Junior User Experience Research Jobs in Ridgeland, SC

As an innovative designer, developer, or creative technologist, you'll guide the next generation of interactive design and game development leaders at SCAD. You'll prepare them for careers across disciplines including interactive design, real-time development, emerging technology, product design, experience design, and beyond, as they build the systems, products, and experiences that redefine how people interact with the world. Lauded by The Princeton Review and Animation Career Review, SCAD offers exceptional opportunities to instruct students on industry-leading equipment, including stop-motion sets, AR/VR resources, a green-screen stage, motion-capture, and more.

As part of the ITGM department, you'll join a supportive team of educators and connected professionals who use cutting-edge technology and collaborate in advanced studio environments with a commitment to helping the university's diverse student body develop technically accomplished, visually compelling, inclusive, and relevant work. SCAD is consistently ranked No. 1 in the Red Dot Design Awards for shaping the future of design, recognized for an array of the university's top-ranked disciplines including ITGM.

A strong understanding of how interaction, user experience, interface, and product design practices inform the development of meaningful real-time experiences is required. You should demonstrate an active interest in emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence and intelligent interactive systems, as well as fluency in collaborating across design and technology disciplines to help students move beyond static prototypes to build functional, testable, and deployable experiences.

As an ITGM professor, you will:

Teach courses in real-time engines, interactive systems, mobile and desktop development, immersive experience design, and emerging technologies.

Guide students from research and early-stage concepts through functional prototypes, user testing, iteration, and deployment.

Help students apply interaction design, UX, UI, product design, and systems-thinking principles in real-time environments, prioritizing accessibility, usability, performance, platform requirements, and audience needs.

As a creative technologist, you must also effectively:

Support students with diverse design and technical backgrounds as they build confidence in programming, scripting, and real-time development.

Introduce responsible and purposeful uses of generative AI across creative, technical, and product development workflows to explore how AI can support ideation, rapid prototyping, content creation, procedural experiences, adaptive interaction, conversational systems, intelligent agents, and real-time behavior.

Encourage experimentation with real-time engines beyond traditional gaming, including applications in healthcare, education, enterprise, simulation, training, automotive, and other sectors

To support SCAD's deep professional focus and industry connections, you will also:

Provide constructive critique and mentorship to support student learning, portfolio development, professional readiness, and career growth.

Collaborate with faculty across interactive design, game development, UX, product design, technology, and related disciplines.

Maintain current knowledge of professional practices, emerging technologies, and evolving real-time production workflows.

Strong candidates will demonstrate the ability to:

Help students understand how logic, data, interaction, and system behavior are implemented in real-time environments.

Confidently use programming and scripting to create interactive systems and real-time behavior.

Communicate technical and design concepts clearly to students with varied levels of experience.

Be committed to inclusive design, accessibility, creative problem-solving, and user-centered development.

Demonstrate strong collaborative, communication, and mentorship skills.

Candidates should ideally demonstrate:

Familiarity with real-time engine applications beyond traditional gaming, including simulations, training, digital twins, product visualization, and interactive storytelling.

Experience in product strategy, UX research, usability testing, or human-centered design.

Understanding of APIs, cloud-connected applications, data-driven experiences, or live systems.

Experience in C#, C++, Python, JavaScript, visual scripting, or related programming environments.

Understanding of Git, version control, and collaborative production pipelines capabilities.

Background in collegiate teaching, professional training, mentorship, or curriculum development.

Minimum qualifications:

Terminal degree in interactive design and game development or a relevant field

Professional experience in interactive design, real-time development, product development, game development, creative technology, or a related field

Proficient in programming and scripting

Preferred qualifications:

Background in spatial interaction and immersive experience design

Experience with Unity and real-time game engines to build engaging, interactive products, including games, simulations, or immersive environments

Experience in mobile game or interactive application development for iOS and Android, including augmented, virtual, or mixed reality

Experience applying generative AI, machine learning, intelligent agents, or conversational systems to games, simulations, interactive products, creative workflows, or real-time environments

Experience collaborating with product designers, interaction designers, artists, developers, engineers, stakeholders, and subject-matter experts

Travel required:

Less than 10%

Required application documents:

Current resume and/or CV

Cover letter

Portfolio demonstrating technical execution and design thinking

Unofficial academic transcripts

Work hours: As noted in the Employment Agreement.

ADA tag: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements and minimum qualifications listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions and/or meet the minimum qualifications.