Senior User Experience Researcher

Why PlayStation?

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in entertainment producing The PlayStation family of products and services including PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®VR, PlayStation®Plus, acclaimed PlayStation software titles from PlayStation Studios, and more.

PlayStation also strives to create an inclusive environment that empowers employees and embraces diversity. We welcome and encourage everyone who has a passion and curiosity for innovation, technology, and play to explore our open positions and join our growing global team.

The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

Senior UX Researcher

San Francisco, CA

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the PlayStation Platform UX Research Team and become a key player in impacting the product and design strategy of PlayStation and the future of interactive entertainment! As Senior UX Researcher, you are responsible for leading a broad range User Experience (UX) Research projects. In collaboration with UX Design, Product Management, Engineering and stakeholders, you will identify the appropriate UX research methods/activities for each project and for coordinating user research activities across numerous products, services, and platforms.

As an ideal candidate, you are experienced in Generative Research (qualitative and quantitative), Concept Research, and Evaluative Research. Your role is to complement business strategy, advise product and design direction, and help deliver outstanding innovative user experiences. You let your passion shine by consistently advocating for users need and collaborate with cross-functional collaborators to implement the best solutions to user problems. You provide valuable feedback to both peers and managers and are a model to junior researchers. You have an excellent understanding of the UX Design process, principles and patterns, and technological capabilities/limitations.

Responsibilities:

• Own and conduct end-to-end UX Research - from foundational research to advise on product direction, all the way to concept and usability testing.
• Conduct Generative Research and format findings in impactful UX outputs including user personas, mental model maps, journey maps, user-flows, etc.
• Translate development goals and strategies into research opportunities.
• Be accountable for ensuring that research deliverables are high quality and meet the established standards and guidelines and go beyond “bullet points”.
• Manage communication with team members, including designers, product managers, project managers and engineers inside various divisions.
• Act as a coach and mentor, as well as leading other researchers toward innovative and creative thinking when approaching research challenges.
• Drive initiatives to create new and evolve existing research methods and processes by staying up-to-date with innovations in the industry.
• Manage partner agencies and consultants, directing their efforts through clear input and feedback to ensure high quality deliverables that suit the needs of the internal collaborators.

Qualifications:

• Minimum BA/BS degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human Factors, Psychology, UX Design, related field or equivalent experience.
• 6+ years of UX Research, and related experience, proven in a portfolio of projects.
• Proven record of conducting generative and evaluative research projects.
• A robust understanding of industry-standard UX research methods including ethnographic methods (e.g. in-depth interview, group interviews), evaluative methods (e.g. concept testing, in-lab/remote usability testing, tree testing, etc.), and quantitative methods (surveys, behavioral analytics, etc.).
• Expert-level knowledge of multiple UX research techniques. Mastery of quantitative techniques and applied statistics a plus.
• Experience providing research and deep insights leading to compelling and quality interfaces.
• Strong communication skills and ability to build and sustain internal and external partnerships.
• Deep experience working within a technical (preferably agile) environment.
• Knowledge of, and passion for gaming, media and software industries is a big plus.

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.