At Team Xbox, we are on a mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We deliver on that vision by putting players at the center, enabling you to play the games you want, with the people you want, anywhere you want.
Xbox Player Services (XPS) is at the heart of our ambition to reach billions of players across the globe, ensuring that every player feels included and engaged across Xbox. We do this through our commitments to amplifying the voices of our players, building trusted relationships with all our players, and by delivering foundational services and critical operations for Microsoft Gaming.
As part of Xbox Players Services (XPS), Xbox Research aims to understand & connect people through play. Play affords learning, creates purpose, and connects millions. We obsess over users and their unmet, uncommunicative needs; we listen to learn and represent what we discover to partner teams across Xbox.
We are seeking a Senior Xbox Researcher with a passion and skill for generating consumer and developer insights to help drive the development of world-class entertainment experiences for the next generation of players worldwide. You will be joining a unique and diverse team at Microsoft known for pioneering and institutionalizing the adaptation of psychological research methods to games and the entertainment industry.
Qualifications:
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+ 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 1+ year(s) User Experience Research experience
- OR equivalent experience.
- Minimum 4 years of hands-on experience conducting UX research or user-centered methodologies in technology and/or games & entertainment.
- Experience designing and executing research projects using established quantitative and/or qualitative methodological approaches ( e.g. interviewing, ethnography, field studies, questionnaire development and survey research, experiments, usability studies, contextual inquiry, instrumentation, biometrics, etc.).
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
- OR equivalent experience.
- Experience in cross-team collaboration
- Experience in planning and executing partner-facing initiatives
- Written and oral communication skills
- Experience in analyzing and presenting data to influence product design and implementation
- Ability to distill ideas into insights and impactful, persuasive storytelling
- Ability to develop approaches to researching user experience problems
- An appreciation of entertainment and any kinds of gaming (mobile/tablet, PC, console, board games, etc.).
- Experience with game design principles
- Accessibility, diversity, equity, and/or inclusion user experience research experience
UX Research IC4 – The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $112,000 – $218,400 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 $145,800 – $238,600 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
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.
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Responsibilities:
In this position, you’ll help drive the understanding of customer and developer needs, wants, and expectations to ensure player and developer success. Your proactive research and consumer insights will help inform the experiences we create for Microsoft’s entertainment platforms (including Xbox, Windows, Game Pass, and future platforms).
You will:
- Partner closely with design and development team leadership to understand and inform product goals and strategies
- Develop research plans that involve and engage your team and impact business strategy, product design and quality
- Design and execute research activities to answer relevant design and/or business questions through leveraging and triangulating both qualitative and quantitative methods (observation, interviews, ethnography, surveys, lab studies, instrumentation, etc.)
- Bring a wide range of both established and innovative research methods to your work, and develop new methods where needed to evolve the desirability of our experiences
- Provide your design and development teams with research context, perspective, and recommendations on what will make our products and services both useful and delightful
- Communicate research findings through persuasive, compelling written reports and group presentations
- Contribute your research and perspective through the entire product design cycle, from planning to implementation to post-release
- Partner with and leverage other researchers across a diverse team