Job Description
GM’s Human Interface Design Studio is hiring a Lead Design Researcher (Hybrid Manager/IC) to help shape the future of enterprise experiences across General Motors and its marquee brands. As part of our team, you’ll collaborate with design, product, engineering, brand, and marketing teams to craft well designed research initiatives to inspire and inform user centered designs.
What You’ll Do
As a hybrid people manager/IC Lead Design Researcher, you will:
Lead research that supports our strategic vision across complex workflows and enterprise journeys.
Manage and mentor a team of design researchers, fostering excellence in research craft, strategic thinking, and cross-functional collaboration.
Develop and drive a shared research roadmap aligned with business priorities, ensuring high-quality execution across generative and evaluative studies.
Facilitate strategic conversations with senior stakeholders, translating research into actionable insights and durable decisions.
Elevate the team’s storytelling and influence by crafting compelling narratives that shape product direction and business strategy.
Key Characteristics
Experience shaping enterprise experiences that span both physical and digital user journeys
Proven leadership in managing and mentoring researchers, setting a high bar for research quality, insight depth, and strategic impact.
Mastery of generative and evaluative methods, with the ability to guide others in method selection, execution, and synthesis.
Strategic thinker who translates research into product priorities, business opportunities, and cross-functional alignment.
Strong collaborator with experience influencing product, design, engineering, and business partners.
Growth mindset and adaptability in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Ability to direct and produce great work in short timeframes, multi-task across different projects and platforms and adapt to the ever-changing priorities of the business.
Responsibilities
Design and lead mixed-methods research studies including live studies, unmoderated studies, field studies, participatory design, heuristic evaluations, and remote usability testing.
Guide your team in synthesizing insights and aligning research outcomes with business and design strategy.
Partner with internal and external teams to integrate research with analytics, market data, and operational metrics.
Represent the voice of our customers in strategic planning and product development.
Contribute to the evolution of research workflows, governance, and standards across the organization.
Communicate findings through high-impact presentations and visual storytelling.
Qualifications
7+ or more years executing user research to inform interactive product design required, with at least 2 years in a leadership or management role.
Strong portfolio with work samples showcasing expertise in user research required.
Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills.
Expertise of design thinking methods.
Proficiency in common design user experience research tools (e.g., dScout, Optimal Workshop, Qualtrics, User Testing, and Figma).
Experience collaborating with data science teams on A/B testing, behavioral analytics, and experimentation.
Compensation
The compensation information is a good faith estimate only. It is based on what a successful applicant might be paid in accordance with applicable state laws. The compensation may not be representative for positions located outside of New York, Colorado, California, or Washington.
The salary range for this role is: ($140,100 - $186,700). The actual base salary a successful candidate will be offered within this range will vary based on factors relevant to the position.
Bonus Potential: An incentive pay program offers payouts based on company performance, job level, and individual performance.
Benefits: GM offers a variety of health and wellbeing benefit programs. Benefit options include medical, dental, vision, Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending Accounts, retirement savings plan, sickness and accident benefits, life insurance, paid vacation & holidays, tuition assistance programs, employee assistance program, GM vehicle discounts and more.
Company Vehicle: Upon successful completion of a motor vehicle report review, you will be eligible to participate in a company vehicle evaluation program, through which you will be assigned a General Motors vehicle to drive and evaluate. Note: program participants are required to purchase/lease a qualifying GM vehicle every four years unless one of a limited number of exceptions applies.
About GM
Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.
Why Join Us
We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.
Benefits Overview
From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.
Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)
General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.
All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.
We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire.
Accommodations
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