Principal User Researcher

Autodesk
Full-timeβ€’$117k-211k/year (USD)β€’Portland, United States

πŸ“ Job Overview

Job Title: Principal User Researcher

Company: Autodesk

Location: Portland, OR, United States

Job Type: Full-Time

Category: User Experience Research / Product Strategy

Date Posted: May 13, 2026

Experience Level: 8+ Years Professional Experience (AI inferred as 10+ years for Principal level)

Remote Status: On-site (with hybrid flexibility potential, preference for office locations)

πŸš€ Role Summary

  • Lead high-impact, strategic user research initiatives to shape product vision and drive user-centered design within Autodesk's Infrastructure and Transportation sector, focusing on the Forma platform.

  • Define and execute comprehensive mixed-methods research programs across the entire product lifecycle, from early-stage discovery to post-launch optimization.

  • Synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights that directly influence product strategy, design direction, and key business decisions for cross-functional stakeholders.

  • Act as a critical individual contributor and strategic partner, bridging user needs with business objectives to deliver next-generation software solutions for the AEC industry.

  • Champion research best practices, advanced methodologies (including AI-powered approaches), and a culture of user-centricity throughout the organization.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The "Principal" title, coupled with the responsibility for shaping product strategy and influencing senior leaders, suggests a role requiring significant autonomy, strategic foresight, and a proven track record of driving impactful change through research. The focus on Autodesk's Infrastructure and Transportation initiatives and the Forma platform indicates a specialized domain expertise is highly valued. The AI-inferred experience level of 10+ years is a reasonable assumption for a Principal role of this nature.

πŸ“ˆ Primary Responsibilities

  • Drive strategic partnerships with product, data, and experience leaders to define and refine product vision, design direction, and critical business decisions, ensuring user needs are at the forefront.

  • Design, execute, and lead comprehensive mixed-methods research programs that span the full product lifecycle, from initial strategy and discovery phases through to post-release evaluation and optimization.

  • Conduct and oversee complex qualitative and quantitative research studies, employing advanced empirical and statistical methodologies to uncover deep user insights.

  • Synthesize and integrate findings from research, product analytics, and broader business data to generate clear, strategic, and actionable recommendations that influence organizational strategy and execution.

  • Lead cross-disciplinary teams in translating research insights into foundational experience principles, end-to-end user journey maps, and actionable implementation roadmaps.

  • Own and continuously evolve the Critical User Journeys for key product domains, ensuring ongoing insights inform prioritization, experience strategy, and investment decisions.

  • Partner closely with product analytics and growth teams to define, measure, and refine data-informed strategies, establishing a feedback loop between research insights, strategic actions, and tangible business outcomes.

  • Collaborate with product growth teams to identify opportunities and execute research-informed strategies that drive user adoption, engagement, and long-term value for Autodesk's solutions.

  • Establish, promote, and evolve research best practices, frameworks, and standards to strengthen a pervasive culture of user-centered product development across the organization.

  • Create compelling narratives, impactful case studies, and clear artifacts that effectively communicate research insights and elevate decision-making processes for diverse organizational stakeholders.

  • Design and facilitate engaging workshops that foster ideation, strategic alignment, decision-making, and co-creation with internal stakeholders and potentially external customers.

  • Serve as a key liaison, connecting the AutoCAD, Infrastructure, and Reality Capture (AIR) teams with the broader Autodesk AEC family of products and teams to ensure cohesive strategy and execution.

  • Shape and evolve research operating models, frameworks, and standards to enhance the scalability and impact of research insights across multiple products and geographic regions.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strategic, leadership-oriented role that goes beyond traditional research execution. The emphasis on "shaping product vision," "influencing decisions," "critical user journeys," and "evolving research operating models" indicates a need for a candidate who can operate at a senior level, acting as a thought leader and strategic advisor within the product development process. The requirement to bridge different product teams (AIR, AEC) suggests a need for strong collaboration and communication skills across a complex organization.

πŸŽ“ Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

  • 8+ years of professional experience conducting and leading user experience research within complex product environments.

  • Demonstrated success in building trusted partnerships and influencing decisions across product, design, data, and engineering teams at multiple organizational levels.

  • Proven experience collaborating with product analytics and growth functions to define, measure, and refine data-informed strategies.

