User Experience Research Jobs in Silver Spring, MD

Job Summary:

Allegis Group is a global leader in the talent acquisition industry. We are the fourth largest talent solutions company in the world, with core operating companies including Aerotek, TEKsystems, Aston Carter, and Actalent.

The UX team supports a collection of enterprise recruiter and candidate or talent platforms that:

• Help candidates find the right job
• Support recruiters in finding the right candidates for client companies
• Support Allegis employees in better serving clients and candidates
• Enable sales teams to be more consultative when engaging clients
• Make candidates more discoverable across our platforms

At Allegis Group, you will be supported by leadership that values company culture and work-life balance. Allegis continues to invest in innovation across the staffing and services industry.

Allegis Group is looking for a mixed-methods Senior UX Researcher with deep experience working in enterprise environments and leading high-impact research that informs product strategy, service design, and user experience decisions.

This is an individual contributor and player-coach role. The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on expertise in discovery research and validation studies, while also leading and developing researchers, shaping research direction, and partnering with Product, Design, Architecture, and business stakeholders.

Your work will aim to understand:

• Employees, customers, and job applicants who use our products
• Business processes, workflows, and service dependencies inside and outside of our products
• Opportunities, risks, and unmet needs that influence product strategy and experience quality

You will be responsible for leading complex research across problem framing, concept and solution validation, and iterative product improvement. You will work closely with:

• UX researchers
• UX designers
• Product managers
• Architecture partners
• Business and operational stakeholders
• Senior leaders

Essential Functions:

This role requires advanced experience conducting and leading UX research and design research across the product lifecycle, including:

• Discovery research
• Concept testing and validation studies
• Usability testing
• In-depth interviews
• Field or contextual research
• Surveys and mixed-methods studies
• Journey mapping and service blueprinting

You will work to:

• Lead discovery efforts to define the right problems to solve, uncover unmet user needs, and shape product direction
• Design and execute validation studies that reduce risk before launch and confirm whether concepts, workflows, and designs are meeting user and business needs
• Identify research questions, assumptions, and decision points for teams and leaders
• Build research plans and roadmaps that align methods to business goals, product maturity, timeline, and risk
• Drive high-quality execution from recruitment through moderation, synthesis, readout, and activation of findings
• Translate research into clear recommendations, prioritization inputs, and strategic direction

Additional responsibilities include:

• Select the right method or combination of methods based on the decision at hand, balancing speed, rigor, and impact
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative data from multiple sources into actionable insights that directly influence design, product, and business decisions
• Lead workshops, working sessions, and stakeholder discussions to align teams on opportunities, risks, and next steps
• Elevate research quality, consistency, and operational excellence through templates, coaching, and best practices
• Mentor researchers in study design, analysis, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement
• Partner with cross-functional leaders to ensure research is embedded early in planning and continues through validation and iteration
• Contribute to research prioritization, roadmap planning, and team capacity decisions

Supervisory or Management Responsibility:

• No direct management required, but, 3+ years of people or team management responsibility is preferred. Expected to coach and develop researchers, oversee quality of work, set priorities, and support performance and growth.

Budget Responsibility:

• No direct budget ownership required, but experience influencing research prioritization, vendor usage, and resourcing decisions is preferred.

Minimum Education and/or Experience:

• 8+ years of experience conducting UX research in complex digital product or enterprise environments, using qualitative-leaning or mixed-methods approaches
• Strong depth in discovery research, including problem framing, exploratory interviews, workflow analysis, journey mapping, and foundational research
• Strong depth in validation research, including concept evaluation, prototype testing, usability studies, and decision-oriented evaluative research
• 3+ years of experience leading, mentoring, or directly managing researchers or research teams
• Demonstrated ability to shape research strategy, prioritize high-impact work, and connect findings to product, design, and business decisions
• Strong strategic research skills, including executive communication, storytelling, facilitation, stakeholder management, and business and product acumen
• Experience influencing senior leaders and cross-functional partners in matrixed organizations
• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience; advanced degree in HCI, Psychology, Anthropology, Human Factors, Sociology, Cognitive Science, Information Science, or a related discipline preferred

Skills/Abilities:

• Discovery research
• Validation and evaluative research
• Research strategy and prioritization
• Stakeholder management and executive communication
• People leadership and coaching

Additional Qualifications:

• A portfolio demonstrating past work experience and deliverables, such as research plans, frameworks, reports, readouts, journey maps, and strategic recommendations
• End-to-end experience across the research lifecycle, including framing, planning, recruiting, moderation, analysis, synthesis, storytelling, and activation
• Experience leading research in ambiguous problem spaces and helping teams decide what to build, why it matters, and how to validate it
• Strong command of a broad set of methods across foundational and evaluative research, and judgment in choosing the right level of rigor
• Experience working in large, fast-paced software development environments at enterprise scale
• Experience facilitating workshops, co-creation sessions, and cross-functional alignment discussions
• Ability to identify patterns across studies, products, and journeys, and turn them into strategic opportunities
• Experience handling confidential information and escalating issues when appropriate
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities through self-direction and team leadership
• Experience improving research practice through mentorship, templates, standards, or research operations habits

Office Requirements:

• Required in office at least 2 days a week out of our headquarters in Hanover, MD

Core Competencies:

• Build relationships
• Develop people
• Lead change
• Inspire Others
• Think critically
• Communicate clearly
• Create Accountability

Benefits Overview:

Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms.  This role is eligible for the following:

• Medical, dental & vision
• Hospital plans
• 401(k) Retirement Plan - Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
• Life Insurance (Company paid Basic Life and AD&D as well as voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
• Company paid Short and long-term disability
• Health & Dependent Care Spending Accounts (HSA & DCFSA)
• Transportation benefits
• Employee Assistance Program
• Tuition Assistance
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Allegis Group Paid Family Leave, Parental Leave)

Salary Range:

• $102,700 - $156,200
• The position is bonus-eligible

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email Lauren Lara at llara@allegisgroup.com or call 410-579-3526 for other accommodation options.