About the Role 

We are seeking a proactive Senior UX Researcher to shape customer- and banker-facing experiences. This person will deliver actionable research that influences business decisions, drives innovation, and improves user experiences. The ideal candidate has experience researching digital products for both customer and employee audiences. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure our products are intuitive, inclusive, drive business value, and are aligned with real user needs. 

Overview:  

Creates deep understanding and empathy around user needs across product teams, including designers, product managers, and engineers. Designs and executes primary research to explore user behaviors and motivations through surveys, ethnography, in depth interviews, concept testing, stakeholder interviews, workshop facilitation, usability testing, and heuristic evaluations. Comfortable triangulating data across multiple sources, including voice of the customer, employee feedback, and behavioral data. Translates insights into actionable recommendations that inform the development of new products and features and drive continuous innovation of existing experiences. Delivers clear, compelling written, visual, and in-person presentations to support decision-making at all stages of product development. 

Work Model & Office Locations:

This role follows a hybrid work model, requiring onsite presence four days per week at one of M&T Bank’s regional offices. Candidates must reside within a reasonable commuting distance to one of the following locations:

• 345 Main Street, Buffalo, NY
• 115 Federal Street, Boston, MA
• 1 Light Street, Baltimore, MD
• 1350 I Street NW, Washington, DC
• 1100 North Market Street, Wilmington, DE
• 277 Park Avenue, New York, NY
• 850 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT
• 77 Pine Street, Burlington, VT

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Establish and evolve a consistent research discipline to generate deep insights into user interactions with modern financial products and strengthen understanding of current and prospective customers. 

• Drive definition of user problem statement and alignment around it 

• Confidently engages cross-functional teams through research practices, educating them throughout, and ensuring that findings are implemented. 

• Apply best practices and method excellence across generative and evaluative mixed-methods research. 

• Provide guidance and mentorship to others conducting research and apply appropriate rigor. 

• Guide design leads on clear disciplined prioritization decisions, deciding what research to take on vs. defer, with strong judgment on where to say no. 

• Employ a range of UX Research methodologies (e.g. surveys, ethnography, in depth interviews, concept testing, stakeholder interviews, workshop facilitation, usability testing, heuristic evaluations, etc.) 

• Perform sophisticated, rigorous analysis of research data with a point of view that shows salient patterns with frameworks and meaningful insights 

• Build and maintain a strong partnership with Market Research and analytics teams to leverage existing insights, stay aligned across scheduled research efforts and inform the Company’s overall understanding of user needs and expectations. 

• Communicate research results through effective storytelling, that drives changes in business or experience strategy and help definie a new vision for the future. 

• Understand and adhere to the Company’s risk and regulatory standards, policies and controls in accordance with the Company’s Risk Appetite.  Identify risk-related issues needing escalation to management. 

• Promote an environment that supports belonging and reflects the M&T Bank brand. 

• Maintain M&T internal control standards, including timely implementation of internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators as applicable. 

• Complete other related duties as assigned. 

Scope of Responsibilities: 

At M&T Bank, user experience (UX) is at the forefront of how we create intuitive, innovative and visually appealing products that people love. The Sr UX Researcher strives to learn and understand our users’ needs, behaviors, and emotions to yield insights that inform product strategy and guide design of the experiences created. You will develop relationships and work closely with leaders in Product Management, Software Engineering, Marketing, and Business to solve complex challenges and craft powerful experiences that highlight our products’ unique capabilities and personalities. 

Education and Experience Required: 

Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 5 years’ related experience, or in lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 9 years’ higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 5 years’ related experience 

Background in the user experience researcher field, designing and conducting user research studies and applying design-thinking methodologies 

Prior experience with innovative thinking, the value of research and working with stakeholders to deliver results 

Strong understanding of strengths and shortcomings of different research methods, including when and how to apply them during product development processes 

Experience dealing with ambiguity and leveraging design research as a means to bring clarity to abstract ideas 

Experience with accessibility standards, cross-platform issues, mobile user interfaces and systems-thinking 

Experience using modern design, prototyping and collaboration tools (e.g. Figma, UserTesting, Miro, Jira) 

Experience interacting with various multi-disciplinary teams of professionals 

Strong time management skills 

Strong problem-solving skills 

Strong critical thinking skills 

Strong verbal and written communication skills 

Strong collaboration skills 

Education and Experience Preferred: 

Minimum of a master’s degree in a related field 

Experience in survey design, including working knowledge of statistics and experimental design 

Experience in creating use cases, flow diagrams, prototypes, scenarios and wireframes in the context of user research 

Proficiency in industry best practices for desktop, mobile and web applications 

Experience working with Product Managers, Product Designers and Product Marketers 

Experience working in the financial industry 

Location