  • Experience working with early-stage products to define and validate product–market fit.

Required Skills:

  • Strategic Mixed-Methods Research: Expertise in designing and executing comprehensive research programs using a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods, tailored to diverse product development stages.

  • Qualitative Research Expertise: Proficient in methods such as user interviews, usability testing, ethnographic studies, diary studies, and co-creation sessions.

  • Quantitative Research Expertise: Skilled in survey design, experimental design, statistical analysis, and interpreting large-scale user data.

  • Data Synthesis & Insight Generation: Ability to analyze and synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable, and strategic insights.

  • Product Strategy Influence: Proven ability to translate research findings into strategic recommendations that shape product vision, roadmaps, and key business decisions.

  • Human-Centered Design Principles: Deep understanding and application of human-centered design principles across the end-to-end product development lifecycle.

  • Systems Thinking: Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills, with a holistic and structured approach to complex problem-solving.

  • Stakeholder Management & Influence: Demonstrated ability to build trusted partnerships and influence decisions across product, design, data, and engineering teams at multiple levels.

  • Workshop Facilitation: Experience designing and facilitating workshops for ideation, alignment, strategic decision-making, and co-creation.

Preferred Skills:

  • AEC Industry Experience: Experience conducting research within the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry or adjacent complex domains.

  • AI-Powered Research: Comfort experimenting with, adopting, and teaching emerging research methodologies, particularly those leveraging AI and automation.

  • Product Analytics Collaboration: Experience working with product analytics and growth teams to define, measure, and refine data-informed strategies.

  • Journey Mapping: Proficiency in creating and leveraging end-to-end user journeys to inform and drive experience strategy.

  • Longitudinal Research: Familiarity with longitudinal research approaches, such as diary studies.

  • Co-creation/Participatory Research: Experience with co-creation or participatory research techniques.

  • Data Scientist Collaboration: Experience working with data scientists to combine behavioral, attitudinal, and usage data into cohesive, insight-driven narratives.

  • Storytelling & Communication: Demonstrated strength in communication and storytelling, with the ability to build credibility, trust, and influence at multiple organizational levels.

  • Market Opportunity Identification: Ability to identify market and product opportunities by connecting research insights to strategic priorities and potential business impact.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The "Principal" title implies a senior-level individual contributor role. The emphasis on "complex product environments," "influencing decisions across multiple levels," and "evolving research operating models" suggests that candidates should highlight their experience in navigating organizational complexities, driving strategic initiatives, and mentoring others, rather than just executing research tasks. The preference for AEC industry experience and AI-powered research methodologies are key differentiators.

πŸ“Š Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

  • Strategic Research Program Design: Showcase examples of research programs designed to address complex, ambiguous problem spaces and drive significant product strategy shifts. Highlight the rationale behind the chosen methodologies and how they aligned with business objectives.

  • Mixed-Methods Integration: Present case studies demonstrating the successful integration of qualitative and quantitative research findings to provide a holistic understanding of user needs and behaviors. Detail how diverse data sources were synthesized.

  • Insight-to-Action Impact: Provide clear examples of how your research insights directly influenced product roadmaps, design decisions, or business strategies, and crucially, demonstrate the measurable impact or outcomes achieved (e.g., increased adoption, improved user satisfaction, new feature success).

  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Illustrate instances where you effectively partnered with product managers, designers, engineers, data scientists, and growth teams to champion user needs and drive consensus around research-informed solutions.

  • Methodology Innovation: Include examples showcasing your ability to adapt, innovate, or adopt new research methodologies, particularly those involving AI, automation, or advanced analytical techniques, and explain the benefits derived.

Process Documentation:

  • Research Planning & Scoping: Demonstrate a structured approach to defining research objectives, scope, timelines, and resource allocation for complex, strategic initiatives.

  • Methodology Selection & Adaptation: Showcase your process for selecting appropriate research methods based on project goals, constraints, and the nature of the problem, and how you adapt them for novel situations.

  • Insight Synthesis & Communication: Detail your systematic approach to synthesizing raw data into compelling insights, and how you translate these insights into clear, actionable recommendations and compelling narratives for diverse audiences.

