Principal Design Researcher and HCI Specialist

Introduction

We are a small but mighty design research practice in London looking for a Principal Researcher and HCI specialist to join our smart, creative and warm team. This role is an opportunity to make your mark on a key disciplinary area with a growing practice.

Overview

Sutherland Labs is an international team of researchers, designers and creatives who work with world-leading clients to improve everyday experiences. We pride ourselves on delivering creative, customized research solutions to address our clients’ questions with clarity and inspiration. Our practice is rooted in qualitative research, with a focus on uncovering rich, contextual insights to inform design and strategy.

The Role

Principal Researchers take responsibility for our most complex engagements, ranging from one-off studies to programs of research. Principals help shape the development of our practice, nurturing team growth and expanding our methodological toolkit. They are trusted by our sophisticated clients to recommend research solutions to fit their evolving needs.

Key Responsibilities

Relationship Management

• Develop and manage key relationships, from lead generation to post-delivery feedback
• Help to frame engagement strategy, proposal content, and the definition and positioning of our research value proposition
• Creatively develop bids, scope projects, and configure engagements to optimize results for clients with varying budget and timeline requirements

Project Leadership

• Confidently lead and manage multiple engagements simultaneously
• Create engaging learning experiences for client teams throughout the research process, from senior executives and product leaders to junior researcher partners
• Recommend and deliver polished and compelling deliverables that enable action to realize organizational goals. These may include insights reports, journey maps, service blueprints, and video reels (with support from our in-house creative team). Where appropriate, reimagine traditional deliverables. 
• Facilitate client meetings and workshops to achieve consensus or clarity
• Evangelize and grow expertise in HCI within our London practice.

Team Mentorship

• Participate in building and evolving the research methodology, codifying and improving existing processes, and aid in the growth of our research design practice’s maturity
• Provide mentoring, and support professional development of team members, especially in research design and analysis
• Advocate for the team and our work, e.g. publishing papers, attending industry events, writing blogs, activity on social media
• Champion human-centered innovation across our broader organization, Sutherland, through leading, educating and collaborating with business development colleagues

Education and Experience

• Academic qualifications in Cognitive Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, Design Strategy or a related field are useful, with a Masters or PhD preferred; however exceptional candidates may instead have experience that serves as an equivalent.
• 6+ years of experience leading research engagements in an agency or in-house setting. Experience in a fast-moving agency, startup or innovation lab setting is strongly preferred.
• Experience leading research in the consumer financial services domain is highly desirable.
• Advanced skills in project management, research and experiment design, crafting and writing of deliverables. Mixed-methods research skills desirable.
• Strong business development experience, from developing new client relationships through to account management
• Demonstrable experience tackling complex projects that involve simultaneous stakeholders and/or research sites or segments 

Job Requirements

• Eligibility to work in the UK. Unfortunately, visa sponsorship is not available
• Occasional global and domestic travel so flexibility to travel is required
• Role is located in Covent Garden, London on a hybrid basis.
• You need to be someone who can carve out goals as well as the plan to reach them, and is comfortable with ambiguity. 
• A willingness to get scrappy and roll up your sleeves on occasion. We’re a small, warm team who are passionate about our work. We are pleased to offer our team a time-off-in-lieu benefit in recognition that we occasionally work extended hours.
• Excellent communication skills and a willingness to work in close collaboration with colleagues

Full-time fixed-term contract. While this is a 12-month maternity cover, there may be an opportunity for the role to become permanent for the right person depending on business needs.