Senior Director UX Research

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Director UX Research

Company: Elsevier

Location: UK - London (London Wall), United Kingdom

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: User Experience (UX) Research Leadership

Date Posted: 2026-04-10

Experience Level: 10+ years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead and define the global User Experience (UX) Research strategy, aligning with overarching business objectives and product roadmaps.

• Govern and elevate the quality and impact of UX research initiatives across a complex, product-led organization.

• Act as a crucial partner to senior Product, Design, and Visual leadership, influencing strategic decisions with user-centric insights.

• Champion the voice of the user and customer at executive levels and throughout the wider organization, fostering a deep understanding of user needs.

• Oversee the execution of high-impact research programs that address significant strategic business challenges and drive measurable outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a senior leadership function within UX Research, reporting directly to the Chief Design Officer. The emphasis is on strategic direction, governance, and influencing senior stakeholders, indicating a significant focus on business impact and organizational change management through user insights. The operations category is defined as UX Research Leadership due to the strategic and managerial scope.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and own the comprehensive UX Research strategy, ensuring its alignment with company-wide objectives and product development priorities.

• Lead and govern the UX Research community across the organization, establishing and enforcing high standards for research quality, rigor, and impact.

• Collaborate closely with Product Management, UX Design, and Visual Design leadership to shape product strategy, influence roadmap decisions, and ensure user needs are central to development.

• Serve as a primary advocate for user and customer needs, effectively communicating insights and their implications to senior leadership and across the broader organization.

• Oversee the end-to-end delivery of complex, high-impact research programs designed to tackle critical strategic business challenges and uncover actionable insights.

• Leverage data, research findings, and testing outcomes to inform strategic decisions, prioritize initiatives, and guide future product and business strategy development.

• Build, develop, and strategically deploy research teams, ensuring they possess complementary skills to maximize organizational effectiveness and foster continuous learning.

• Establish, track, and report on key research KPIs, proactively identifying gaps in current practices and introducing new methodologies or tools to enhance research capabilities.

• Represent Elsevier's UX Research function internally and externally, including presenting at industry events, leadership forums, and contributing to the broader UX community.

• Commission, manage, and evaluate external research partners and agencies to supplement internal capabilities and ensure best-in-class research execution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strategic and governance-focused role. Emphasis on "defining and owning strategy," "leading and governing," and "partnering with senior leadership" indicates a need for strong strategic thinking, operational oversight, and influencing skills. The requirement to "build, develop, and deploy research teams" points to significant people management and team-building responsibilities within the operational framework of the UX research function.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• Extensive experience (10+ years) leading and scaling UX Research functions within complex, product-led organizations, demonstrating a track record of significant impact.

• Proven experience in strategic planning and execution of research initiatives that directly influence product strategy and business outcomes.

Required Skills:

• Strategic Research Vision: Ability to define and articulate a compelling research strategy aligned with business goals and market dynamics.

• Methodological Expertise: Deep, hands-on expertise across a wide range of qualitative (e.g., ethnography, interviews, usability testing) and quantitative (e.g., surveys, A/B testing, analytics analysis) research methodologies, understanding their appropriate application.

• Leadership & Team Development: Proven ability to build, mentor, coach, and develop high-performing research teams, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning.

• Stakeholder Influence & Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex findings clearly and persuasively to diverse audiences, from research practitioners to executive leadership, driving adoption of insights.

• Data Literacy & Strategic Thinking: Strong analytical capabilities, with experience in defining key metrics (KPIs), interpreting data, and using evidence to guide strategic decision-making and problem-solving in ambiguous environments.

• Product & Design Partnership: Experience collaborating effectively with Product Management, UX Design, Engineering, and Data Science teams to integrate research insights into the product development lifecycle.

• Program Management: Skill in overseeing the delivery of complex, multi-faceted research programs, managing timelines, resources, and ensuring high-quality output.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience within the scientific, medical, or academic information/analytics industry.

• Familiarity with agile development methodologies and how to embed research within them.

• Experience managing relationships with and commissioning external research partners or agencies.

