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UX User Researcher / Tester

Contract

Remote/Hybrid

Competitive Rate

Role Summary

The UX User Researcher / Tester leads qualitative and quantitative research and drives usability and user acceptance testing throughout the 6-month, Agile-driven redesign of an enterprise web application.

The researcher ensures the redesigned experience is grounded in real user needs, validated through structured testing, and compliant with WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 accessibility standards.


Key Responsibilities

  • Plan and conduct stakeholder interviews with internal team members and key client customers to identify and document business, user, and functional requirements

  • Perform secondary research on modern UI design patterns, UX best practices, and relevant industry standards to inform redesign recommendations

  • Synthesize research findings into actionable insights; document requirements as user stories for the JIRA product backlog

  • Collaborate with the Sr. UX Program Design Lead and UX/UI Designer to validate IA, workflows, and screen designs against user research findings

  • Plan, recruit, and facilitate usability testing using both automated and manual methods

  • Automated testing: UX/UI heuristics evaluation, WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance (ARIA, ADA 508c per W3C)

  • Manual testing: expert review of automated findings plus contextual interviews with internal and external stakeholders

  • Plan and facilitate user acceptance testing (UAT) with internal stakeholders and select client account members as directed by the customer

  • Document usability and UAT findings; produce clear, concise reports with prioritized recommendations for the design and development team

  • Communicate testing results to client stakeholders in clear, data-driven language; support formal sign-off process


Required Qualifications

  • 4+ years of experience conducting user research in a digital product or enterprise application environment

  • 3+ years of experience planning and facilitating usability testing (moderated and unmoderated, in-person and remote)

  • Proficiency in qualitative research methods: stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, think-aloud protocols, cognitive walkthroughs

  • Experience with both automated accessibility testing tools and manual expert review against WCAG 2.1 AA / Section 508 standards

  • Experience translating research findings into user stories, acceptance criteria, and actionable design recommendations

  • Familiarity with Agile Scrum development environments; ability to operate within 2-week sprint cadences

  • Strong written and verbal communication skills; experienced at presenting research findings to mixed stakeholder audiences

  • Experience with Atlassian JIRA and Confluence for backlog and documentation management


Preferred Qualifications

  • CUA (Certified Usability Analyst) or HFI certification

  • DHS Trusted Tester Certification or equivalent Section 508 testing expertise

  • Experience with accessibility testing tools: Pa11y, axe, WAVE, or NVDA/JAWS screen reader testing

  • Experience conducting UAT in enterprise IT environments in coordination with client management

  • Experience with usability testing platforms: Maze, Lookback, TryMyUI, or UserZoom


Tools

Maze, Lookback, Pa11y, WAVE, Axe, TryMyUI, Atlassian JIRA, Atlassian Confluence, Figma (for prototype testing)


Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Human Factors, HCI, Psychology, Anthropology, Computer Science, or Social Sciences. Equivalent professional experience considered.