  • Impact Measurement & Feedback Loops: Illustrate your process for establishing metrics to measure the impact of research-informed product changes and how you create feedback loops to continuously learn and optimize.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: For a Principal User Researcher role, the portfolio should emphasize strategic impact, leadership, and innovation over a high volume of smaller projects. Candidates should be prepared to articulate the "why" behind their research choices, the challenges they overcame, and the measurable business outcomes their work enabled. The ability to demonstrate influence and collaboration across functions is paramount.

πŸ’΅ Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Benefits:

  • Comprehensive Health Coverage: Including medical, dental, and vision insurance plans.

  • Financial Well-being: Competitive salary, potential for annual cash bonuses, and stock grants, contributing to long-term financial security.

  • Work-Life Balance: Generous time away policies (paid time off, holidays) to support personal well-being and prevent burnout.

  • Holistic Wellness Programs: Resources and initiatives focused on everyday wellness, mental health, and overall employee well-being.

  • Professional Development: Opportunities for continuous learning, skill enhancement, and career advancement within Autodesk.

Working Hours:

  • Standard full-time work hours are expected, likely around 40 hours per week. While the role is on-site preference, Autodesk often offers some flexibility in daily scheduling to accommodate work-life balance, provided business needs and team collaboration are met.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The provided salary range is explicit and generous for a Principal-level role. The enhancement notes focus on contextualizing this range for the specific location (Portland, OR) and elaborating on the types of benefits that are typically associated with such comprehensive packages in the tech industry. The working hours are assumed to be standard full-time, with an acknowledgment of potential flexibility typical in tech environments.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏒 Company Culture

Industry: Software, Technology, Engineering, Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC), Manufacturing. Autodesk is a leader in 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software.

Company Size: Large enterprise (over 10,000 employees). This implies established processes, significant resources, and opportunities for broad impact, but also potential for navigating complex organizational structures.

Founded: 1982. With a long history, Autodesk has a mature organizational structure and a deep understanding of its core markets, while also actively pursuing innovation in areas like AI and cloud computing.

Team Structure:

  • Experience Foundations Team: This team is part of the broader AEC User Success organization, focusing on foundational user experience principles and research.

  • Reporting Structure: The Principal User Researcher reports to the Sr. Manager, User Experience Research, indicating a clear hierarchy within the research function.

  • Cross-functional Collaboration: The role requires extensive collaboration with product management, data science, experience analytics, product growth, and engineering teams, particularly within the Infrastructure and Transportation initiatives and the Forma platform.

Methodology:

  • Data-Driven & User-Centric: Autodesk emphasizes using data and user insights to inform product development and strategy. The role is central to this approach.

  • Agile & Iterative: The product development lifecycle likely involves agile methodologies, requiring researchers to be adaptable and integrate insights iteratively.

  • AI-Powered Innovation: The company is actively investing in AI, and research methodologies are expected to evolve to incorporate AI-driven approaches for deeper insights and efficiency.

Company Website: https://www.autodesk.com/

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The combination of a large, established company with a focus on innovation (AI, cloud) creates a dynamic environment. The "Principal" role suggests a need for someone who can not only execute but also shape the direction of research and its integration into product strategy within this large, complex organization. The emphasis on the AEC industry and the Forma platform highlights a specialized focus area.

πŸ“ˆ Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Principal User Researcher. This is a senior individual contributor role, signifying a high level of expertise, strategic influence, and autonomy. It's a position typically held by seasoned professionals who are recognized as thought leaders in their domain and capable of driving significant organizational change.

Reporting Structure: Reports to the Sr. Manager, User Experience Research. This indicates a clear path for mentorship and guidance within the research function, while also providing an opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction of the research team.

Operations Impact: The role has a direct and significant impact on product strategy, design direction, and key business decisions for Autodesk's Infrastructure and Transportation initiatives, specifically within the Forma platform. By translating complex user insights into actionable recommendations, the researcher influences the development of software that shapes the future of the AEC industry, impacting efficiency, sustainability, and collaboration for customers.

Growth Opportunities:

  • Strategic Leadership Expansion: Potential to lead larger, more complex, or cross-product research initiatives, or to mentor and guide junior researchers, contributing to the evolution of the research practice.

  • Domain Specialization: Deepen expertise within the AEC industry and the Forma platform, becoming a go-to expert for user insights in this critical domain.