• A strong external presence, such as speaking at industry conferences or publishing research.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirements emphasize a blend of deep research expertise, strategic leadership, and strong business acumen. The "extensive experience leading UX Research at scale" and "proven ability to influence senior stakeholders" are critical indicators of the role's seniority and strategic importance. The inclusion of specific tools like Qualtrics and UserTesting suggests a need for practical familiarity with industry-standard platforms.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Strategic Impact Case Studies: Showcase 2-3 significant projects where your research leadership directly influenced product strategy, roadmap prioritization, or business outcomes. Quantify impact whenever possible (e.g., increased user adoption, improved conversion rates, reduced development costs).

• Team Leadership & Development Examples: Provide evidence of how you’ve built, scaled, or significantly improved a UX research function or team. This could include examples of hiring strategies, mentoring frameworks, or process improvements that elevated team capabilities.

• Methodological Breadth & Depth: Demonstrate your command over a diverse range of research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative). For each case study, clearly articulate why specific methods were chosen and how they addressed the research questions.

• Stakeholder Engagement & Influence: Illustrate instances where you successfully influenced senior stakeholders (Product VPs, C-suite) with research findings, perhaps through compelling presentations, strategic workshops, or data-driven recommendations.

Process Documentation:

• Research Strategy Frameworks: Examples of how you have developed and operationalized research strategies, including how they align with broader business objectives and product portfolios.

• Quality Assurance & Governance Models: Documentation or examples of processes established to ensure the quality, rigor, and ethical conduct of research across an organization. This might include review processes, best practice guidelines, or templates.

• Research Operations (R&D Ops) Integration: Illustrate how research operations, tools, and processes are managed to maximize efficiency and impact, including the selection and implementation of research platforms.

• Measurement & KPI Frameworks: Evidence of how research impact is measured, tracked, and reported using defined KPIs, demonstrating the value and ROI of research initiatives.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Senior Director role, the portfolio should emphasize strategic impact, leadership, and operational excellence rather than just individual research execution. The focus is on demonstrating the ability to build and govern a research function that drives business value at scale.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Estimated Range: $118,300 - $219,800 USD per year.

• Methodology: This estimate is based on the provided U.S. National Base Pay Range and adjusted for the London, UK location, considering typical senior leadership compensation benchmarks for major tech/information companies in the UK. London often commands higher salaries due to cost of living and market demand, but the provided range is a strong indicator of the overall compensation band. Geographic differentials will apply.

Benefits:

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

• Retirement Savings Plan: Such as a pension scheme or 401(k) equivalent, with potential company matching.

• Generous Paid Time Off: Including vacation days, sick leave, and public holidays.

• Professional Development: Opportunities for training, conferences, and continuous learning to support career growth.

• Global Mobility & Travel: Potential for international travel and exposure to diverse markets.

• Employee Assistance Program: Support services for personal and professional well-being.

• Country-Specific Benefits: As noted, Elsevier offers benefits tailored to specific locations, which can include unique perks and allowances relevant to the UK market.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours, typically around 40 hours per week. Flexibility may be offered, but the on-site nature of the role in London suggests a structured work week within the office environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is for the USA. For a London-based role, salary expectations would typically be benchmarked against UK market rates for similar senior positions, which can vary. The provided range serves as a strong indicator of the executive-level compensation band. Benefits are generalized but align with those offered by large, global organizations.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Information and Analytics (specifically in Science, Research, and Healthcare sectors).

Company Size: Large enterprise (Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics). This implies a structured environment with established processes, significant resources, and a global reach.

Founded: Elsevier has a long history, with roots tracing back to 1880, reflecting a legacy of knowledge dissemination and innovation.

Team Structure:

• The Global UX team is described as diverse, multidisciplinary, and collaborative, comprising designers, researchers, and content specialists.

• This role reports to the Chief Design Officer, indicating a high level of visibility and strategic importance within the design organization.

Methodology:

• User-Centricity: A core value, emphasizing the importance of understanding user needs to drive product and business strategy.

• Evidence-Based Design: Decisions are informed by robust, data-driven insights derived from research.

• Collaboration: Strong emphasis on cross-functional partnership to translate insights into impactful experiences.

