UX Researcher

In a business like ours, the quality of digital interactions is essential. As a UX Researcher at Vanguard, you will use a broad range of skills in qualitative and design research methods, as well as usability testing and quantitative methods. You’ll provide input on every aspect of UX, from research and concepting, to design and information architecture. It will require passion about understanding users, and motivation to leverage user research to inform the design of complex solutions that drive desired outcomes. This role will also require the individual to be comfortable in a fast-paced organization, open-minded about learning new skills, and excited to collaborate closely with product designers, engineers, and product managers. It will require a precise eye for detail, a knack for story-telling, creativity, compassion, and problem-solving abilities. You’ll need excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to achieve agreement with partners and stakeholders. Your impact will reach far beyond our clients and our business to set new standards for the whole industry.

Do you have a passion for designing products customers love? Would you like to use your talents and experience to help shape the future of the financial services industry? Then you might be right with us. Located in Berlin, we are aiming to change the way the world invests.

The Opportunity

In a business like ours, the quality of digital interactions is critical. As a UX Researcher at Vanguard, you will use a broad range of skills in qualitative and design research methods, as well as usability testing and quantitative methods. You’ll provide input on every aspect of UX, from research and concepting, to design and information architecture. It will require passion about understanding users, and motivation to leverage user research to inform the design of complex solutions that drive desired outcomes. This role will also require the individual to be comfortable in a fast-paced organization, open-minded about learning new skills, and excited to collaborate closely with product designers, engineers, and product managers. It will require a precise eye for detail, an interest in story-telling, creativity, compassion, and problem-solving abilities. You’ll need excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to achieve agreement with partners. Your impact will reach far beyond our clients and our business to set new standards for the whole industry.

In This Role You Will

• Initiate and drive the UX research process, collaborating with stakeholders from all hierarchy levels
• Be a thought leader on research methodologies used to gather user insights at various stages of the product design process
• Use a variety of qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques, as well as client feedback, to understand needs of our target group, identify new problem areas, and generate insights to improve the client experience
• Participate in decisions on the right processes, methods, and tools for creative problem solving
• Partner closely with product managers to influence the product strategy and roadmaps with validated user research findings
• Work collaboratively with a cross-functional team, effectively integrating your research into the product definition and design phases
• Validate design decisions through a continuous discovery process that uses participatory design, early concept testing, formative and summative usability testing
• Help standardize our research protocol and contribute to a repository of user research/knowledge base
• Recruit and interview customers and non-customers as part of the research process
• Have a close relationship with third party agencies and consultancies supporting them in research activities
• Maintain the Research Operations process
• Moderate ideation workshops with the team in order to scope your research planning
• Make good use if hypothesis and data driven frameworks
• Present findings to stakeholders using a variety of visual artifacts like flows, user-journeys, diagrams (visual storytelling)
• Communicate research findings through such as storyboards, personas, journeys, task analyses, as needed at all levels of the product design process
• Continuously share user insights to the broader organization to nurture our client-centred approach

Requirements

• demonstrated experience working as a UX Researcher or similar
• Experience in planning, designing, and conducting user research, usability, and heuristic evaluations
• Experience using design thinking approaches in product design and research
• Compelling communication and presentation skills
• Ability to facilitate group meetings and collaboration sessions
• You are self-motivated and outcome oriented
• Experience using a wide range of user experience research software and tools (e.g., UserTesting.com, Medallia, Qualtrics)
• Experience working in a agile environment
• Passion for user-centred design process
• Problem solving skills and excellent attention to detail
• Experience in the Investment or Banking sector is a plus
• Proficiency in English and German

Special Factors

This position is based in Berlin, Germany.

Vanguard is offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

We are Vanguard. Together, we’re changing the way the world invests. For us, investing doesn’t just end in value. It starts with values. Because when you invest with courage, when you invest with clarity, and when you invest with care, you get so much more in return. We invest with purpose—and that’s how we’ve become a global market leader. Here, we grow by doing the right thing for the people we serve. And so can you. We want to make success accessible to everyone. This is our opportunity. Let’s make it count.

Inclusion Statement

Vanguard’s continued commitment to diversity and inclusion is firmly rooted in our culture. Every decision we make to best serve our clients, crew (internally employees are referred to as crew), and communities is guided by one simple statement: “Do the right thing.”

We believe that a critical aspect of doing the right thing requires building diverse, inclusive, and highly effective teams of individuals who are as unique as the clients they serve. We empower our crew to contribute their distinct strengths to achieving Vanguard’s core purpose through our values.

When all crew members feel valued and included, our ability to collaborate and innovate is amplified, and we are united in delivering on Vanguard’s core purpose.

Our core purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.

A note on flexible working in the longer term – we have transitioned to a work from home model for many of our crew and continue to interview, hire, and on-board future crew remotely. We’ve learned that we can serve clients well, maintain our productivity, and continue to deliver on our strategic goals while most of our crew work remotely. These learnings help reinforce that we will work differently in the future, and we are committed to providing more flexibility than in the past.

As we develop the path forward, we will take a thoughtful approach that both maximizes the advantages of working remotely and the many benefits of coming together and collaborating in a shared workspace. We believe that in-person interactions among our crew are important for preserving our unique culture and advantageous for the personal development of our crew. Given that we expect a balance of remote and on-campus work for most roles, we encourage you to make the decision regarding your job interview and offer knowing that you will be working with your fellow crew members at one of Vanguard’s offices on a regular basis when we re-open. We will provide more details on our evolving approach to flexibility as soon as possible.

INTERNAL CREW, CONTRACTOR & DIRECT APPLICATIONS ONLY

Please note, current suppliers and potential suppliers are not permitted to communicate with or contact or send or otherwise provide any speculative resumes to any department, business unit, subsidiary or affiliate of Vanguard, or any employee thereof, at any time unless expressly instructed or permitted by a member of Vanguard’s HR department. For the avoidance of doubt, Vanguard will not pay any fees to a supplier or potential supplier in respect of any candidate unless Vanguard HR has either requested the referral or given its prior written consent to the referral. If you would like to partner with Vanguard Europe, please contact [email protected] and we will be in touch if we need further information and/or if we need additional support.

**Please note LinkedIn ‘Easy Apply’ is an expression of interest only! To be considered for the role, you’ll need to complete your application via our careers site : thank you**

Future of Work

During the pandemic, we transitioned to a work from home model for the majority of our crew and we continue to interview, hire, and on-board future crew remotely.

As we have developed the path forward, we have taken a thoughtful approach that both maximizes the advantages of working remotely and the many benefits of coming together and collaborating in a shared workspace. We believe that in-person interactions among our crew are important for preserving our unique culture and advantageous for the personal development of our crew.

When our Crew return to the office, many will work in our hybrid model. A smaller proportion of our crew will operate in the Work from Home work model (for example, field sales crew); or in the Work from Office model (for example, portfolio managers).

The working model that your role falls into will be communicated to you in the interview process – please do ask if you are unsure. We encourage you to make the decision regarding your job interview and offer knowing which model your role will fall into. We will test and learn as our ways of working evolve and will continue to evaluate working models along the way.