  • Methodological Innovation Leadership: Opportunity to pioneer and evangelize new research methodologies, particularly those leveraging AI and automation, setting new standards for user research at Autodesk.

  • Cross-Functional Leadership: Grow influence across product, design, engineering, and growth teams, potentially moving into leadership roles that span multiple disciplines or strategic initiatives.

  • Career Path to Management: While a Principal role is often an individual contributor track, demonstrated leadership and strategic impact can open doors to management opportunities within research or product organizations.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The "Principal" title is key here, signifying a career path focused on deep expertise and strategic influence rather than direct people management. The growth opportunities should reflect this, emphasizing leadership in research strategy, methodological advancement, and cross-functional impact.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The job posting indicates a preference for candidates located near Autodesk offices (Portland, Atlanta, Novi, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal) and states the role is "On-site." This suggests a primary work environment within a physical Autodesk office, fostering in-person collaboration and team engagement.

Office Location(s): Portland, OR, USA is the primary specified location, with other potential hubs listed. This offers the opportunity to work from a vibrant tech city with a strong user experience community.

Workspace Context:

  • Collaborative Environment: The emphasis on on-site work and cross-functional partnerships implies an office environment that encourages direct interaction, spontaneous discussions, and team-based problem-solving.

  • Tools & Technology: Researchers will have access to standard professional office technology and likely specialized UX research tools, analytics platforms, and collaboration software common in a large tech company.

  • Team Interaction: Regular interaction with research peers, product teams, designers, and data scientists within the office setting, facilitating knowledge sharing and collaborative research efforts.

Work Schedule: A standard full-time schedule (approx. 40 hours/week) is expected. While on-site, there may be some flexibility in daily start/end times, subject to team coordination and business needs, especially for coordinating with global teams or accommodating personal needs.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The "On-site" designation, with a preference for specific office locations, is a critical detail. It signals a strong emphasis on in-person collaboration, which is often valued for roles requiring deep team integration and strategic alignment. The candidate should be prepared for a predominantly office-based work arrangement.

πŸ“„ Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

  • Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will review applications, focusing on relevant experience, qualifications, and alignment with the role's strategic focus.

  • Hiring Manager/Team Interview: This stage will delve deeper into your experience, research methodologies, strategic thinking, and ability to influence. Expect behavioral questions focused on past projects and your approach to problem-solving.

  • Portfolio Review & Presentation: A critical step where you'll present 2-3 key projects from your portfolio. Expect to discuss your process, strategic contributions, research challenges, insights, and the impact of your work. This is where you demonstrate your ability to synthesize complex information and communicate it effectively.

  • Cross-Functional Stakeholder Interviews: Interviews with product managers, designers, data scientists, and potentially engineering leads to assess your collaboration skills, ability to build relationships, and how you translate research into actionable product decisions.

  • Leadership/Final Interview: A discussion with senior leadership (e.g., Sr. Manager, Director) to evaluate your strategic vision, leadership potential, and cultural fit within Autodesk.

Portfolio Review Tips:

  • Strategic Focus: Select projects that showcase your ability to drive product strategy and influence key business decisions, not just foundational usability testing. Highlight complex, ambiguous problems.

  • Impact & Outcomes: For each project, clearly articulate the business problem, your strategic approach, the insights generated, and most importantly, the measurable outcomes or impact of your research on the product or business. Quantify results where possible.

  • Process Clarity: Detail your research process, including methodology selection rationale, how you navigated challenges, and how you synthesized mixed-methods data.

  • Storytelling: Present your work as compelling narratives. Explain the "why" behind your decisions and how you communicated insights to drive action.

  • Tailor to Autodesk: Research Autodesk's products, especially within the AEC and Forma space, and frame your experience in a way that demonstrates relevance and understanding of their market and challenges.

Challenge Preparation:

  • Strategic Problem-Solving: Be prepared for hypothetical scenarios where you might need to define a research approach for a new product initiative or a complex user problem within the AEC domain.

  • Insight Communication: Practice articulating complex insights concisely and persuasively, tailored to different audiences (e.g., executives, engineers).

