User Experience Researcher

Shepherd Center, located in Atlanta, Georgia, is a private, not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury, brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, spine and chronic pain, and other neuromuscular conditions.

Join us in our mission to help people with a temporary or permanent disability, rebuild their lives with hope, independence and dignity, advocating for their full inclusion in all aspects of community life.

At Shepherd Center, you'll discover a diverse and inclusive environment, enlightened leadership, a culture of teamwork, professionalism and mutual respect. If you are seeking career advancement, continuing education opportunities coupled with a welcoming and fun workplace, competitive compensation and employment benefits, visit our careers page to explore current openings.

The User Experience Researcher participates in collecting, entering, processing, and analyzing data obtained through user-centered research projects on established and emerging technology solutions and concepts for people with disabilities. This role also helps lead in designing research projects, recruiting participants, collecting data, ensuring data integrity and security, and writing user-needs/user-experience research reports, manuscripts for publication, and grant proposals. The ability to perform research and program activities independently and to collaborate with the rest of the team as needed is critical.

Accountabilities:

• Lead design of research studies on assistive technologies and product usability, accessibility and disability.
• Lead study planning.
• Recruit and interact with research participants.
• Organize and maintain research participant records.
• Coordinate/lead data collection for individual projects.
• Maintain detailed study records.
• Conduct quantitative and qualitative data analysis.
• Write research reports, papers, articles, and presentations.
• Conduct literature searches for research manuscripts, identifying articles relevant to a selected topic.
• Communicate project progress informally and in regular team meetings.
• Prepare administrative reports as required.
• Maintain and update project management tools related to data collection activities, presentations, publications, or other dissemination activities as needed.
• Maintain knowledge of current and emerging assistive and consumer technologies for people with disabilities.
• Contribute to program development as needed.

Qualifications:

• Master's degree required, preferably in psychology, human computer interaction, public-health, engineering, social sciences or related fields.
• Two years research, engineering, or clinical experience in industry, educational, or health care setting, preferred.
• Two years of experience conducting user centered or user experience research for product development.
• Experience collaborating with diverse, cross-functional product teams.
• Knowledge and experience in research methods, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and report writing, including evaluating consumer information and communication technologies (ICT), and user-experience/user testing research.
• Knowledge of accessibility/usability design guidelines and requirements preferred.
• Skilled in use of productivity software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) required.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience using quantitative data analysis software (e.g., Stata, R, SPSS, etc.)
• Strong analytical, writing, and organizational skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to independently solve problems, coordinate communications among research and clinical staff on site and at partner institutions and manage administrative functions and records.
• High level of attention to detail and ability to multi-task.
• Ability to engage/communicate independently with external stakeholders, including project owners on the client side and research participants with disabilities.