymo’s most nuanced questions of human robot interaction to some of our most foundational product strategy assumptions. We are tasked with tackling ambiguous and culturally complicated questions because we have a reputation for bringing back fascinating and actionable insight. Our team of interdisciplinary researchers hail from a broad mix of disciplines in social science, strategy consulting, and design, who have come together to solve wicked problems, invent new methods, and champion human-centered needs.

In this role, you’ll: 

• Lead a variety of research programs that help to shape product decisions from broad foundational strategies to evaluative UX development
• Run studies end-to-end, utilizing mixed methods, engaging and including teams stakeholder partners - designers, product managers, and engineers
• Contribute to research operations and research team tooling by helping to stand-up and own process, projects, and tools that further our best practices
• Expand impact and expertise by advocating for, and consulting stakeholders on research best practices, methodologies, and analysis approach
• Translate fascinating and complex problems into well scoped and executable research projects that can drive timely product impact
• Articulate key insights through clear and comprehensive written reports, compelling visuals, data visualization, frameworks, decks, and documentary style video clips

At a minimum we’d like you to have:

• Track record of running large-scale research projects that look at technical products or teams (engineering, science, systems, medicine)
• 5+ years industry experience conducting user research in professional and/or academic context (mixed methods) leveraging methodologies to suit the question (e.g., lab studies, field visits, interviews, surveys, benchmark studies, server logs, job shadowing, experiments)
• BA/BS degree in Behavioral Science, Human Robot Interaction, Human Computer Interaction, or other related UX research fields or equivalent practical experience

It’s preferred if you have:

• Demonstrated experience running UX research in a highly technical organization studying a highly complex product or system
• Experience with survey design, quantitative analysis and data visualization using R/Python and SQL
• Portfolio of research project work articulating novel insight that inspired design and engineering teams to make new product considerations
• Experience supporting a large organization, complex portfolio of products, and network of stakeholders on a small team or a team of one
• M.A/M.S./Ph.D. (in progress or completed) in social science field

Note: The following is only applicable for roles hired in the US. As we keep the safety of our employees and our communities top of mind, COVID-19 vaccinations continue to be a critical prevention measure to help end the pandemic.  Because of this, Waymo requires all US-based employees who perform work onsite for Waymo to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If you are unable to be vaccinated, Waymo will provide a reasonable accommodation consistent with applicable law.