User Experience Researcher, AI-Augmented Research

User Experience Researcher

Nelnet is a diversified and innovative company committed to enriching lives through the power of service as a student loan servicer, professional services company, consumer loan originator and servicer, payments processor, renewable energy solutions, and K-12 and higher education expert. For over 40 years, Nelnet has been serving its customers, associates, and communities.

The perks of working at Nelnet go beyond our benefits package. When you join the Nelnet team, you're part of a community invested in the success of each individual. That support comes through in our work, as we are united by our mission of creating opportunities for people where they live, learn, and work.

Are you driven to translate quantitative and qualitative user experience data into opportunities for customer experience innovation — and to build the AI tooling that lets a small research team do it faster and deeper? Nelnet is seeking a curious, experienced User Experience Researcher to join our internal design team. Beyond running best-in-class research, this role owns and extends our agentic UX synthesis pipeline — tooling that drafts plans, synthesizes qualitative and quantitative data, and produces reports under the direction of an expert researcher who ensures every input and output is relevant, accurate, and free of bias.

The AI accelerates the work; it doesn't replace the judgment.

As a UX researcher, you'll immerse yourself in a close-knit team to solve design challenges through data and analysis, turning what you find into a story stakeholders act on rather than just a report they read. You'll employ a wide range of research methodologies — including surveys, journey maps, interviews, and task-based usability tests — and know when to reach for each: distinguishing what you can observe (behavior) from what participants report (attitudes), and designing studies that don't blur the two.

Our team works directly with stakeholders who oversee Nelnet's diverse range of internal and external products and services, with a focus on Nelnet's #1 value of creating exceptional customer experiences.

Salary for this role is: $100,000 + DOE

Nelnet believes in a hybrid work environment that accommodates both in-office and remote work. This model promotes a positive work-life balance and culture, enabling in-person collaboration when possible while also providing benefits associated with remote work. The standard hybrid work schedule includes 24 hours of in-office work each week, for associates that reside within 30 miles of an office. This is subject to change, based on manager discretion.

At this time, we are unable to consider external candidates that reside in these states:
Alabama, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington.

• Work collaboratively within a cross-functional team, and with other analytical teams, to develop a holistic understanding of customers' needs, values, and experiences.
• Extract key experience, customer, and usability insights from large sets of quantitative experience data.
• Identify the best research approaches to get the right answers based on research questions, timing, and resources.
• Practice problem-finding — recognize when stakeholders don't yet know what they don't know, bring the right people together, and propose the research needed to close that gap before being asked.
• Own and extend our agentic UX synthesis pipeline — maintaining existing agents, building new ones, and identifying where research tasks can move to an AI-first or AI-assisted workflow, while personally validating that agent-generated inputs and outputs are relevant, accurate, and unbiased before they inform a decision.
• Turn research and synthesis work into reusable templates and standards that both people and agents can apply consistently.
• Work in accordance with the UX team's established methods, while also helping us grow and evolve those methods — bring your ideas.
• Transform raw scores into practical numbers and figures.
• Prepare clear research reports and synthesize findings into actionable insights…