Senior UX Researcher, YouTube Gaming

About the Job

At Google, we "Focus on the user and all else will follow." As a User Experience Researcher (UXR), you make this possible. You will join our multi-disciplinary UX team, collaborating with Engineering and Product Management, to gather insights and create industry-leading products.

You’ll play a critical role in helping your team understand user needs and will drive impact at all stages of product development, ensuring products are useful, usable, and helpful. You will explore user behaviors and motivations by conducting primary research, including: field studies, interviews, diary studies, ethnography, surveys, usability testing, and logs analysis. You will also grow within a supportive UXR community offering mentorship, regular meetups, and exclusive internal tools.

As part of the YouTube Gaming team, you will sit at the intersection of gaming culture, interactive video technology, and platform innovation. You will answer challenging foundational and evaluative questions to provide a grounded data framework for product and decision-making. You will work closely with cross-functional partners across Product Management, Engineering, UX Design, and Content Partnerships to keep user needs front and center across the entire product development life-cycle.

At YouTube, we believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share, and build community through our stories. We work together to give everyone the power to share their story, explore what they love, and connect with one another in the process. Working at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and boundless creativity, we move at the speed of culture with a shared goal to show people the world. We explore new ideas, solve real problems, and have fun — and we do it all together.Individual pay is determined by factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

US: $159000 - $230000 (USD) + 15% bonus target + equity + benefits

Learn more about benefits at Google.

Responsibilities

• Plan, scope, design, execute, analyze, and synthesize foundational and tactical research programs to shape YouTube Gaming product strategies.
• Employ qualitative and mixed-methods research to generate insights.
• Synthesize research data into frameworks and compelling presentations to drive product alignment with cross-functional leadership.
• Partner with Product Managers, Designers, and Engineers to translate insights into concepts, prototypes, and actionable product requirements.
• Manage ambiguous research streams by proactively identifying emerging research needs, product opportunities, and potential risks.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
  
• 6 years of experience of experience in an applied research setting (e.g., product or academic), or similar.
  
• Experience with research methods (e.g., usability, studies, contextual inquires, 1:1 interviews, unmoderated research studies).
• Experience studying the video game ecosystem.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience in gaming (game development or gameplay), live streaming, real-time interactive media, game publishing, or creator-economy platforms.
• Experience investigating real-time interactivity, live chat, creator-consumer relationships, or web-based/playable game mechanics.
• Experience designing, executing, and analyzing mixed-methods research studies in an industry or academic environment.
• Experience managing relationships with cross-functional partners and stakeholders to drive project execution.
• Experience managing projects or initiatives from inception to completion.