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
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years' related experience (or 9 years combined education/work with 5 years related experience).
- Background in user experience research, designing and conducting user research studies and applying design-thinking methodologies.
- Strong understanding of strengths and shortcomings of different research methods and when to apply them.
- 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 dealing with ambiguity and leveraging design research to bring clarity to abstract ideas.
- Ability to perform rigorous analysis of research data and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
- Experience engaging and educating cross-functional teams and ensuring research findings are implemented.
- Strong verbal and written communication, collaboration, time management, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
- Experience interacting with multi-disciplinary teams of professionals.
- Maintain adherence to company risk, regulatory standards, policies, and internal control requirements.
- Mentorship and guidance experience for other researchers.
- Master's degree in a related field.
- Experience in survey design, statistics, and experimental design.
- Experience creating use cases, flow diagrams, prototypes, scenarios, and wireframes in research context.
- 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.
M&T Bank Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about M&T Bank and has not been reviewed or approved by M&T Bank.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are positioned as a strong pillar, including a 401(k) match and the possibility of an additional employer contribution, plus access to an employee stock purchase plan.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off offerings are framed as competitive, with a flexible PTO approach and paid volunteer time called out as a meaningful add-on to standard leave.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing support appears comparatively robust, highlighted by mental-health therapy/coaching sessions and broader wellness programming alongside community-oriented perks.
M&T Bank Insights
What We Do
M&T Bank is a multi-state community-focused bank serving New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1856, the company provides banking, investment, insurance and mortgage financial services to more than 3.6 million consumer, business and government clients.








