GitLab is hiring Director of UX Research

This Director of UX Research or Senior Manager, UX Research position is 100% remote.

A brief overview:

GitLab is building an open-source, single application for the entire software development lifecycle—from project planning and source code management to CI/CD, monitoring, and security.

We started 2019 with a team of 15 Product Designers and 2 UX Researchers. Since then, the UX Research team has grown to ten team members, and we’ve increased the number of GitLab employees from 400 to over 1100 in the last financial year, too.

At GitLab, we live and breathe open source principles. This means our entire handbook is online, and with a few clicks, you can find the details of future releases, check out our past releases, and see an overview of the product direction you’d contribute to when working here.

As a Director of UX Research or Senior Manager, UX Researcher at GitLab, you will be tasked with shaping the direction of UX research at GitLab, setting the vision for the UX research team, and guiding how GitLab approaches user research in the context of an all-remote, globally diverse, cross-functional R&D department. The UX Research team's work is impactful and highly visible to millions of our users across the globe.

What you can expect in a Director of UX Research or Senior Manager, UX Researcher role at GitLab:

• You'll foster a culture of openness, trust, and collaboration within the UX Research team.
• You’ll collaborate with Product Operations to define how we approach UX research within our Product Development flow.
• You'll shape the processes that enable our UX Researchers to partner effectively with Product Managers and Product Designers when executing research projects within their respective groups.
• You’ll guide the UX research team as they look to grow research skills in our Product Design and Product Management counterparts as we expect these partners to lead solution validation efforts. The UX Research team is responsible for ensuring they’re capable of undertaking evaluative research projects and creating strategic deliverables such as journey maps, storyboards, competitive analyses, and personas.
• To be successful, you’ll need to have a high-level understanding of the features, technical constraints, and competitor landscape of the end-to-end GitLab product.
• You’ll build on our efforts of evangelizing UX research across GitLab. We aim to share user insights with both the broader organization and externally. You’ll do this to increase empathy while helping the team to continue to grow the maturity of our UX practice.
• You’ll mentor our UX Research Managers and build out an Individual Growth Plan for them.
• You’ll actively contribute to our UX Research processes, our documentation, and our research repository. You’ll need to be comfortable working in the open, collaborating with our community, and approaching research in a transparent manner.
• You’ll engage in social media efforts, including writing blog articles and responding on Twitter, as appropriate.
• You’ll lead a user research department whose work is deeply tied to business goals, revenue, and measured in alignment with this.
• You’ll interview UX Research candidates, help us design a world-class candidate experience, and hire great UX Researchers for the team.

Projects you might work on:

Much of your time during your first few months will be spent onboarding to our product, understanding our team set-up, and making incremental improvements where you see them as necessary. Once you’re onboarded, you’ll start setting the vision for the team, iterating on our team-wide UX Research processes, and shaping what our UX Research OKRs will be for FY21 Q3 and beyond.

You should apply to the Senior Manager, UX Research if:

• You’ve managed teams of UX Researchers for a few years or more
• You’ve got significant hands-on experience as a UX Researcher
• You will bring experience leading user research on developer tooling, enterprise products, or other complex software
• You’re a compelling communicator both verbally and in writing
• You’re experienced rolling out research processes, iterating on these processes based on real-world experiences, and will bring an understanding of what works and doesn’t when it comes to tackling user research at scale
• You’ve got significant experience with remote user research practices
• The idea of growing a world-class research practice in a transparent setting is exciting, inspiring, and motivating in equal measures
• Our values of collaboration, results, efficiency, diversity, iteration, and transparency resonate with you.
• You'll thrive in an environment where self-learning and self-service is encouraged and instilled as a part of our culture
• You’re able to prosper while demonstrating what’s expected of a Manager at GitLab

You should apply to the Director of UX Research if:

All of the above points apply to you, plus…

• You’re experienced setting the strategy for a large UX research team
• You can bring examples of ambitious visions you’ve rolled out and outline the tactics you’ve utilized to instill these into team-wide practices
• You’ve managed UX Research departments where Managers reported into you
• You’re able to thrive while demonstrating what’s expected of a Director at GitLab

What it’s like to work here at GitLab:

The culture here at GitLab is something we’re incredibly proud of. Because our team members are currently located in over 60 different countries, you’ll spend your time collaborating with kind, talented, and motivated colleagues from across the globe.

Some of the benefits you’ll be entitled to vary by the region or country you’re in. However, all team members are fully remote and receive a "no ask, must tell" paid-time-off policy, where we don’t count the number of days you take off annually. You can work incredibly flexible hours, enabled by our asynchronous approach to communication. We’ll also help you set up your home office environment, pay for your membership to a co-working space and contribute to the travel costs associated with meeting other GitLab employees across the world. Also, every year or so, we’ll invite you to our Contribute event.

Hiring Process and compensation:

Our hiring process for this Director of UX Research or Senior Manager, UX Research position typically follows five stages. The details of this process, our leveling structure, and the compensation for this role can be found at the bottom of our job family page.