Lead UX Researcher (UXR-3-052026)

About Koru UX Design
Koru UX Design is a leading UX design agency specializing in HealthTech. We partner with clients to deliver user-centered design solutions that drive innovation and enhance user experiences. Our design teams work as an integrated extension of our client’s teams, deeply embedding ourselves into their processes to create seamless, impactful products.
About the Role
We're looking for a UX Research Lead to operate at the intersection of craft, strategy, and team leadership. At Koru, research shapes product direction for enterprise clients across healthcare, automation, AI, and finance. You'll run complex multi-phase engagements, lead a growing research team, and build the operational infrastructure that makes great research repeatable.
What you'll do
Research delivery
Lead end-to-end research across discovery, validation, and usability phases — from framing the brief to stakeholder readout
Design and run studies across methods: stakeholder interviews, discovery sessions, usability tests, diary studies, and co-creation workshops
Synthesise complex findings into strategic outputs: journey maps, service blueprints, opportunity frameworks, and research reports calibrated to client context
Design research for AI-powered products — evaluating trust calibration, user mental models, and failure-mode discovery — using simulation-based stimuli where appropriate
Client & stakeholder engagement
Lead pre-research alignment sessions to surface stakeholder assumptions and close scope gaps before fieldwork begins
Serve as the research voice in client-facing conversations; translate findings for product owners, engineering leads, and program managers
Proactively identify new research opportunities within ongoing engagements and make a case for scope extension or follow-on phases
Team & research operations
Mentor junior researchers and UX designers on research craft through embedded coaching on live projects
Own ResearchOps infrastructure: explorator and evaluative research frameworks, templates, and tooling that scales across the vertical
Bring a point of view on emerging research methods, tools, and AI product evaluation approaches
Contribute to Koru's research practice model — how we staff engagements, scope research phases, and frame research value to clients
Requirements
What we're looking for
7–11 years of hands-on UX research experience, with at least 3 years in a lead or senior capacity
Direct experience conducting research for enterprise or B2B products — SaaS, healthcare, automation, finance, or complex internal tools
Strong stakeholder management: you can run alignment sessions, address and refine poorly scoped briefs, and earn trust with senior client-side stakeholders
Proven ability to handle ambiguous, open-ended briefs in a consultancy or agency context — you structure what's unclear and find ways to begin
Experience building research operations infrastructure — templates, frameworks, or process improvements that benefited a team, not just your own practice
Comfort working with US-based users and stakeholders, adapting communication and recruitment to cross-timezone constraints
Excellent written and verbal communication — crisp reports, confident presentations, and the ability to facilitate a mixed-stakeholder room
Bonus points if you have
Research experience on AI-powered enterprise products — copilot features, agentic tools, or LLM-integrated workflows
Exposure to regulated or high-stakes domains: clinical surveillance, healthcare compliance, or enterprise automation
Experience facilitating design sprints or co-creation workshops, using research as a live input rather than a post-hoc report
Benefits
Real research leadership scope — you'll define how we do research, not just execute it
Work on complex enterprise products across healthcare, automation, and AI — the kind of problem spaces where research actually changes what gets built
Opportunities for continuous learning: LinkedIn Learning, professional trainings, and conference exposure
Flexible working hours with remote options
A collaborative culture where research is treated as a strategic function, not a delivery service
Apply now and join our mission to bring consumer-grade UX to enterprise applications.