Lead User Researcher

PlayStation isn’t just the Best Place to Play —it’s also the Best Place to Work. We’ve thrilled gamers since 1994, when we launched the original PlayStation. Today, we’re recognized as a global leader in interactive and digital entertainment. The PlayStation brand falls under Sony Interactive Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

Sony Interactive Entertainment's Experience Lab is looking for a Lead UX Researcher to join the games user research team in San Mateo, CA. This is an outstanding opportunity to join PlayStation and be part of a team crafting the best games in the industry.

You will be part of the research team based in San Mateo, CA working on PlayStation exclusive game titles! You will understand the product development cycle to identify opportunities to bring player experience insights to help improve the quality and consumer relevance of our games. Do you have a passion for video games and enjoy applying scientific method to help deconstruct the player experience? We are looking for someone who can collaborate with the teams to organize, co-ordinate, conduct, and deliver research insights for our product testing efforts.

Principle Responsibilities:

The Lead User Experience Researcher is responsible for developing research, coordinating research staff, conducting research, and reporting research insights.

• Collaborate with game developers to effectively fit high impact user feedback into their development processes
• Lead partner requirements; production, development, design and research
• Translate development goals and strategies into research opportunities
• Plan, prioritize and moderate user research sessions
• Lead, collaborate and support other experienced and junior games user researchers
• Collate and analyze results, identify actionable insights and report/discuss synthesized findings with relevant partners
• Prepare and effectively communicate bespoke reporting deliverables which demonstrate an understanding of the game design process, written to be consumed by the various disciplines of the team
• Work with teams to build and track post-test action plans
• Organize and coordinate global research work with other games user researchers based in San Diego, Burbank, Santa Monica, London and Tokyo.
• Act as an ambassador, evangelizing user research and UCD principles internally and externally

Qualifications:

This opportunity would suit a proactive individual with a usability, user centered design, or human factors research background. The ideal candidate will have a graduate degree in an analytic field that focuses on people and/or product development such as Psychology, Cognitive Science, or Human Factors.

• This is a senior level position requiring at least 5+ years of games industry experience delivering across all phases of research on AAA videogame titles.
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to quality work, a deep passion understanding of game design, be organized, analytical, methodical, and have a strong interest in improving player experiences and overall quality through user research.
• Proven methodological skills including expert review, usability testing, play-testing, survey design, text & verbal analysis, and observational fieldwork.
• Proven proficiency with descriptive and analytical statistical techniques/tools such as telemetry, SPSS, R, regression and ANOVA.
• Organized and capable of handling multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced and exciting environment.
• Comfortable interacting and communicating with partners of different backgrounds and responsibilities.
• Strong verbal, numerical and written communication skills required; presenting information concisely and effectively to people at all levels of the organization is critical.
• Strong negotiation skills are important and must work well with cross-functional teams, including producers, engineers, artists and designers.
• Required to be forward thinking and actively maintain an interest in your field; keeping up-to-date with developing tools and approaches.
• Must have a passion and interest in video games across a wide variety of genres with an innate curiosity for understanding player motivations and behaviors.
• Proficiency in Japanese language highly desired, but not required.

Required Experience/Education:

• Master’s Degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science, HCI, Human Factors Engineering, or related field
• 5 years practical experience developing study designs, testing, analyzing, reporting, and presenting findings

Preferred Experience/Education:

• Master’s Degree/PhD in Psychology, Cognitive Science, HCI, Human Factors Engineering, or related field
• 7 years practical experience developing study designs, testing, analyzing, reporting, and presenting findings

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, legally protected physical or mental disability, covered veteran status, status in the U.S. uniformed services, sexual orientation, marital status, genetic information or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort you spent in contacting us and we thank you for your interest in PlayStation.