Plano 1 (31061), United States of America, Plano, Texas
User Experience Research Director - Auto Finance
We are seeking a User Research Director to lead a multi-functional team of research specialists and to help develop and execute a strategy for using human-centered insights to drive strategic decision-making at Capital One's Auto Finance. The role will focus on quantitative and quantitative research methodologies, as well as proactive insights strategies.
This role will lead a horizontal research team consisting of research specialists who conduct strategic research, product research and qualitative research and coach and advise teams on user research, digital analytics and research operations. The team ensures our business partners are leveraging meaningful user insights to drive decision-making.
We are a human-centered organization obsessed with delivering products and services based on customer research and feedback, design research is at the heart of our work. We believe using empathy, curiosity, and asking questions to understand our customers is core to delivering best in class products and services. We represent the voice of our customers and focus on being the source of truth for our customer insights.
Active research portfolio strategy:

• Partner with your Senior Leader and heads of design to determine and articulate priorities and work to be done for active research in lines of businesses
• Maintain a holistic view of the work happening on the team in order to make connections, identify opportunities, and ensure alignment to strategic priorities
• Driving momentum by creating transparency to the overall active research work in flight, in the backlog & completed
• Driving momentum by keeping the overall work portfolio across active research lines of business and team on track, visible to partners, up to date and proactively communicated
• Assisting and driving portfolio delivery, including project and process management, reporting, and stakeholder engagement for active research in the lines of business
• Display strong consulting and collaboration skills to work with partners to understand business problems and focus on bringing issues to resolution, escalating as necessary to meet timelines. Includes clarifying and defining business needs, requirements and use cases.
• Collaborate with design leads, heads of design, research operations lead and your leadership to identify and improve shared systems, processes, and rituals for the research organization at large
• Support and socialize those systems, processes, and rituals within your portfolio team

Program Execution

• Working with partners and teams across various geographies and facilitating workflow of co-located groups
• Participating in the design research process (e.g., stakeholder interviews, research, analysis, and work session facilitation) as necessary
• Maintaining and providing oversight to a well-managed program management tools and routines owned by the research operations team
• Overseeing and managing team structure (e.g., hiring and onboarding employees, managing contractors and vendors, balancing attrition) for active research positions
• Managing, tracking and reporting budgets, forecasting and scoping of new engagements into a program-level view for active research
• Reporting on portfolio of active research work to design leads, research operations and FS top of house leadership. This includes communicating status, issues, and forecasts to research operations & design partners and ensuring work is aligned to company, organizational, and team imperatives and goals
• Monitoring and balancing overall active research program health and team satisfaction
• Creating and implementing measurement plans and ensuring quality for successful delivery

Team health & Growth

• Monitor team and individual capacity, enablement, and energy levels to create a full view of the team's wellbeing, working with the research operations manager to align on reporting requirements
• Building and leading a successful team by mentoring, coaching, and elevating others
• Guiding team members in strategy, research, alignment, analysis, process improvement, and change management
• Navigating conflict resolution within your team as well as within projects, teams and partner relationships
• In partnership with design leads, track, forecast, and solve for staffing needs - from short-term sprints to long-term growth
• Coordinate team growth processes (for example, hiring and onboarding employees, managing contractor engagements, etc.) for all active research with the research operations manager & top of house team in order to maintain a support view of team needs
• Partner with leaders and the research operations manager on maintaining a well-managed budget and team headcount

Basic Qualifications

• At least 7 years of experience with user, product, or market research
• At least 2 years of leading a user research team within a cross-functional organization

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (including PhD) in social sciences, human factors, cognitive science, human computer interaction or behavioral economics
• Experience leading large bodies of work, research strategy, and teams, employing agile practices
• Comfortable working variety of stakeholders with enterprise, risk and legal teams
• Familiar with conducting and analyzing research for cross channel experiences
• Comfortable with ambiguity, working with a variety of business partners (with varying levels of UX maturity) to deliver outcomes
• Experience managing a cross-functional team of qualitative researchers, quantitative researchers, research strategists, and research operations
• Experience managing P and L and headcount management

No agencies please. Capital One is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, physical and mental disability, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/assignment, citizenship, pregnancy or maternity, protected veteran status, or any other status prohibited by applicable national, federal, state or local law. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City's Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia's Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.
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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).