  • Methodology Justification: Be ready to defend your choice of research methods, explaining why they were the most appropriate for the problem and how they contributed to actionable outcomes.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The emphasis on a "Principal" role means the interview process will heavily scrutinize strategic thinking, influence, and impact. The portfolio review is paramount, and candidates must be prepared to present their work as strategic case studies demonstrating leadership and measurable business outcomes.

πŸ›  Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

  • User Research Platforms: Tools for survey creation, participant recruitment, in-context feedback, and unmoderated usability testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, specialized tools for remote testing).

  • Qualitative Data Analysis Software: Tools for thematic analysis, affinity mapping, and coding qualitative data (e.g., Dovetail, NVivo, Condens).

  • Quantitative Data Analysis Tools: Statistical software packages for analyzing survey data, experimental results, and behavioral metrics (e.g., SPSS, R, Python with libraries like Pandas/SciPy).

  • Collaboration & Prototyping Tools: Platforms for sharing research findings, collaborating on insights, and interacting with prototypes (e.g., Figma, Miro, Mural, Confluence, Jira).

Analytics & Reporting:

  • Product Analytics Platforms: Tools for understanding user behavior within the product, tracking key metrics, and identifying trends (e.g., Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel).

  • Business Intelligence (BI) Tools: For dashboard creation and reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to product adoption and user engagement (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).

  • Data Warehousing/SQL: Proficiency in querying databases (SQL) to extract relevant user data for analysis.

CRM & Automation:

  • While not directly managing CRM, understanding how CRM data (e.g., Salesforce) can inform user segmentation and research questions is beneficial.

  • Familiarity with automation tools in research (e.g., for survey distribution, data collection) is a plus.

  • AI/ML Tools: As mentioned, comfort with emerging AI and ML tools for research analysis, insight generation, or predictive modeling is highly desirable.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The Principal role requires not just proficiency in core research tools but also an understanding of how to leverage product analytics, BI tools, and potentially AI/ML to triangulate insights and demonstrate the business impact of research. The ability to work with data scientists and engineers on data extraction and analysis is crucial.

πŸ‘₯ Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

  • User-Centricity: A deep-seated commitment to understanding and advocating for the user in all product decisions, ensuring that user needs are paramount.

  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Valuing evidence from research and analytics to inform strategy and validate hypotheses, moving beyond intuition alone.

  • Collaboration & Partnership: Fostering strong working relationships across product, design, engineering, and growth teams to ensure research insights are integrated effectively.

  • Innovation & Continuous Improvement: A drive to explore new methodologies, technologies (like AI), and approaches to enhance research impact and efficiency.

  • Impact & Accountability: Focusing on delivering actionable insights that lead to tangible business outcomes and taking ownership of research's contribution to product success.

Collaboration Style:

  • Proactive & Strategic Partnership: Acting as a strategic partner rather than just a service provider, proactively identifying research opportunities and influencing product direction.

  • Cross-Functional Alignment: Facilitating workshops and discussions to ensure shared understanding of user needs and alignment on strategic priorities across different departments.

  • Open Feedback & Iteration: Cultivating an environment where constructive feedback is welcomed, and research processes are continuously refined based on learnings and team input.

  • Knowledge Sharing: Actively sharing research findings, methodologies, and best practices across teams to build a collective understanding of the user and elevate the entire organization's user-centric capabilities.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The culture at Autodesk, particularly within its product and research organizations, likely mirrors the values of other leading tech companies: a strong emphasis on user advocacy, data integrity, collaborative problem-solving, and a forward-looking approach to technology and methodologies. For a Principal role, demonstrating alignment with these values through examples of leadership and strategic thinking will be key.

⚑ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

  • Navigating Organizational Complexity: As a Principal in a large enterprise, a key challenge will be effectively influencing stakeholders across various departments and seniority levels, ensuring research insights are heard and acted upon.

  • Ambiguous Problem Spaces: Working on strategic initiatives, especially early-stage product development (like with Forma), means tackling ill-defined problems where research objectives and methodologies may need to be pioneered.

  • Balancing Strategic vs. Tactical Research: Managing the demands for both long-term strategic insights and shorter-term tactical research needs while maintaining a focus on high-impact work.

  • Integrating AI/Emerging Technologies: Staying ahead of the curve and effectively integrating new AI-powered research tools and techniques into existing workflows and educating teams on their value and application.

