Senior UX Researcher

Company Description

Candidly was founded in 2016 to flip the script on what it means to plan, borrow, repay, and save for college. Today, we’re the category leader with the market’s most comprehensive AI-driven student debt and savings optimization platform. We partner with hundreds of top employers, financial institutions, and retirement record keepers, positioning Candidly to serve more than 35 million Americans. 

We’re already achieving incredible results — to date, we’ve helped our users get on track to eliminate more than $1.8B in student debt and pay off their loans 175,000 years quicker — and we’re seeking movers, shakers, innovators, and problem solvers to help take our mission even further. 

Candidly is a high-growth, Series B startup, funded by leading investors including Altos Ventures, Aflac, Salesforce Ventures, UBS, Equal Opportunity Ventures, Impact Engine, Rethink Impact, Unum, and Cercano Management. Our fully remote, international team of 70 (and counting) includes alumni from Google, UBS, Twitter, Plaid, Prudential, LendingTree, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and more.

Role Overview

Candidly is seeking a full-time Senior UX Researcher to help drive our mission to optimize student debt repayment and savings, creating impactful experiences for users. Reporting directly to the Head of Design, this role will collaborate with cross-functional teams to conduct research that shapes the development and innovation of our platform. The ideal candidate is a passionate advocate for users, excels in generating actionable insights, and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborating closely with product, design, and business teams to identify research needs and areas of exploration.
• Acting as a thought leader for user research, consistently advocating for user-centric design and decision-making.
• Designing and executing end-to-end custom primary research using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g., user interviews, usability testing, surveys, contextual inquiry, and analytics).
• Developing research plans to investigate both user behavior and attitudes, translating findings into actionable insights.
• Managing and prioritizing research projects, aligning with stakeholders across a fast-changing and often ambiguous environment.
• Communicating research findings effectively to multiple teams and stakeholders, illustrating suggestions in compelling, creative formats.
• Collaborating cross-functionally with product management, design, content strategy, engineering, and marketing teams to ensure that research insights fuel ideation and product development.
• Generating insights that support ideation, design evaluation, and iterative improvements to the product.
• Helping to shape and drive the product roadmap based on data-driven user insights.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in UX research or a related field, working across the full research lifecycle (planning, execution, analysis, and presentation).
• Proven expertise in various research methods, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• Ability to work independently and autonomously in a remote setting, managing multiple projects with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience in fast-paced, dynamic environments, with the ability to adapt and pivot research plans as needed.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to synthesize complex research into digestible insights for diverse audiences.
• Experience collaborating with design, product, and engineering teams to translate research into actionable design decisions.
• Strong knowledge of usability principles and a passion for creating user-centric products.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic thinking with detailed, hands-on research tasks.

Preferred Qualifications

• A strong passion for user advocacy and experience design, with an eye for performant designs and funnel optimization 
• Self-motivated and collaborative, thriving in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Experience in financial services, fintech, or financial wellness solutions, using behavioral economics to drive meaningful outcomes.
• A love for innovation and curiosity about emerging UX trends and methodologies.
• Experience with AI-driven products or platforms or LLMs is a plus.

Background and EEOC

Candidly offers for employment are conditioned upon satisfactory completion of our employment screening process (including, but not limited to, a review of past employment and education records, background investigation, and/or credit check & fingerprints).

Candidly strives to foster an environment where every employee can succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, veteran status, or any other basis covered by applicable law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.