Senior Design Researcher Microsoft
Redmond, WA

Job Description

In Cognition, people-not devices-are at the center of everything we do. Our tech moves beyond screens and pixels, creating a new reality aimed at bringing us closer together-whether that's scientists "meeting" on the surface of a virtual Mars or some yet undreamt-of possibility. To get there, we're incorporating diverse groundbreaking technologies, from the revolutionary Holographic Processing Unit to computer vision, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and more. We're a growing team of talented engineers and artists putting technology on a human path across all Windows devices, including Microsoft HoloLens, the Internet of Things, phones, tablets, desktops, and Xbox. We believe there has to be a better way. If you do too, we need you!

We are looking for an experienced User Researcher who's also highly capable in Human Computer Interaction, User Experience Design, and understanding human performance. In this role, you'll help guide our experience engineering and design teams through user research, end user engagement, and activating human insight into our first party experiences and devices.

If you're a great communicator who is always curious, searching to solve hard human problems, read on.

* 5+ years in user research, HCI / Human Factors, and/or Social Sciences research, and customer engagement methods, activities, practices, and planning.
* Experience working through complete, complex product cycles with an understanding and application of human-centered design and prototyping approaches.
* Strong understanding and experience in the scientific method as it applies to commercial and government experience development, design of experiments, and creative research approaches.
* Qualitative and quantitative data gathering, analysis, and insight discovery capability.
* A high tolerance for ambiguity and change.
* Excellent design and problem-solving skills

There are plenty of other skills that aren't required, but you'll find useful in this role. Let us know if you have experience with…

* Human Computer Interaction as it applies to Mixed Reality and AI experiences
* Quality Assurance and Software Testing, both traditional and modern methodologies
* Military or government contracts and product development and/or Military Experience

Candidates must be able to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements. These requirements include, but are not limited to

* Citizenship Verification: This position requires verification of US Citizenship to meet federal government security requirements.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.

What you'll do

* Synthesize internal and external research for efficient and effective research and insight delivery and communication into our experience designs, software, hardware, and human factors capabilities.
* Plan and execute multi-method user research with the US Military, discovering needs, activating those needs into actionable, measurable outcomes that solve human problems, leveraging Mixed Reality and AI experiences.
* Engage directly with US Military, DoD Civilian personnel, and Microsoft engineers, to plan, execute, measure and report findings and insights as part joint user studies, juries, and touch points.
* Partner closely with our Human Factors team and capabilities, designing and executing thoughtful and agile experiments and studies aimed at creating measurable outcomes and performance improvement.
* Collaborate and develop continuous improvement practices, leveraging the work of others, for efficient and effective research and insight delivery and communication into our experience designs, software, hardware, and human factors capabilities.