Lead UX Researcher – Discovery and Personalization (Remote Eligible)

About Target:

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here.

Target’s Global UX team is a group of design, content, research, and accessibility practitioners and experts, with a passion for improving and innovating our digital experiences for Target’s guests, team members, and partners. Here, we pride ourselves on designing tangible, inspiring, and impactful solutions that serve all aspects of our business– and being a part of the team means you will play a critical role for Target’s digital experience by increasing ease, simplicity, value, and delight for every touchpoint.

About the role:

As a Lead UX Researcher within our Guest UX Team, you’ll help shape Target’s evolving digital experience for our guests. You’ll also play a strategic role in driving business growth. In this role, you will be responsible for thoughtfully prioritizing, planning, executing, and synthesizing research to create clear and actionable insights for the cross-functional product development team. You will translate research insights into powerful stories and recommendations that inform product strategy. You’ll lead research strategy across a portfolio of digital initiatives and guide product teams in leveraging insights to inform long-term vision and prioritization. This role is a key thought partner to several functions in the digital group including product managers, UX designers, and engineers.

As an embedded member of a cross-functional product team, you will contribute to advancing the broader practice of UX at Target through influence, impact, and craft, while also educating cross-functional teams when needed. We are an engaged, supportive, and increasingly diverse team focused on elevating the impact of our discipline.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a leader within product teams throughout the research project life cycle – recommending appropriate methodology, scoping, and coordinating the entire process, facilitating in-field research and post-research synthesis through analysis
• Act as a strategic thought partner and provide expert guidance in leading, conducting, and synthesizing qualitative research projects – including, but not limited to in-person or remote moderated and unmoderated testing, surveys, heuristic reviews, benchmark studies, concept testing, online and in-store intercepts, and ethnographies
• Activate insights to identify key opportunities and whitespace areas aligned with Target’s strategic direction
• Mentor and coach other researchers to elevate research quality and influence across teams
• Drive alignment through prioritization and decision making across multiple product teams
• Contribute to the evolution of Target’s research frameworks and best practices
• Champion a human-centered mindset across UX, product, and engineering teams
• Navigate complexity and ambiguity within a matrixed organization

About you:

• Minimum of 7 years' experience practicing UX research for digital product teams
• Proven expertise leading complex UX research programs across multiple products or domains
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to clearly communicate complex concepts to cross-functional partners
• Strong ability to tell compelling stories from data to communicate insights and recommendations
• Thrives in ambiguity and guides others through it
• Skilled in applying prioritization frameworks to balance short- and long-term research needs
• Experienced in leading and managing multiple projects of varying size and scope while adapting to shifting priorities
• Strong project management skills with experience tracking projects across stages of the product design life cycle
• Adept at developing and driving strategic learning agendas for digital experiences
• Experienced in managing a portfolio of research projects aligned to a product roadmap
• Proven success mentoring other researchers and fostering cross-functional understanding of research insights
• Experienced leading research initiatives in a matrixed, agile environment
• Hands-on experience establishing, recruiting for, moderating, and analyzing online research panels
• Proficient in research tools for remote testing, surveys, analysis, and reporting (User Testing, Qualtrics, Dscout, ChatGPT, etc.)
• Preferred 4-year degree in Anthropology, Social Science, Design Research, Psychology, Human Factors, HCI, or related field

This position will operate as a Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/Flex for Your Day work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ MN location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota.