Modern communications are undergoing a sea change. Remote work is no longer the outlier or the exception, it is the norm. AI and Intelligent agents have become a crucial component of any company’s relationship with its customers and its employees. Change is everywhere, and Microsoft's Intelligent Conversation and Communication Cloud (IC3) is at the heart of that change. IC3 powers billions of real-time customer conversations with audio/video calling, meeting, routing, and messaging services from anywhere seamlessly across all customer touchpoints, built on top of the same technology that powers Microsoft Teams. As the designers and creators of the IC3 Developer Platform, we are a fast-growing platform powering the future of communications across a myriad of different industries. If you’re excited about the possibility of being part of this change, then we want to talk to you.  

Are you curious about how people and organizations communicate through the digital medium? Are you passionate about helping create the best possible experience for the developers creating these revolutionary new products? Do you revel in data and excel in using it to tell a compelling product story? Are you a leader excited to drive customer empathy across an organization? If the answer to these questions is “Yes, definitely!”, then you might be the perfect candidate for this role.

Azure Communication Services, the IC3 Developer Platform, is seeking a Senior UX Researcher experienced in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

As a good fit, you have passion & skill for generating customer insights, and experience driving product impact as a result of those insights. You will be joining a growing team of remote and hybrid designers, researchers, and Product Managers in deriving deep customer insights and shaping the process and methodology of turning them into great experiences. 

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

In this position, you’ll need to excel in understanding the needs, wants, and desires of our customers to help inform the development roadmap. You will: 

• Partner with Product Managers & Development teams to understand product goals and strategies   

• Partner with our UX Research lead to create research plans that involve and engage your partners and your team and impact product strategy, design, and quality.  

• Helpplan and execute appropriate research activities to answer relevant design and/or business questions, leveraging and triangulating both qualitative andquantitative methods (observation, interviews, journals, ethnography, surveys, lab studies, instrumentation, etc.)  

• Provide your partners with research context, perspective, and recommendations on what will make our products and services both useful and delightful  

• Communicate research findings through regular updates, persuasive and compelling written reports, and group presentations  

• Bring a wide range of both established and innovative research methods to your work and develop new methods where needed to evolve the desirability of our experiences.

• Help evangelize and educate your partners on the value of customer-driven research methodologies.  

• Contribute your research and perspective through the entire product design cycle, from planning to implementation to post-release  

• Help develop and evangelize effective, trustworthy, and ethical uses of AI to streamline processes and better scale UX research activities.

• Partner with other researchers across Microsoft, to broaden our perspective and learn from the larger MSFT community. 

• Embody ourCulture (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-values) andValues (https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/culture)

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 4+ years User Experience Research experience

• OR Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 3+ years User Experience Research experience

• OR Doctorate in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 1+ year(s) User Experience Research experience

• OR equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 3+ years relevant domain experience within technology sector, as well as 3+ years experience in research methods impacting both product direction and detailed experience design.

• Ability to distill complex ideas into succinct thought and impactful storytelling.

• Ability to develop creative approaches to researching complex user experience problems.

• Good written and oral communication skills, persuasiveness, and the ability to make and deliver compelling group presentations.

• Experience in the enterprise domain highly desirable. 

UX Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 - $218,400 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $145,800 - $238,600 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until April 22, 2024.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations (https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/accessibility.html) .