Lead User Experience Researcher

Requisition
Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

The Role:

The Lead User Experience (UX) Researcher helps digital and business teams understand clients, uncover opportunities, and make confident experience decisions. You will both drive efficiency across our research practice, as well as lead discovery research for ambiguous, open-ended challenges, connecting evidence across journeys, products, and client needs. You will partner with executives, stakeholders, designers, and product teams to frame the right questions, translate evidence into clear implications.
Is this role right for you? In this role you will:  Strategic Discovery & Research   Lead discovery research for holistic, ambiguous, or open-ended challenges, from framing through synthesis and activation.
Use systems thinking to connect client needs, journeys, products, channels, and organizational factors.
Design fit-for-purpose research, combining qualitative, quantitative, participatory, or innovative methods as needed.
Proactively partner with executives and stakeholders to clarify questions, challenge assumptions, and align research to decisions.
Turn complex evidence into clear insights, opportunity spaces, and recommendations that shape UX strategy and priorities.
Facilitate internal workshops to extract priorities, align on direction and client 'so-what' and communicate findings with clarity, confidence, and appropriate evidence limitations.
Build and influence research roadmaps, helping teams prioritize the highest-value questions.
Connect client evidence to business outcomes, investment decisions, and strategic priorities.
Advance the maturity of the research practice by evolving methods, standards, governance, and ways of working.
Research Enablement   Administer research tools, templates, and repositories so evidence is easy to capture, find, reuse, and connect across and beyond the UXR team
Own the AI layer of the practice. Assisted synthesis and search across a governed evidence corpus, with the guardrails and quality checks that keep the outputs trustworthy rather than merely fast.
Build and run the enablement programme: curriculum, templates, coaching that let designers and product partners run sound research to our standard and with our review, extending capacity without extending headcount.
Do you have the skills that will enable you to succeed in this role? We'd love to work with you if you have:
7+ years of experience in UX research, design research, service design, or an adjacent insight or strategy role.
Experience in financial services, regulated industries, or adjacent complex service environments is preferred.
Demonstrated success leading discovery research for complex or ambiguous questions and translating evidence into strategic direction.
Proven ability to influence senior leaders, shape strategic decisions, and drive action through research.
Hands-on experience with recruitment, incentives, research tools, repositories, surveys, and research reporting.
Strong systems thinking, synthesis, facilitation, storytelling, and stakeholder partnership skills.
A growth mindset, proactive approach, and strategic outlook, with the curiosity and confidence to navigate uncertainty and improve how research gets done.
What's in it for you?
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Allyship - We strive to create an inclusive culture where every employee is empowered to reach their fullest potential, respected for who they are, and are embraced through bias-free practices and inclusive values across Scotiabank.
We embrace diversity and provide opportunities for all employees to learn, grow & participate through our various Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that span across diverse…