Principal Researcher

Do what you love. Love what you do.

At Workday, we help the world's largest organizations adapt to what's next by bringing finance, HR, and planning into a single enterprise cloud. We work hard, and we're serious about what we do. But we like to have fun, too. We put people first, celebrate diversity, drive innovation, and do good in the communities where we live and work.

About the Team
At Workday, we help the world's largest organizations adapt to what's next by bringing finance, HR, and planning into a single enterprise cloud. We work hard, and we're serious about what we do. But we like to have fun, too. We put people first, celebrate diversity, drive innovation, and do good in the communities where we live and work.
Want to join a great organization working with leading technology to deliver outstanding employee experiences? Want work life balance and the benefits of a market leader? Workday offers the best of both worlds! We truly believe in our mission and are committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business of enterprise applications.
We are a diverse and dynamic research organization, responsible for applying insights to influence design, product, and strategic business decisions. We're passionate about crafting an outstanding research organization at Workday, known for delivering high quality, timely insights that help Workday deliver solutions that support thousands of employees around the world. Our team includes people from non-traditional research backgrounds, as well people from academia. We invite you to reach out and talk with us; we love research and researchers and genuinely celebrate the quirkiness that abounds across our diverse backgrounds - we've researched everything from authoritarian regimes to local food to software billions of people use every day. We'd love to add your research stories, too.
About the Role

As Principal Researcher you will have the opportunity to use several research methods to influence strategic priorities and to influence product and design decisions. Your focus will be on both big and small initiatives as well as long and near term decisions. You will be empowered to own and craft a research roadmap, working closely with product, design, and other key leaders to ensure research efforts are aligned with priorities.

Our ideal candidate is well versed in a variety of research methods and has a strong skill for connecting research insights to business and product solutions. We are looking for a researcher with a consistent record of defining research strategies and delivering on high quality, impactful insights. Building and maintaining strong, purposeful relationships with design, product, engineering, and research partners is crucial. If you enjoy working with ambiguous problems and finding creative and rigorous research solutions, this is the role for you.
Areas of responsibility include:

• Work closely with cross-functional teams to identify near and long term research opportunities.
  
• Define a research strategy that spans multiple product areas and includes strategic and tactical research deliverables.
  
• Design and implement research using appropriate research methods for the project, timelines, and business needs.
  
• Create durable research insights that align with user-centered design principles.
  
• Analyze data and findings to deliver actionable insights that inform business, product and design decisions.
  
• Socialize, collaborate, and present research work and findings to multiple teams and leaders, across the organization
  

About You

Basic Qualifications include:

• A minimum of 8 years professional experience conducting research.
  
• Masters degree in anthropology, sociology, psychology, human-computer interaction (or other related field), or equivalent experience.
  
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of evaluative, generative, quantitative and secondary research methods, and expertise in at least one research methodology.
  
• Experienced at designing quant studies, experiments, surveys, analyzing data and incorporating data into findings.
  
• A deep familiarity with the product development process.
  

Other Qualifications:

• Experience creating, setting, and leading research strategy that aligns with business priorities.
  
• Track record of translating research into business impact in a large company.
  
• Experience working with a variety of cross-functional peers and partners including designers, product managers, engineers, etc.
  
• Effective interpersonal skills with experience presenting to diverse audiences.
  
• Comfort engaging with senior executives and sales teams.
  
• A flexible and effective influencing style.
  
• Ability to establish and meet bold timelines.
  
• Self-starter and strong finisher with a positive demeanor.
  
• Excellent collaborator, at ease partnering with other researchers, designers, product managers, and developers.
  

Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.

Are you being referred to one of our roles? If so, ask your connection at Workday about our Employee Referral process!
Summary

• Location: USA, CA, Pleasanton; USA, WA, Seattle; USA, CO, Boulder
• Type: Full Time