Lead User Experience Researcher

CLA is a top 10 national professional services firm where our purpose is to create opportunities every day, for our clients, our people, and our communities through industry-focused wealth advisory, digital, audit, tax, consulting, and outsourcing services. Even with more than 8,500 people, 130 U.S. locations, and a global reach, we promise to know you and help you.

CLA is dedicated to building a culture that invites different beliefs and perspectives to the table, so we can truly know and help our clients, communities, and each other.

Our Perks:

• Flexible PTO (designed to offer flexible time away for you!)
• Up to 12 weeks paid parental leave
• Paid Volunteer Time Off
• Mental health coverage
• Quarterly Wellness stipend
• Fertility benefits
• Complete list of benefitshere

CLA is growing and seeking to hire an experienced Lead User Experience Researcher to join our talented Information Technology team. The position offers growth, flexibility and a collaborative work environment.

In this position you should have the following; excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate at all levels. Strong problem solving and creative skills and the ability to exercise sound judgment. Most important, demonstrate a high level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation.

The Lead User Experience Researcher (Lead UX Researcher) leads CLA's UX Research practice, setting the research agenda, and establishing the methodology, standards, and operating model the research function operates within their assignment. This includes research for emerging product categories such as AI-enabled products, where evaluation methodology for user trust, autonomous task completion, and human-AI collaboration is still being established.

The Lead UX Researcher is responsible for evidence-based research that directly informs product strategy and roadmap decisions across the portfolio. Research in this context requires deep understanding of practitioner workflows across tax, audit, and advisory domains, regulatory considerations, and the professional services operating environment.

The Lead UX Researcher establishes research leadership, defining methodology standards and operating model, building and governing research infrastructure, and developing research capability through mentorship of cross-functional partners.

How you'll create opportunities in this Lead User Experience Researcher role:

Research Strategy and Execution

• Frame research engagements as decision-support work with specific stakeholders and decisions in view, rather than open-ended exploration.
• Establish research priorities and approaches for emerging product categories including agentic and AI-enabled products, where evaluation methodology is still being developed.
• Lead end-to-end complex, multi-phase, or high-stakes studies, applying qualitative and quantitative methods across the portfolio including user interviews, usability testing, contextual inquiries, field studies, surveys, card sorting, tree testing, and A/B testing.
• Design novel protocols for research contexts where established methodology is insufficient, including research on agentic and AI-enabled products.
• System usage analytics: Collaborate with data teams to analyze logs and usage patterns, identifying underutilized workflow features or bottlenecks. Design and administer CSAT surveys to establish baseline experience metrics and track improvement over time.
• Synthesize research findings across studies, time periods, and product areas using methods such as affinity mapping, thematic analysis, and statistical analysis, developing durable insight frameworks for product and research decisions.
• Develop evidence-based design recommendations with severity, business impact, and prioritized next steps, and contribute to solution design alongside product teams through artifacts such as service blueprints, user journeys, and system or data flows.
• Maintain traceability from insight to action to outcome, with findings and recommendations grounded in documented evidence across the portfolio.
• Connect research findings to product experience metrics, including CSAT, to quantify impact and validate that recommendations are improving the user experience.

Stakeholder Partnership and Senior Leadership Communication

• Partner with product, design, engineering, and business stakeholders across CLA's product portfolio to ensure user insights inform product direction and strategic decisions.
• Communicate complex findings clearly and persuasively to stakeholders at all levels, resolving disagreements through evidence and shared understanding.
• Drive critical decision meetings by proactively delivering findings, updates, and completed work at a cadence that supports product decision timelines.

Practice Leadership and Team Development

• Establish methodology standards, quality review processes, and expectations for evidence integrity, synthesis rigor, and deliverable quality, ensuring execution quality is consistent across the research function.
• Define the operating model for research engagement with product, design, and engineering, including intake, prioritization, delivery cadence, and handoff standards.
• Build and govern research infrastructure, including the research repository, participant panels, tooling, and templates, ensuring accumulated research enables the organization to build on previous findings rather than duplicate effort.
• Build research capability demonstrate how evidence-driven practice improves product outcomes, decision quality, and strategic advantage.
• Stay current on industry trends and evaluate emerging research tools, methods, and techniques, with adoption decisions grounded in demonstrated improvement to research quality or efficiency.
• Mentor cross-functional partners (designers, product owners, business stakeholders) on research methodology and decision-support framing, with regular feedback that drives measurable improvement in research capability.

Documentation, Work Management, and Domain Knowledge

• Define work tracking and status reporting standards for the research team, ensuring visibility into research activity across the portfolio, and ensure all submitted deliverables are stakeholder-ready: complete, reviewed for accuracy, and formatted to the standards agreed upon at assignment.
• Maintain working knowledge of CLA's professional services domains to contextualize research within practitioner workflows and service operating models.
• Track regulatory changes impacting practitioner workflows and product direction, flagging research needs as requirements emerge.
• Develop and maintain understanding of emerging product categories such as agentic and AI-enabled products, including evolving practitioner expectations, user trust dynamics, and research practice for AI products.
• Build and maintain cross-portfolio awareness, recognizing how research findings in one product area carry implications across related products and practitioner journeys.

Accessibility and Inclusion

• Establish accessibility research standards, including compliance with WCAG guidelines, that translate into consistent practice across the team's research output.
• Account for underrepresented user groups, including individuals with disabilities, reflecting the diversity of CLA's practitioner and client populations.

What you will need:

• 6+ years of experience conducting UX research, with demonstrated experience in practice leadership, strategic research, or senior individual contributor roles with portfolio-level responsibility.
• Track record of research that influenced product direction, roadmap decisions, or organizational strategy, with documented examples available for discussion.
• Strong hands-on experience with research methods, including usability testing, interviews, surveys, and qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Experience establishing or scaling research practice, repository, or operations infrastructure.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring or developing other researchers or cross-functional practitioners in research methodology.
• Experience working in professional services, financial services, or regulated industries.
• Proficiency with research tools such as Maze, User Testing, or similar platforms.
• Experience analyzing data using quantitative statistical software is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree or a combination of relevant experience and training may be considered in lieu of a degree.
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, or related field is preferred

Technical Competencies:

• Problem-Solving: Ability to identify and prioritize research questions that align with both user needs and business objectives at a portfolio level.
• Strategic and Portfolio Thinking: Ability to connect research decisions to multi-year product and business strategy while identifying patterns and opportunities across products, practitioner journeys, and research areas.
• Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present complex findings clearly and persuasively to audiences ranging from individual contributors to senior firm leadership.
• Collaboration: Proven ability to partner effectively across disciplines and with senior stakeholders, building influence through evidence and shared understanding.
• Empathy: Deep empathy for users and commitment to solving problems through research-informed decisions.
• Prioritization and Capacity Management: Ability to balance multiple research priorities across the product portfolio, focusing effort on the work with the highest business and user impact.
• Independent Judgment: Ability to independently evaluate options, make methodological and strategic decisions, and resolve problems at a level appropriate to practice leadership.
• Business Acumen: Ability to connect research activities and findings to business objectives, stakeholder decisions, and product outcomes.
• Development and People Leadership: Demonstrated ability to develop others' research capability through active mentorship and feedback; capacity to grow into formal people management responsibilities including direct report management and career development as the research team expands.
• Research Governance: Ability to establish and maintain standards for methodology, evidence, synthesis, and deliverable quality across the research function.

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Wellness at CLA

To support our CLA family members, we focus on their physical, financial, social, and emotional well-being and offer comprehensive benefit options that include health, dental, vision, 401k and much more.

To view a complete list of benefits click here.