User Experience Researcher

Protingent; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 83,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Insurance plan options

Education/certification reimbursement

Pre-tax commuter benefits

Paid Time Off (PTO)

401k plan

Job summary

Protingent is seeking a contract User Experience Researcher to support an LMS-focused UX ecosystem in Sunnyvale, CA. You will conduct user research, usability evaluations, and translate findings into actionable requirements for product, design, and engineering teams.

Collaborate with Product, Interaction, and Visual Design while balancing safety, effectiveness, and business goals. The role emphasizes usability and documentation to guide development and improve learning experiences.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience across UX domains, interaction design, and UX research.
• Structured user research and usability evaluation experience.
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to articulate user needs.
• Clear documentation of research plans, protocols, and analyses.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Design in fast-paced environments.
• Familiarity with Qualtrics, Mural, Smartsheet or similar tools.
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field; Master’s preferred.

Responsibilities

• Plan, execute, and synthesize user research including interviews, observations, surveys, and persona development.
• Conduct usability evaluations across development stages and document findings with recommendations.
• Analyze research results and communicate insights to product teams and leadership.
• Contribute to workflow and UI design with usability-driven recommendations.
• Support documentation describing design intent for engineering and align with design system patterns.

Skills

UX research

Usability testing

Interview techniques

Documentation

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Master’s degree preferred

Tools

Qualtrics

Mural

Smartsheet

Job description

Job Description

Job Title: User Experience Researcher

Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting contract User Experience Researcher with our client located in Sunnyvale, CA.

Job Description

As part of the User Experience (UX) ecosystem supporting the internal Learning Management System (LMS), the Human Factors & Interaction Designer (Digital Learning) works closely with Product Management, Interaction Design, Visual Design, and Engineering to ensure learning experiences are safe, effective, and highly usable. The individual conducts user research, analyzes workflows, evaluates usability risks, and synthesizes insights into actionable requirements. This role contributes primarily to human factors and usability engineering while also supporting interaction and visual design tasks when needed to ensure cohesive, on-brand user experiences.

Job Responsibilities

Plan, execute, and synthesize user research including interviews, observations, simulations, task analyses, surveys, and persona development to understand user interactions with digital learning workflows. Conduct usability evaluations across development stages, from early prototypes to validation-ready experiences, documenting findings and clear recommendations. Analyze and compile results of research and usability testing into concise, transferable formats; communicate insights to product teams and leadership. Contribute to workflow and user interface design by providing usability-driven recommendations to mitigate user errors and reduce cognitive load. Assist in creating and refining UI requirements documents, written specifications, and detailed documentation describing design intent for engineering. Support Interaction and Visual Designers as needed by ensuring alignment with design system patterns, information hierarchy, typography, layout, iconography, and motion principles. Collaborate with product and technical stakeholders to capture requirements, align priorities, and define scopes; provide schedules and status updates for HF/usability deliverables. Advocate for user needs and usability best practices across cross-functional teams, balancing safety, effectiveness, and business constraints. Support ongoing improvements by tracking usability issues, helping prioritize fixes, and escalating critical risks as appropriate.

Job Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience across UX domains, interaction design, and UX research, with demonstrated experience using research to inform shipped digital experiences.
• Demonstrated ability to plan and conduct structured user research and usability evaluations; synthesize findings into actionable recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to clearly articulate user needs and design rationale to cross-functional partners.
• Experience producing clear documentation (research plans, protocols, reports, task/workflow analyses, usability issue/risk analyses, and requirements).
• Ability to collaborate effectively with Product Management, Engineering, Interaction Design, and Visual Design in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
• Familiarity with digital collaboration and research tools (e.g., Qualtrics, Mural, Smartsheet or similar).
• Required Education and Training Bachelor’s degree in Human Factors Engineering, Cognitive Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human-Centered Design, Computer Science (HCI emphasis), or related field. Master’s degree preferred.

Nice To Have

• Experience supporting or contributing to design systems and evolving UI patterns based on user needs.
• Proficiency with modern design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Sketch, Zeplin, InVision, Framer, or similar).
• Experience iterating on digital products while balancing user, engineering, and business constraints.
• Exposure to learning platforms (LMS/LXP), content authoring workflows, or accessibility best practices is a plus.

Job Details

Job Type: Contract Pay Rate: $60-$69 an hour. Location: Sunnyvale, CA (onsite)

Benefits Package

Protingent offers competitive salaries, insurance plan options (HDHP plan or POS plan), education/certification reimbursement, pre-tax commuter benefits, Paid Time Off (PTO), and an administered 401k plan.

About Protingent

Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation — from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We’re passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.