Strata Decision Technology is hiring: User Experience Researcher in Chicago

Overview

Strata is driven by our people solving problems together. As a UX Researcher, you will work directly with our user experience team to help leading hospitals, universities, and financial institutions make better decisions with their financial, operational, and strategic data.

This UX Researcher role is all about working with Product Managers and UX Designers to solve complex problems by uncovering the needs and pain points of our users and turning insights into actionable solutions and product decisions.

Responsibilities

• Conduct generative and evaluative research to uncover user needs, behaviors, and motivations, guiding the product team through all stages of product development.
• Be the voice of the user in cross‑functional team discussions, advocating for user needs while balancing business objectives and constraints.
• Help foster a user‑centric culture by refining unclear questions into clear research opportunities, sharing insights across teams, and ensuring those insights shape product decisions from discovery through launch.
• Feel comfortable sharing expertise, offering research advice in group settings, and becoming a trusted research partner to stakeholders and team members.
• Fearlessly dig into existing and new research to understand our users’ needs.
• Contribute to problem discovery activities, refine ambiguous questions into clear goals, and create research plans.
• Coordinate recruitment, conduct user interviews, share relevant insights with stakeholders, and connect insights across studies and teams.
• Become an expert in our research repository and help maintain it as a source of truth for product teams.
• Ask tough questions, identify assumptions, discuss new ideas, and remain open to opposing viewpoints.
• Actively contribute to the growth of the research function and show initiative in end‑to‑end ownership of studies.

A Day in the Life

• Brainstorm research questions with other research team members.
• Work with product managers and design partners to uncover knowledge gaps.
• Review findings and recommendations with design partners.
• Share learnings about latest research trends to spark discussion.
• Guide the team through pros and cons of research plans and decision‑making processes.

Qualifications

• Relevant research experience within an agile team; SaaS, finance, or healthcare experience highly preferred.
• 2+ years of professional user research experience on product teams.
• Ability to navigate both clear and ambiguous problem spaces and select appropriate research methods.
• Ability to synthesize findings into clear, actionable insights and recommendations that inform product decisions.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage and prioritize work independently.
• A body of past work that showcases core research skills, including generative research, evaluative research, analysis, and actionable insights.
• Experience incorporating quantitative data into research (e.g., product analytics, surveys, behavioral metrics).
• Familiarity with product analytics tools such as Pendo and interest in leveraging usage data to inform research.
• Interest in incorporating AI tools into research workflows while maintaining quality and rigor.

Estimated Salary Range

$80,000 – $100,000

Benefits

Strata provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits, health and welfare benefits, paid time off, parental leave, life and accident insurance, and other voluntary well‑being benefits.

Location

Preferred location: Chicago, IL or St. Louis, MO. Hybrid environment with opportunities for in‑person collaboration.