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Senior UX Researcher

Design jobs at Varo Bank

Varo Bank

ABOUT VARO
Varo is an entirely new kind of bank. All digital, mission driven, FDIC insured, and designed for the way our customers live their lives.

We're on a mission to bring financial inclusion and opportunity to all hard-working Americans. Through our mobile app, we offer premium bank accounts that have no minimum balance requirement or monthly account fees, high-interest savings accounts, short term lending and solutions to help customers stretch their paycheck, build credit and start saving. Our tech-first products are designed to make money work for everyone and help customers and communities build greater financial resiliency.

Varo is distinct from other fintechs: we've made history as the first and only consumer fintech to be granted a full national bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

Varo Bank represents the evolution of a new generation of banks that are born from innovation and built on technology to empower consumers and businesses.

Our team combines the best of both consumer tech and banking, and we’re wildly passionate about helping our customers. Our teams are based in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Privately held, we’ve raised over $482M to date, from leading institutional investors and strategic partners including Warburg Pincus, The Rise Fund, Gallatin Point Capital, Harbourvest Partners, Progressive Insurance, and Russell Westbrook Enterprises.

Varo is entrepreneurial, collaborative, enthusiastic, customer-oriented, fast-paced, and multicultural.  This is an open and relatively flat organization that puts an emphasis on collaboration, sharing ideas and information. For a relatively early stage company, Varo is grounded in a strong set of values and takes pride in the diversity of its employees and board. 

Varo. A bank for all of us.

About the UX Research Team
We’re a dedicated, insightful group of out-of-the-box thinkers. We’re deeply committed to Varo’s mission, and collaborate closely with teams across the company, including Design, Marketing, Product and Data Science. 

About the Senior UX Researcher Role
As a Senior UX Researcher, you’ll keep Varo aligned with its mission to help people improve their financial health. We’re looking for someone who’s smart, versatile, and well-versed in UX research methodologies (without being doctrinaire). Flexibility, empathy and compassion are required elements for success.  

You will be responsible for every phase of the research process from discovery through evaluation. You will tackle complex, intellectually challenging problems, and be required to synthesize large data sets from multiple sources. You’ll help the design and product organizations understand how users think about their money and financial goals. You’ll also provide context for how our customers live so Varo can make intelligent, customer-centric products. You’ll collaborate with the marketing organization, helping them tell our story in ways that resonate with existing and future customers. You’ll work closely with operations to compare notes on what they’re hearing from customers and what you’re seeing in your research with customers and non-customers. You enjoy working cross-functionally and create shared knowledge between disciplines. You build strong relationships with execs, peers, and your team. You understand what research can and can’t answer, and proactively suggest alternate approaches when research isn’t the right vehicle for the problem.

You’re excited about learning how a bank is built from the inside. You don’t shy away from conversations about regulatory compliance. You actually look forward to geeking out on larger structural issues in the US economy, financial improvement initiatives, payments infrastructure and the inner workings of loan products.

What you'll be doing

    • Play a key role in the research function, owning projects from start to finish.
    • Create concise, actionable research documents that add clear value to the company.
    • Create methodologically appropriate research plans for each major research need--within time and budget constraints.
    • Lean towards qualitative methods, but know when and why to use quantitative methods.
    • Involve your stakeholders in the execution of your research project.
    • Make sure your findings and recommendations get to the right people in the right way and at the right time--through emails, Slack messages, informal meetings, and formal presentations.
    • Follow up and make sure (to the degree possible) that your recommendations get implemented--proactively remove blockers to their implementation.
    • Manage and mentor more junior researchers
    • Agile and creative, thriving in a fast-paced environment
    • Hire and manage contractors/vendors as needed to supplement team bandwidth.

Required skills, experiences, and traits

    • At least four (4) years of work experience as an in-house product and/or consumer insights researcher.
    • Experience employing User-Centered Design methodologies; finding interviews, heuristic analysis, design evaluations, survey design and iterative design cycles.
    • Strong methods training: MA or PhD, or related work experience.
    • Deep expertise in multiple methods; working familiarity with several more (e.g., interviews, surveys, usability tests, diary studies, experiments, field studies, etc.)
    • Experience working with researchers whose skill sets complement your own (you’re a qual researcher who loves working with quant colleagues)
    • Track record of impact on strategy, product roadmaps and feature development, and/or marketing roadmaps and campaign and brand development. 
    • Experience leading ethnographic and longitudinal research projects.
    • Strong relationships with product managers, designers, data scientists, and engineers you’ve worked with closely.
    • Strong relationships with growth and brand marketers you’ve worked with closely.
CULTURAL ALIGNMENT
Varo is entrepreneurial, collaborative, enthusiastic, customer-oriented, fast-paced, and multicultural.  This is an open and relatively flat organization that puts an emphasis on collaboration, sharing ideas and information. For a relatively early stage company, Varo is grounded in a strong set of values and takes pride in the diversity of its employees. 

OUR CORE VALUES
Customers First: Understand the problems our customers are trying to solve. Respond with a sense of urgency. Build relationships that result in loyalty. Be data and insights-driven. Test everything. Achieve results through strong execution. Build a product people love.  Assess new initiatives with the customers’ interest in mind. Act with empathy. 

Take Ownership: Bias towards action. Have high standards. Be accountable for the results of your work, our product, our company. Trust others to own it.

Respect: Treat others how you want to be treated. Listen first before being heard. Speak the truth even when it's not easy. Assume best intentions. Bring your full self to work.

Stay Curious: Ask why. Dare to make things better. Learn something new each day (even from mistakes). Be open to growth. Develop creative solutions.

Make it Better: Think big. Set high goals. Work towards long term value rather than short term wins. Create change. Be resilient.


Varo is an equal opportunity employer. Varo embraces diversity and we are committed to building teams that represent a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Learn more about Varo by following us:

Beware of fraudulent job postings!
Varo will never ask for payment to process documents, refer you to a third party to process applications or visas, or ask you to pay costs. Never send money to anyone suggesting they can provide work with Varo.  If you suspect you have received a phony offer, please e-mail careers@varomoney.com with the pertinent information and contact information.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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