Senior Design Researcher

Hudl; Austin (TX); Hybrid; USD 112,000 - 187,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible vacation time

Medical insurance

401(K) matching

Professional development resources

Job summary

Hudl is seeking a Senior Design Researcher to join their Hardware business unit. This role focuses on leading research efforts to ensure the products meet user needs through interviews, usability studies, and field research.

The ideal candidate has over five years of design research experience and excels in utilizing AI tools for research. The position promotes a flexible work environment with a strong emphasis on professional growth and employee wellbeing.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of experience as a design researcher in tech environments.
• Accountable for insights that address product obstacles and inform design decisions.
• Willingness to travel up to 20% of the time for research.

Responsibilities

• Lead research for hardware focusing on user needs.
• Collaborate with product teams to define research objectives.
• Empower teams by mentoring and sharing best practices.

Skills

Design research

User interviews

Usability studies

Quantitative analysis

Qualitative analysis

Education

Advanced degree in HCI, Human Factors, or related field

Tools

AI research tools

Usability testing software

Job description

Your Role

We're hiring a Senior Design Researcher to serve as the research expert for our Hardware business unit, which focuses on defining the future of automated capture and wearable technology. You'll combine deep methodological expertise across hardware and software with strong leadership skills to elevate research practices and connect insights directly to product outcomes.

As a Senior Design Researcher, you’ll:

• Lead research for hardware. You’ll be embedded within product teams, maintaining a direct connection to customers through interviews, usability studies and field research to ensure we’re building the right things.
• Master your craft. You’ll use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies across hardware and software contexts, holding a high bar for quality while uncovering deep user needs that go beyond the obvious.
• Empower the team. You’ll guide cross-functional teams in creating research plans, mentoring other designers and sharing best practices to raise our collective capability.
• Leverage modern tools. You’ll use AI fluently to speed up synthesis and pattern recognition, helping us compress the feedback loop between customer contact and actionable product direction.
• Collaborate and communicate. You’ll work closely with Product Managers and designers to right‑size research objectives and present findings through compelling storytelling and clear metrics.

We'd like to hire someone for this role who lives near our offices in Lincoln and Omaha, but we're also open to remote candidates in Kansas City, Chicago, Austin, or Dallas.

Must-Haves

• Experienced. You have five or more years of experience as a design researcher in tech environments and a proven track record of connecting insights to design outcomes.
• Insight-driven direction. You excel at extracting critical contextual information about users, environments and tasks — and you're accountable for how effectively your insights address product obstacles and inform design decisions.
• AI-fluent. You have a practiced point of view on how to use AI‑assisted research tools to accelerate delivery without sacrificing rigor and quality.
• A strong communicator. You’re excellent at visualization and storytelling, making complex data approachable for various audiences.
• Mobile. You’re willing to travel up to 20% of the time, both domestically and internationally, to conduct research and collaborate with your team.
• Hardware background. You’ve mastered research methodologies across hardware, software, consumer electronics and/or hard goods. You have strong qualitative and quantitative research skills across various approaches including focus groups, in-depth interviews, usability testing, field studies and prototype evaluations.

Nice-to-Haves

• Educational background. You have an advanced degree in HCI, Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology or a related field.
• Software experience. You've worked with software product teams and understand the unique research requirements in digital product development.

Our Role

• Champion work-life harmony. We’ll give you the flexibility you need in your work life (e.g., flexible vacation time, company-wide holidays and timeout (meeting‑free) days, remote work options and more) so you can enjoy your personal life too.
• Guarantee autonomy. We have an open, honest culture and we trust our people from day one. Your team will support you, but you’ll own your work and have the agency to try new ideas.
• Encourage career growth. We’re lifelong learners who encourage professional development. We’ll give you tons of resources and opportunities to keep growing.
• Provide an environment to help you succeed. We've invested in our offices, designing incredible spaces with our employees in mind. But whether you’re at the office or working remotely, we’ll provide you the tech stack and hardware to do your best work.
• Support your mental and physical health. We care about our employees’ wellbeing. Our Employee Assistance Program, employee resource groups and fitness partner Peerfit have you covered.
• Cover your medical insurance. We have multiple plans to pick from to ensure you’ll have the coverage you (and your dependents) want, including vision, dental, fertility healthcare and family forming benefits.
• Contribute to your 401(K). Yep, that’s free money. We’ll match up to 4% of your own contribution.

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is displayed below—starting salaries will typically fall near the middle of this range.

We make compensation decisions based on an individual's experience, skills and education in line with our internal pay equity practices.

This role will also be eligible for a long‑term incentive (LTI) award. Any bonuses awarded are based on individual and company performance paid at Hudl's discretion.

$112,000 — $187,000 USD

Inclusion at Hudl

Hudl is an equal opportunity employer. Through our actions, behaviors and attitude, we’ll create an environment where everyone, no matter their differences, feels like they belong.

We offer resources to ensure our employees feel safe bringing their authentic selves to work, including employee resource groups and communities. But we recognize there’s ongoing work to be done, which is why we track our efforts and commitments in annual inclusion reports.

We also know imposter syndrome is real and the confidence gap can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply—we’d love to hear from you.

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