Senior UX Researcher (behavioral Science Focus)

About the role

This role is hybrid with on-site expectations of 2-3 days per week in our New York Headquarters.

As Flex enters a new phase of growth, we are hiring a Senior UX Researcher to bring foundational and strategic insights to our product development. At the core of Flex’s ethos and product offerings is helping people navigate their financial lives towards more stability and security. To that end, research at Flex is tasked with weaving traditional UX research together with cutting edge behavioral science to inform decision-making at every level of the company. In addition to clear UX thinking, your expertise in human judgment and decision-making, including understanding preferences, planning, and structuring choices will be essential to building behaviorally informed products.

Please note: 

1. This is not a traditional UX research role. Applicants with academic backgrounds in both basic and applied behavioral science will stand out as this is a role especially well-suited to behavioral scientists.
2. All applicants are encouraged to submit a CV that includes publications. Don’t shy away from your academic accomplishments.
3. There is no obligation to submit a cover letter. However, that does not mean cover letters will be ignored. Applicants who think their CV doesn’t reflect their ability to thrive in this role are encouraged to write a brief and informal cover letter.

What you’ll do:

• Design and conduct end-to-end research. You will develop and execute quantitative—and some qualitative—research plans, including surveys and survey experiments, test psychological theories with on-platform behavioral data, and talk to users to uncover mental models and evaluate usability
• Bring theory and data together. Use your knowledge of how the mind works to make sense of quantitative and qualitative data, and help stakeholders understand how general psychological frameworks can be applied to Flex’s products.
• Collaborate with a variety of stakeholders. Empirical rigor is at the core of how Flex operates, which gives you an opportunity to partner with a wide range of stakeholders, including designers, PMs, data analysts/scientists, marketers, and business strategists.
• Advocate for the customer. Researchers are the voice of the customer and we care deeply about doing right by them. You will uncover and describe what customers want and need from Flex’s products and advocate on their behalf.
• Think causally. Identifying causes—both through the design of experiments and in observational data—requires a special kind of expertise. It’s also essential to completing work in this role, as you’ll be involved in the design of experiments and will have opportunities to work with log data to find causal effects (e.g., many RDDs and DiDs are waiting to be estimated).
• Be creative and take intellectual risks. The right method to answer a given question might not exist right now, and this role is an opportunity to think hard, be creative, and see how you can solve thorny problems. We want the right answer, whether it uses familiar methods or novel ones

Key qualifications:

• Training in a relevant field. Be an expert in your field, whether that’s psychology, cognitive science, experimental/behavioral economics, or a more traditional UX field like HCI or HF—it doesn’t really matter which department you got your degree in as long as your skillset and interests fit the role. A PhD is preferred, but not required.
• Deep experience with quantitative research. An ability to think extremely clearly about how to design proper controls and how to measure the kinds of constructs that pervade judgment and decision-making research.
• A passion for creating understanding. Excellent communication skills and a desire to convey complex ideas to engaged non-specialists.
• Fluency in making sense of data. Clean, analyze, and visualize data using R, Python, or an equivalent statistical programming language.
• Turn product questions into research questions. An ability to translate customer needs and product goals into clear research questions that are couched in psychological and/or economic theory

Some nice-to-haves

None of these are required to be an excellent candidate, but they would be worth bringing up during your interview process. 

• An understanding of qualitative methods. Familiarity with qualitative research methodologies to make for seamless collaborations with designers and qualitative researchers.
• Experience in marketing research. Stakeholders for research extend all over the company, including to our marketing group, who often need data. That means experience thinking about marketing related questions (concept testing, pricing, assessing demand, etc.).
• Know finance. Familiarity with finance concepts, traditional finance, or fintech, especially related to financial decision-making.

The national pay range for this role is $156,000-$172,000 in base salary. Individual compensation will be commensurate with the candidate's experience aligned with Flex's internal leveling guidelines and benchmarks.