Staff User Researcher

We are looking for a Staff User Researcher to join our team in Bengaluru, India. As a Staff User Researcher, you will work with a globally distributed team to apply your craft and expertise across a range of products and services. You will tackle complex research questions, delivering insights that ensure we are solving the right problems for our customers.

As a Staff UX Researcher in India, you will lead and establish user research efforts locally, embedding UXR practices within our growing India-based cross-functional teams and taking ownership of high-impact research initiatives for a key Okta product area. This is a unique opportunity to promote and cultivate a user-centered culture, guiding local product, design, and engineering partners who are new to direct collaboration with UX research.

In this role, you have the opportunity to:

• Champion user-centered best practices and build strong, trusted relationships with product, design, and engineering leaders within our growing Bangalore office
• Drive collaborative research initiatives with cross-functional teams and guide them in leveraging insights to inform decisions and foster a culture of curiosity
• Communicate complex insights clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences across all levels and time zones, ensuring seamless alignment within our global team
• Utilize LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) to accelerate end-to-end research workflows, from literature reviews and transcript analysis to report drafting
• Synthesize insights at scale by leveraging AI-augmented repositories and tools across multiple concurrent projects, without sacrificing research rigor
• Establish and refine UX research processes, operational frameworks, and supporting tools tailored to the needs of the Bangalore office, aligning with our global UX Research standards
• Build and manage key research operations, including leading APAC participant recruitment efforts and collaborating with our global UX Research Operations team to optimize our Dovetail research repository for local stakeholders
• Lead end-to-end research initiatives, expertly applying a flexible range of methodologies (generative and evaluative) to illuminate customer needs and deliver high-impact insights that drive product growth
• Share your expertise and insights with the global UX Research team, and play a pivotal role in building UX Research capacity within the Bangalore office as the team grows
• Access global learning resources and collaborate with experienced researchers worldwide to continuously enhance your skills

Who We Are Looking For:

• Demonstrated ability to effectively introduce and integrate UX Research into teams with limited prior exposure, clearly articulating its value and driving buy-in
• Experience thriving in a remote, globally distributed team environment, with a proven ability to manage asynchronous communication, maintain alignment across different time zones, and build strong rapport and influence with remote stakeholders across cultures
• You possess a proven ability to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs for bias, hallucinations, and gaps; you know when to trust, refine, or override AI and can articulate that judgment
• A proactive and highly self-driven approach, with a proven ability to independently identify research opportunities, define scope, and successfully project manage complex initiatives end-to-end, consistently delivering high-quality insights on time and within scope
• Resourcefulness in navigating ambiguity and establishing new processes and tooling where needed
• Proven experience as an embedded UX Researcher with deep expertise in applying a wide range of methodologies (e.g., usability studies, contextual inquiry, surveys) to identify and elevate user needs, driving valuable product outcomes
• Able to translate business problems into human-centered research questions, applying your technical understanding to inform company goals
• Exceptional proficiency in communicating complex research findings and insights, adeptly tailoring presentations and guiding collaborative sessions with diverse cross-functional partners and senior leadership to drive alignment and informed decisions
• Experience with products made for developers, administrators, or other technical audiences
• Strong decision-making and problem-solving capabilities while working with constraints
• Empathy for users and a passion for understanding technical experiences
• Experience working on security products is a plus
• A proactive and curious mindset with a dedication to continuous professional development, and a proven ability to contribute positively to the team's research culture and skill set

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in a User Research or related role, with a strong digital portfolio demonstrating end-to-end research on shipped B2B or enterprise SaaS products. (A portfolio is required for consideration)
• Practical experience using LLMs to accelerate research workflows, with specific examples of measurable impact on project timelines or scale
• Expertise in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods
• A Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Psychology, Sociology, or a related field is preferred