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

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

• 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.