Senior Manager - UX Research

We’re a diversified financial services leader with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management, administration and advisement as of year-end 2024. Our team of 22,000 people across 19 countries, serves more than 3.5 million individual, small business and institutional clients. We are a longstanding leader in financial planning and advice, a global asset manager and an insurer. Our unwavering focus on our clients and strong financial foundation connects each of our unique businesses – Ameriprise Financial, Columbia Threadneedle Investments and RiverSource Insurance and Annuities. Here, we foster meaningful careers, invest in the future, and make a difference for clients, institutions and communities around the world.

Job Description

Ameriprise Financial is looking to add a Senior Manager - UX Research to the team! Effectively manage the User Research team including capacity and operations ensuring knowledge sharing and cross-training of team members to effectively support the business and execute on all research deliverables. Apply human-centered, qualitative, and quantitative research methodologies to gather insights from end-users that inform digital product and experience strategies and adoption optimization throughout the product development life cycle.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end research process on behalf of cross-functional teams and business stakeholders in support of ongoing experience strategies and roadmaps. Ensure digital products and experiences meet usability standards by grounding concept development, decision making, and prioritization in research and insights.

• Identify, lead, and delegate qualitative and quantitative user research projects by managing and executing the most strategic parts of the research process from scoping, planning, recruiting, and execution to analysis and delivery of results for projects occurring throughout the digital product development life cycle.

• Forge relationships with key stakeholders and leaders across the organization to identify strategic research opportunities, improve operational efficiencies, and grow the value of the team

• Act as a leader in usability and end-user advocacy, providing feedback on design concepts, discovery roadmaps, or measurement strategies monitoring digital experiences.

• Analyze results and deliver research findings to senior stakeholders utilizing powerful storytelling to convey actionable research insights influencing strategic business directives.

• Guide the collaboration with Product, UX design, UX content, UX strategy, and technology partners to create and refine experience artifacts such as journey maps, jobs-to-be-done analyses, service blueprints, user flows, and information architecture models based on insights captured through research and workshops with subject-matter experts and end users.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors Degree or equivalent

• 7+ years of broad experience with highly complex web sites and software applications from a user-centered standpoint.

• Experience being a direct or indirect leader and mentor to UX professionals.

• Proficient knowledge of the user-centered design process, usability best practices and guidelines, web and app design best-practices, and relevant disciplines.

• Experience conducting end to end qualitative or quantitative research across mobile and desktop platforms.

• Ability to think strategically and drive results independently in support of established team and organization goals.

• Proficient in survey design techniques with understanding of population sampling and limiting bias.

• Strong written and verbal communications skills, including the ability to clearly articulate research results and findings into powerful presentations utilizing storytelling.

• Experience working with industry standard research and data analysis tools (e.g. Qualtrics, UserTesting or similar, Glassbox or similar, Adobe Target or similar.)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Masters Degree

• Experience with user centered principles and techniques including design sprints, co-creation methods, behavioral design and research, service design and research.

• Experience working with industry standard visualization and presentation tools (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.)

• Proficiency in statistical analyses (hypothesis testing, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square, correlation, regression) and how to communicate significant findings, effect sizes, coefficients.

• Working knowledge of design fundamentals such as color theory, composition, branding, typography and web design standards.

• Fundamental understanding of project management and business process management concepts.

• Knowledge of agile project processes, and ability to work alongside and within those processes.

• Ability to review secondary research, competitive insights, or external evaluations to influence research planning and strategy.

• Previous UX experience in financial services, financial technology solutions, and financial firm-to-client service models.