Senior Research Strategist

MCAPS-Core accelerates customer outcomes and business growth. By uniting product, engineering, marketing, sales, customer success, and partners around a common customer mission, we help customers realize value faster and turn innovation into measurable business impact. Through deep technical expertise and differentiated go-to-market execution, we win competitively, capture market share, and scale repeatable growth motions. We differentiate through value creation - delivering world-class, AI-powered customer experiences that accelerate adoption, strengthen loyalty, and create sustainable competitive advantage, driving growth that outpaces the market.
The Customer & Commercial Success (CCS) organization, an organization within MCAPS-Core, is the connected engine that turns Microsoft’s commercial strategy into execution at scale — making it simpler and faster for the field to win for every customer, in every segment, region, and role. The organization brings together planning, landing, execution excellence, services portfolio and delivery, and field activation across ATU, STU, and CSU to accelerate customer value, drive growth, and strengthen the end-to-end experience across every customer moment.

Are you looking for a strategic job opportunity with a unique and spirited team converging strategy, design, and research with a focus on customer experience? If so, you may want to join the Experience Strategy & Design Studio team as a Senior Research Strategist!

How we are different from other research and design teams:

• We are strategic more than tactical and work primarily on large scale end-to-end experiences. This means we have more interaction with executives
• We operate within a horizontal team format, where we lead with influence to cultivate key partnerships across organizations within Microsoft
• Much of our work is fast-paced, agile, and iterative

We could be the right team for you if you are looking for a team with:

• An inclusive and collaborative environment, encouraging diverse team perspectives
• A culture of thought leadership, shepherding customer-centricity at the team’s core
• Agency and creative freedom to generate energy with stakeholders through dynamic storytelling and visually appealing artifacts
• The ability to create clarity amidst ambiguous and complex customer challenges
• A diverse and energetic team that lives across four countries

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.

• Scope, design, and lead in-person and virtual customer-facing co-creation workshops that result in breakthrough ways AI can transform our customers’ business
• Excellent communicator and storyteller that can communicate complex concepts in a manner that creates enthusiasm and alignment for the proposed future state experiences
• Skilled at executive-level stakeholder management; comfortable setting and respectfully communicating expectations
• Confidently identify the best way to leverage qualitative research to support a design objective, including the area of focus and research method(s) best suited to the business objectives and customer needs
• Demonstrate experience with a wide variety of research methods (e.g., interviewing, surveys, foundational, quantitative, qualitative, etc.). Hands-on experience designing, planning, and facilitating interviews, field research, international research, and survey design
• Build connections and partnerships to deliver a persuasive outside-in customer-centric approach to enable a connected experience delivered at scale
• Drive a foundational research strategy for the team while partnering with stakeholders to define moments of truth
• Clearly and succinctly present possible solutions outside of the designated design space
• Review and validate work with peers, stakeholders, and customers to maintain open communication
• Ability to see things from various altitudes and communicate holistic solutions
• Expertise in Customer Experience Design and Design Thinking

Required/Minimum 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+ year(s) 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

• 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 8+ 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 6+ 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 3+ years User Experience Research experience
• 4+ years designing and facilitating co-creation/ideation/design thinking workshops to drive meaningful business outcomes
• 4+ years working on experiences that include extensive digital solutions (omni-channel, self-service, AI bots, etc.)
• 4+ years conducting 1:1 research interviews
• 2+ year(s) relevant domain experience within technology sector and enterprise (B2B) customers
• 4+ year(s) relevant domain experience within technology sector and enterprise (B2B) customers
• 3+ year(s) experience in research methods impacting both product direction and detailed experience design
• 6+ years designing and facilitating co-creation/ideation/design thinking workshops to drive meaningful business outcomes
• 6+ years conducting 1:1 research interviews

UX Research IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $119,800 - $234,700 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 $160,200 - $261,000 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

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.