1750 Tysons (12023), United States of America, McLean, Virginia

User Experience Research Director - Card/Bank

We are seeking a User Research Director to lead a multi-functional team of research specialists and to help develop and execute a strategy for using human-centered insights to drive strategic decision-making on Capital One's Card and Bank Experience Design Team. The role will focus on qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, as well as proactive insights strategies.

This role will lead a horizontal research team within Card and Bank Experience Design, consisting of research specialists who support design portfolio teams with defining learning agendas, upskilling designers in basic research, and conducting strategic user research in such areas as the definition of mental models, feature desirability work, meta analysis, and uncovering unmet needs. The team works across multiple portfolios and ensures our partners are leveraging meaningful user insights to drive decision-making.

We are a human-centered organization obsessed with delivering products and services based on customer research and feedback, and design research is at the heart of our work. We believe using empathy, curiosity, and asking questions to understand our customers is core to delivering best in class products and services. We represent the voice of our customers and focus on being the source of truth for our customer insights.

Active research portfolio strategy:

• Partner with your Senior Leader and heads of design/product/tech to determine and articulate priorities and learning agendas in lines of businesses, across multiple portfolios
  
• Maintain a holistic view of the work happening on the team in order to make connections, identify opportunities, and ensure alignment to strategic priorities
  
• Drive momentum by keeping active research on track, and creating transparency to the overall active research work in flight, in the backlog & completed, and surfacing issues and blocks early.
  
• Assist and drive portfolio delivery, including project and process management, reporting, and stakeholder engagement for active research in the lines of business
  
• Display strong consulting and collaboration skills to work with partners to understand business problems and focus on bringing issues to resolution, escalating as necessary to meet timelines. Includes clarifying and defining business needs, requirements and use cases.
  
• Collaborate with other leads in Card & Bank Design, other Research teams in Capital One and your leadership to identify and improve shared systems, processes, and rituals for the research organization at large
  
• Support and socialize those systems, processes, and rituals within your team
  
• Contribute to the continual upskilling of designers and product managers in design research through the identification of new skills to teach and the execution of an existing set of training workshops
  

Program Execution

• Working with partners and teams across various geographies and facilitating workflow of co-located groups
  
• Participating in the design research process (e.g., stakeholder interviews, research, analysis, and work session facilitation) as necessary
  
• Maintaining and providing oversight to a well-managed program management tools and routines owned by the research operations team
  
• Overseeing and managing team structure (e.g., hiring and onboarding employees, managing contractors and vendors, balancing attrition) for active research positions
  
• Managing, tracking and reporting resource allocation, forecasting and scoping of new engagements into a program-level view for active research
  
• Reporting on portfolio of active research work to design leads, research operations and FS top of house leadership. This includes communicating status, issues, and forecasts to research operations & design partners and ensuring work is aligned to company, organizational, and team imperatives and goals
  
• Monitoring and balancing overall active research program health and team satisfaction
  
• Creating and implementing measurement plans and ensuring quality for successful delivery
  

Team health & Growth

• Monitoring team and individual capacity, enablement, and energy levels to create a full view of the team's wellbeing, working with the research operations manager to align on reporting requirements
  
• Building and leading a successful team by mentoring, coaching, and elevating others
  
• Guiding team members in strategy, research, alignment, analysis, process improvement, and change management
  
• Navigating conflict resolution within your team as well as within projects, teams and partner relationships
  
• In partnership with design leads, tracking, forecasting, and solving for staffing needs - from short-term sprints to long-term growth
  
• Coordinating team growth processes (for example, hiring and onboarding employees, managing contractor engagements, etc.) for all active research with the research operations manager & top of house team in order to maintain a support view of team needs
  
• Partnering with leaders and the research operations manager on maintaining a well-resourced team.
  

Basic Qualifications

• At least 7 years of experience with user, product, or market research
  
• At least 3 years of leading a user research team within a cross-functional organization
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MA/MS or Ph.D) in social sciences, human factors, cognitive science, human computer interaction or behavioral economics
  
• Experience leading large bodies of work, research strategy, and teams, and employing agile practices
  
• Comfortable working variety of stakeholders with enterprise, risk and legal teams
  
• Familiar with conducting and analyzing research for cross channel experiences
  
• Comfortable with ambiguity and working with a variety of business partners (with varying levels of UX maturity) to deliver outcomes
  
• Experience managing a cross-functional team of qualitative researchers, quantitative researchers, research strategists, and research operations
  

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

No agencies please. Capital One is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, physical and mental disability, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/assignment, citizenship, pregnancy or maternity, protected veteran status, or any other status prohibited by applicable national, federal, state or local law. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City's Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia's Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@capitalone.com . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to Careers@capitalone.com

Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.

Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).