UX Research Lead, AI Enablement & Strategy

Target; Minneapolis (MN); Hybrid; USD 132,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k)

Paid time off

Job summary

Target's Global UX team is seeking a Lead UX Researcher - AI Enablement in Minnesota to set research direction for AI-enabled experiences, partnering with product, engineering, data science, and privacy teams.

You will lead mixed-method studies across pilots and live experiences, translate evidence into product roadmaps, and mentor other researchers while advancing responsible, accessible research practices in a hybrid work setting.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in UX research, product research, or related field.
• Ability to set research direction across complex products and multiple workstreams.
• Experience researching AI-enabled products or developer tools.
• Fluency partnering with Engineering, Data Science, Security, and platform teams.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead the research strategy and learning agenda for AI Enablement, influencing portfolio priorities and investment decisions.
• Lead foundational and applied mixed-method research across technical, product, and enterprise team member experiences.
• Define audiences, journeys, and adoption needs through personas, journey mapping, service blueprints, and other durable research frameworks.
• Evaluate AI-enabled and agentic concepts, pilots, and live experiences for usefulness, confidence, transparency, human oversight, accessibility, and responsible adoption.
• Combine qualitative research with behavioral data, analytics, operational signals, system performance, and external benchmarks to identify opportunities and measure impact.
• Translate evidence into clear recommendations for product strategy, roadmaps, platforms, tooling, enablement, governance, and investment.
• Partner across UX, Product, Technology, Data Science, privacy, and business teams to shape high-value questions and emerging experiences.
• Activate insights through compelling storytelling, mentor researchers, and advance rigorous, inclusive, and responsible research practices.

Skills

UX research

Leadership

Storytelling

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Target's Global UX team is seeking a Lead UX Researcher - AI Enablement in Minnesota to set research direction for AI-enabled experiences, partnering with product, engineering, data science, and privacy teams.

You will lead mixed-method studies across pilots and live experiences, translate evidence into product roadmaps, and mentor other researchers while advancing responsible, accessible research practices in a hybrid work setting.