Senior UX Researcher, Hardware XR

Google; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 159,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Google is seeking a User Experience Researcher (UXR) to join our multi-disciplinary UX team, focusing on XR products. You will conduct extensive user research, including field studies, interviews, diary studies, ethnography, surveys, usability testing, and logs analysis to uncover user needs and inform product decisions.

You will partner with engineering and product management to drive insights, influence leadership, and shape the design of lightweight XR devices and AI-enabled experiences.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 6 years of experience in an applied research setting, or similar.
• 1 year conducting research on GenAI, AR or hardware devices.
• Experience with research methods: usability, studies, contextual inquiries, 1:1 interviews, unmoderated studies.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scope research initiatives across multiple XR products.
• Collaborate with designers, product managers, and engineers in a fluid, iterative environment.
• Design and implement experiments to evaluate hardware and human performance of XR devices.
• Support Human Factors programs for scaling collection of key user-signals and KPIs.
• Advocate research findings to stakeholders and leadership via reports and presentations.

Skills

GenAI research

Augmented Reality

Hardware devices

Research methods

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Master's or PhD in HCI / Cognitive Science / Statistics / Psychology / Anthropology

Job description

• 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.
• 1 year of experience conducting research on GenAI, Augmented Reality or Hardware Devices.
• Experience with research methods (e.g., usability, studies, contextual inquires, 1:1 interviews, unmoderated research studies).

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.
• 1 year of experience conducting research on GenAI, Augmented Reality or Hardware Devices.
• Experience with research methods (e.g., usability, studies, contextual inquires, 1:1 interviews, unmoderated research studies).

Preferred qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Statistics, Psychology, Anthropology, or related field.
• 5 years of experience conducting UX research on products and working with executive leadership (e.g., Director level and above).
• 3 years of experience managing projects, and working in a large, matrixed organization.
• Experience in physical product environments conducting research to drive ergonomics and physical design decisions.
• Applied experience conducting research in AR and VR product environments.
• Strong understanding of human physiology, human performance, visual processing, attentional demands, ergonomics, etc.

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.

For decades, the computing revolution has reshaped our world driven by

breakthroughs in compute, connectivity, mobile, and now, AI. Google's XR

team is at the forefront of the next major leap – the convergence of AI and

XR. This is more than just new devices – it's about reimagining how we

interact with the world around us. We're building a future where

lightweight XR devices like smart glasses and headsets pair with helpful AI

to augment human intelligence, offering personalized, conversational, and

contextually aware experiences.

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

Responsibilities

Learn more about benefits at Google .

• Lead and scope research initiatives across multiple XR products.
• Work with designers, product managers, and engineers in a fluid, iterative environment.
• Design and implement experiments to evaluate the hardware and human performance of XR devices.
• Support Human Factors-oriented programs for scaling collection of key user-signals, KPIs, etc.
• Advocate research findings to stakeholders and leadership through written reports and oral presentations.

Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. See also Google's EEO Policy and EEO is the Law. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know by completing our Accommodations for Applicants form .