Senior Director, Research & User Intelligence, Customer and Developer Experiences

Overview Senior Director, Research & User Intelligence, Customer and Developer Experiences

Capital One’s Experience Design (XD) organization is focused on co-creating memorable, meaningful customer and associate experiences that build our brand with humanity and drive business advantage. The goal of our XD Research & Human Intelligence team is to accelerate learning velocity – providing product teams with the user knowledge they need to create useful and usable experiences.

We are looking for a seasoned Head of XD Research & User Intelligence for our Customer and Developer Experiences organization (CDX). The CDX organization owns the platforms used by Capital One developers to deliver web and mobile experiences to millions of customers. The 10-person research team spans 3 specific product areas: Experience Platform, Marketing & Messaging, and Developer Experience. 

This leader will excel at evaluating complex problems and utilizing systems thinking to develop connected and cumulative user intelligence solutions. You will collaborate closely with senior CDX leaders across business, design, product, and engineering. One of the most important aspects of this role is the focus on elevating our user research practice along with talent, recruiting, and building a world-class team.

Key Responsibilities

The head of XD Research & User Intelligence for CDX is responsible for accelerating learning velocity and ensuring partner/stakeholder learning needs are met and high-quality decisions are being made that benefit both the customer and the business.

You will guide your team to build cumulative user intelligence, create and maintain research programs, support continuous discovery and rapid testing, and drive experience measurement. Your team will make use of both human-centered research methods and AI skills to conduct discovery, testing, and assessments. 

This role requires mastery in executive leadership, human factors, digital product design, experience measurement, and analytical thinking and proficiency with product management principles, behavioral analytics, and quantitative analysis. 

• Strategic Research Focus: Drive strategic research initiatives to tackle critical challenges. Ensure research efforts align with solving key problems and deliver value to both our customers and the company. Your insights will guide impactful decision-making.

• Proactive Research Alignment: Identify areas where research can have the most significant impact. Move beyond reactive projects to building intelligence programs 

• Scalable User Experience Research: Define an approach to user experience research that prioritizes insights-driven decisions and impactful outcomes. Establish best practices, develop a research prioritization model

• Research Team Management: Lead and manage a team of user intelligence analysts/researchers 

• XDR Leadership Team: Participate as a member of the XD Research & Human Intelligence leadership team

• People and Talent Management: Lead and motivate a high performing team of professionals; provide people management leadership by hiring the best talent, setting goals, developing associates, managing employee performance and compensation decisions, promoting teamwork and handling performance management of the team. Advance Capital One’s people strategies to attract, retain, develop and engage a highly qualified and diverse workforce to achieve business objectives, create an inclusive employee experience and establish leadership development and succession plans to ensure leadership continuity

• Collaboration: Build and maintain close working relationships with key internal and external partners to understand and influence business strategies, priorities and direction. Work closely with senior business and functional leaders to ensure that development plans, resources and strategies are coordinated across all functions in a cohesive fashion

You are a deeply technical research executive who is comfortable and effective at all levels of the organization. You are a strategic thought partner, capable of communicating and influencing senior leadership. You have the ability to collaborate across the enterprise, building relationships with key stakeholders. You have extensive experience building and leading world class teams with a balance of customer experience insights and business acumen. You are an inspiring leader with well-honed recruiting and coaching skills with the ability and passion for developing your direct reports.

• Team Builder: Demonstrated track record of leadership, marked by self-awareness and a willingness to learn with an ability to recruit, develop and inspire top-tier professionals in areas where talent is in heavy demand 

• Results orientation: Ability to set ambitious goals, remove obstacles and hold self and others accountable for achieving results for our customers and businesses

• Intellectually curious: Interested in understanding and experimenting with new leading edge technologies, organizational models and ways of thinking with a track record of applying data and technology to enhance Product delivery

• Cross Functional Partnership: Adept at establishing credibility with, as well as motivating and mentoring, designers, product managers, engineers, and business leaders with experience in engaging thoughtfully with the senior executive committee and working day to day with senior leaders

• Judgement: Demonstrated ability to employ root cause analysis, discernment and experience to make rapid and complex decisions

Basic Qualifications

• At least 8 Years in User Experience Research, Data Science, Customer Experience, or Product Management

• At least 3 years of experience aggregating, collecting, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data

• At least 2 years managing researchers, analysts, or data scientists

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ Years in User Experience Research, Data Science, Customer Experience, or Product Management

• 10+ years of experience aggregating, collecting, and analyzing quantitative data

• 7+ years managing researchers, analysts, or data scientists

• Experience with developing AI-enabled continuous discovery tools or programs

• Experience extracting insights from synthetic data or personas and building automated research workflows

• Experience with performance management, career coaching, and attracting and hiring top talent

• Exceptional communication skills; ability to influence senior executives

• Expertise in Human Factors, Statistics, Computer science, HCI, Psychology, Sociology, Information Systems Architecture, Data Science, or Behavioral Economics

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The minimum and maximum full-time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

Cambridge, MA: $269,600 - $307,700 for Sr. Director, Design

McLean, VA: $269,600 - $307,700 for Sr. Director, Design

New York, NY: $294,100 - $335,700 for Sr. Director, Design

San Francisco, CA: $294,100 - $335,700 for Sr. Director, Design

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter.

This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website . Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level.

This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.

No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).