Korn Ferry is hiring: Director UX Research (EST) in Washington

Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We help clients synchronize strategy and talent to drive superior performance. Korn Ferry works with organizations to design their structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people to bring their strategy to life. And we advise them on how to reward, develop, and motivate their people. Our 10,000 colleagues serve clients in more than 50 countries.

Korn Ferry Digital is a scaled product business unit within Korn Ferry that develops and sells our suite of talent products and HR technology, supporting clients across six solution areas:

• Organizational Strategy
• Assessment and Succession
• Talent Acquisition
• Leadership and Professional Development
• Sales and Service
• Total Rewards

Our comprehensive talent suite leverages a combination of proprietary talent IP, talent data, analytics and insights to help customers understand their workforce and existing talent gaps, and deliver targeted talent interventions at scale using HR technology.

About this role:

Korn Ferry is seeking a Director of UX Research to join our rapidly growing product organization and lead our efforts to create the next generation of enterprise solutions powering the world’s leading businesses across industries. In this role, you’ll work alongside design, product, and engineering teams, along with Korn Ferry’s other lines of business, from the earliest stages of product strategy, ensuring that your research shapes experiences that deliver measurable value for the world’s top organizations and their people.

Here's what you get to do:

• Lead and scale a high-performing UX Research team across multiple product areas, ensuring alignment with design, product, and business strategies.
• Define and implement a UX research strategy that supports near-term product goals and long-term vision, focusing on measurable outcomes and user insights.
• Build a research roadmap designed to disseminate insights that support Korn Ferry’s long-term business strategy and inform our product roadmaps.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, KF Institute, and other lines of business) to ensure research drives design decisions and product innovations.
• Advocate for a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors across the organization, ensuring customer insights inform all aspects of product development.
• Establish UX research best practices and frameworks to improve research quality, consistency, and insight dissemination.
• Leverage qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to generate actionable insights that inform tactical decisions and strategic initiatives.
• Drive initiatives to measure UX success, including usability, and continuously refine research methods to improve outcomes.
• Present research findings and recommendations to senior stakeholders and executives, influencing product direction and prioritization.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, learning, and collaboration, ensuring that research is a critical strategic pillar in driving product innovation.
• Continue to clarify the role of UX Research within the wider organization.

What you bring to the table:

• Proven experience building and leading UX Research teams, with a track record of delivering impactful, user-centered research for large-scale enterprise products.
• Strong expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods and the ability to distill complex insights into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent leadership and mentoring skills, with the ability to inspire and guide a diverse team of researchers.
• Strong communication and storytelling abilities, with experience presenting to executive-level stakeholders.
• Deep empathy for users and a strong drive to use research to improve the product experience.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution, staying close to the work, and continuously evolving the research practice for a growing product organization.
• A collaborative mindset with a natural ability to work cross-functionally and across lines of business.
• An ability to move quickly and decisively to deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

Other Skills and Responsibilities

• Experience with design thinking, service design, lean UX, and Agile methodologies.
• Ability to prioritize research efforts across multiple products and teams while maintaining high-quality outputs.
• Strong organization skills and oversight, with the ability to oversee multiple projects simultaneously and connect the work of various teams.
• A solid drive to foster a culture of inclusivity and diversity within your team and in how you approach research.
• Strong operational mindset, continually seeking ways to improve processes, methodologies, and outcomes.
• Hands-on experience with various research tools and platforms for data collection, analysis, and dissemination.

Preferred Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in UX research, with at least five years in a leadership role.
• Deep knowledge of enterprise SaaS and B2B products, ideally in Human Capital Management and Talent & Development industries.
• An advanced degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, or a related field.
• Experience managing global research teams, with an understanding of diverse user needs across different markets and regions.
• Proven experience working in fast-paced, hyper-growth organizations.
• Experience in data-driven environments with an understanding of how to combine behavioral analytics with user research.
• Experience leading UX research for zero-to-one products.

Korn Ferry is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer - Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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