  • Demonstrating ROI: Continuously proving the tangible business value and ROI of user research to secure resources and maintain buy-in from leadership.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

  • Advanced Methodological Training: Opportunities to deepen expertise in cutting-edge research techniques, particularly in areas like AI-driven insights, predictive analytics, and advanced qualitative analysis.

  • Industry Conferences & Networking: Support for attending major UX research and industry-specific conferences (e.g., CHI, UXRConf, AEC industry events) to stay abreast of trends and network with peers.

  • Mentorship & Leadership Development: Access to mentorship from senior leaders within Autodesk and opportunities to hone leadership and strategic influencing skills.

  • Cross-Disciplinary Learning: Gaining deeper insights into product management, data science, engineering, and business strategy through close collaboration.

  • Specialization in AEC/Forma: Becoming a recognized expert in the complex domain of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction software and its evolving digital landscape.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: The challenges for a Principal role are typically strategic and organizational rather than purely methodological. Growth opportunities should reflect paths for increased strategic impact, thought leadership, and specialization.

πŸ’‘ Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

  • "Describe a time you influenced a significant product strategy shift based on your research. What was your approach, who did you engage with, and what was the outcome?" (Preparation: Focus on strategic impact, stakeholder influence, and measurable results. Use the STAR method.)

  • "How would you approach defining the research strategy for a brand-new, potentially disruptive product within the AEC industry, given limited initial information?" (Preparation: Emphasize a phased approach, starting with discovery and validation, stakeholder alignment, and iterative research planning.)

Company & Culture Questions:

  • "Why Autodesk, and why this specific role focusing on Infrastructure and Transportation?" (Preparation: Research Autodesk's mission, recent news, and the specific challenges/opportunities in the AEC space. Connect your passion and experience to these areas.)

  • "How do you foster a user-centric culture within teams that may not have a strong UX background?" (Preparation: Discuss your approaches to evangelizing research, storytelling, and building empathy for users across different functions.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

  • Select High-Impact Projects: Choose 2-3 projects that best demonstrate your strategic influence, methodological breadth, and ability to drive measurable outcomes. Prioritize projects that align with Autodesk's domain (AEC, Forma).

  • Structure Your Narrative: For each project, clearly articulate: 1) The Business/Product Problem, 2) Your Strategic Research Approach & Methodology, 3) Key Insights & Learnings, 4) Recommendations & Actions Taken, 5) The Measurable Impact/Outcome.

  • Highlight Collaboration: Emphasize how you partnered with product managers, designers, engineers, and data scientists throughout the process.

  • Showcase Problem-Solving: Be ready to discuss challenges you encountered and how you overcame them.

  • Quantify Results: Use data and metrics to demonstrate the impact of your work whenever possible.

  • Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your methodology, data interpretation, and decision-making process.

πŸ“ Enhancement Note: Interview preparation for a Principal role should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, leadership, and the ability to drive measurable business outcomes. Candidates must be ready to articulate their decision-making process, influence strategies, and the tangible impact of their research.

πŸ“Œ Application Steps

To apply for this Principal User Researcher position:

  • Submit your application through the Autodesk careers portal (link provided in the original job posting).

  • Portfolio Customization: Curate your portfolio to prominently feature 2-3 strategic research projects that showcase your impact, particularly those relevant to complex product development, influencing strategy, or working with large datasets. Tailor your project descriptions to highlight alignment with Autodesk's AEC focus and the Forma platform.

  • Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates 8+ years of progressive UX research experience, emphasizing strategic contributions, leadership in research programs, and cross-functional influence. Integrate keywords such as "mixed-methods research," "product strategy," "stakeholder management," "AEC industry," and "AI-powered research."

  • Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your research process, key insights, and measurable outcomes for your selected portfolio projects. Prepare to discuss your strategic approach to user research challenges and how you collaborate with product and engineering teams.

  • Company Research: Thoroughly research Autodesk's mission, values, its position in the AEC market, and the specifics of the Forma platform. Understand their commitment to AI and innovation to better align your responses with their strategic goals.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

Application Requirements

Requires 8+ years of professional UX research experience in complex product environments with a strong toolkit of qualitative and quantitative methods. A degree in HCI, Psychology, or a related field is preferred, along with a proven ability to influence cross-functional leadership teams.