Senior User Experience (UX) Researcher

Air Canada Vacations; Montreal (administrative region); Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel privileges

Hybrid work model

Health & dental

Job summary

Air Canada Vacations is seeking a Senior UX Researcher to support the design and improvement of our website. You will lead research initiatives to understand how travelers discover, compare, and book vacation experiences online, identifying segments, personas, and end-to-end journeys while testing prototypes for usability and engagement.

You will collaborate with product owners, UX/UI designers, and stakeholders to translate insights into practical recommendations that improve the traveler

Qualifications

• 5+ years of UX or design research experience.
• Fluent in English and French.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills.
• Ability to translate research into actionable insights.
• Experience creating personas, journey maps and synthesis.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute a UX research plan focused on travel shoppers.
• Plan and conduct in-depth customer interviews and qualitative studies.
• Develop traveler personas and segmentation to inform product decisions.
• Create end-to-end user journey maps across destinations and booking flows.
• Plan usability testing of wireframes/prototypes and provide actionable recommendations.

Skills

ux research

bilingual

communication

stakeholder facilitation

analytical ability

Education

Post-secondary degree in HCI/psychology/cid

Tools

Field studies

Usability testing

Interviews

Personas

Journey mapping

Job description

Who We Are

At Air Canada Vacations, we’re in the business of making dreams travel. That’s why we offer vacation packages, tours, cruises and more tailored to everyone’s individual needs. We like to say we have a vacation for every traveller because we do!

If you're someone who's passionate about exploring the world and sharing that enthusiasm with our customers, we'd love to welcome you to our team.

For over 50 years, Air Canada Vacations has been making travel easy, so come and join us in helping fellow Canadians create unforgettable memories wherever they go.

Job Title : Senior User Experience (UX) Researcher

Department / Team : Digital Product & Design

Position Status : Permanent

Location : YUL

We are seeking an experienced Senior UX Researcher to support the design and improvement of Air Canada Vacations website.

In this role, you will lead research initiatives to better understand how travelers discover, compare, and book vacation experiences online. You will identify key traveler segments, develop actionable personas, map end-to-end booking journeys, and conduct qualitative research including customer interviews. You will also help validate design solutions by testing prototypes with users to ensure the booking experience is intuitive, trustworthy, and engaging.

You will collaborate closely with product owners, UX/UI designers, and business stakeholders to translate research insights into practical recommendations that improve the traveler experience and drive bookings.

What You'll Be Doing

Customer Discovery & Research Strategy

• Design and execute a UX research plan focused on understanding how travelers research, evaluate, and purchase vacation packages.
• Identify key traveler segments, behaviors, motivations, and decision-making factors.
• Define research goals, methodologies, and timelines aligned with product and business objectives.
• Select appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Customer Interviews & Qualitative Research

• Plan, recruit, and conduct in-depth customer interviews with travelers and potential customers.
• Facilitate discovery interviews to understand trip planning behaviors, booking preferences, and pain points in the travel planning process.
• Analyze qualitative data to identify patterns, insights, and opportunities to improve the travel booking experience.

Personas & Customer Segmentation

• Develop data-driven traveler personas representing key customer groups (e.g., families, couples, solo travelers, deal seekers).
• Document motivations, goals, behaviors, and pain points when searching for and booking vacation packages.
• Ensure personas are actionable and usable across product, design, and marketing teams.

User Journey Mapping

• Create end-to-end user journey maps that illustrate how travelers discover destinations, compare packages, and complete bookings.
• Map key touchpoints across the website and other digital channels.
• Identify friction points and opportunities to improve the booking and trip planning experience.

Prototype Testing & Design Validation

• Plan and conduct usability testing of wireframes and interactive prototypes.
• Evaluate how easily users can search for destinations, compare packages, and complete bookings.
• Gather feedback to validate design decisions and identify usability issues early in the design process.
• Provide actionable recommendations to improve prototypes and user flows.

Insights & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Translate research findings into clear, strategic insights and recommendations.
• Present research outcomes through reports, workshops, and presentations.
• Collaborate closely with UX designers, product managers, and marketing teams to ensure research informs product design and feature prioritization.

What You Bring To The Team

• Post-secondary degree in in HCI, Cognitive Science, Psychology, or any related field.
• 5+ years of experience in UX research, customer research, or design research
• Experience in the Tourism/Travel online booking industry.
• Expert in conducting research using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative UX research methods (field studies, usability test, card sorting, surveys, analytics, A/B testing).
• Strong communication, storytelling, and stakeholder facilitation skills.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Experience creating personas, journey maps, and research synthesis.
• Attention to detail and ability to work independently, while also being a collaborative team player.
• Ability to work closely with a diverse group of executives, managers, and subject matter experts.
• Bilingual written and spoken.

WHY WORK WITH US?

• Our team loves to travel, and we have one of the most generous employee travel programs in the industry. You’ll be eligible for travel privileges for yourself and other eligible persons once you’ve completed 6 months of service
• Hybrid work model: Corporate Mandate of 4 days in office (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday + 4th day of your choice) and 1 day from home
• We value your wellbeing and offer a wide variety of benefit plans, including health and dental, for you and your family
• We offer training and development tools to help unlock your full potential

Please note that these benefits apply to permanent, full-time employees.

Visit our Careers page for a full list of benefits.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Air Canada Vacations is committed to ensuring a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workplace, fundamental to its core values. We celebrate the uniqueness of every individual, listen to every voice, and instill a sense of belonging in our people that allows each team member’s authentic self to truly shine.

We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply as we strive to create a diverse team that mirrors the diversity of the customers and communities we serve as an equal opportunity employer. Should you require any accommodation, please inform us and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs. For any accessibility-related assistance, requests for information in accessible alternative formats or to report any accessibility problems, please share in your application.

Linguistic Requirements

When qualifications are equal, preference will be given to bilingual candidates. The position involves daily interactions with partners, clients, and colleagues located outside of Quebec.