• Continuous Improvement: Commitment to raising quality and consistency across the global portfolio through ongoing learning and adaptation.

• Data Analysis & Insights: Utilizing research findings and data to inform strategic direction and priorities.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: Elsevier operates within the critical domains of scientific research and healthcare, suggesting a culture that values accuracy, rigor, and impact. Its large size means the UX Research function needs to be well-organized and capable of influencing broad product portfolios. The "Global UX team" context implies a need for cross-cultural awareness and the ability to manage research across different regions.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Senior Director / Head of UX Research. This is a senior leadership role responsible for setting strategy, managing a team, and influencing executive-level decisions. It requires a blend of deep domain expertise, strategic vision, and strong people management skills.

Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the Chief Design Officer (CDO). This places the role at a high level within the design and product organization, with direct access to executive leadership. The role also influences and guides research teams that likely collaborate with various Product and Engineering VPs or Directors.

Operations Impact: The core impact of this role is to ensure that user and customer insights are foundational to Elsevier's product strategy and business decisions. By defining research strategy and governing research quality, this role directly influences the development of products that help researchers, clinicians, and institutions. This leads to improved user satisfaction, better product-market fit, and ultimately, enhanced business outcomes and societal impact in science and healthcare.

Growth Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership Expansion: Potential to expand leadership scope to encompass broader user experience strategy, design operations, or even product strategy oversight.

• Industry Influence: Opportunity to become a recognized thought leader in UX Research within the scientific and healthcare information sectors, through speaking engagements, publications, and active participation in industry forums.

• Organizational Transformation: Lead significant initiatives to mature the UX Research practice across a global organization, driving cultural change and embedding user-centricity more deeply.

• Executive Advancement: With demonstrated success in strategic leadership and business impact, potential for advancement to VP-level roles within Product, Design, or Strategy functions.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role represents a significant career milestone, moving from leading research initiatives to leading the entire research function and strategy. Growth opportunities are geared towards broader strategic influence and executive-level impact within the company.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is based in London, UK, and described as "On-site," indicating a physical presence within an Elsevier office. This suggests a traditional corporate office environment.

Office Location(s): London Wall, London, UK. This is a central business district location, likely offering good transport links and a professional working atmosphere. Other potential locations mentioned (Raleigh, Philadelphia, Amsterdam) suggest this is a global role with teams or collaboration opportunities across these regions, but the primary focus for this position is London.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Hub: The London office likely serves as a hub for cross-functional collaboration, with opportunities to work face-to-face with Product Managers, Designers, Engineers, and other stakeholders.

• Technology-Rich Environment: As a leading information and analytics company, Elsevier likely provides access to advanced research tools, collaboration software, and necessary technological infrastructure.

• Global Connectivity: The role will involve frequent interaction with international teams, requiring proficiency in virtual collaboration tools and an understanding of different regional contexts.

Work Schedule: The "On-site" and "FULL_TIME" designation implies a standard work schedule, likely Monday to Friday, within typical office hours (e.g., 9 am to 5 pm BST). While some flexibility might be available, the senior leadership nature and on-site requirement suggest a consistent presence is expected.

📝 Enhancement Note: The on-site requirement in a major global city like London suggests a dynamic, collaborative, and professional work environment, with a strong emphasis on in-person interaction and team cohesion, balanced with global virtual collaboration.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: HR or Recruiter call to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and understanding of the role's scope.

• Hiring Manager Interview: Conversation with the Chief Design Officer to delve into strategic vision, leadership philosophy, and alignment with company goals. Preparation should focus on your approach to building and scaling research functions.

• Cross-Functional Stakeholder Interviews: Meetings with key leaders from Product, Design, and possibly Engineering. These interviews will assess your ability to partner, influence, and integrate research into product development processes. Be ready to discuss how you've navigated complex stakeholder relationships.

• Portfolio Presentation & Deep Dive: A dedicated session where you present your portfolio, focusing on strategic impact and leadership examples. Expect in-depth questions about your methodologies, decision-making process, and how you've driven organizational change through research.

• Team/Peer Interviews: Conversations with potential direct reports or peers within the UX/Design team to assess leadership style, team-building capabilities, and collaborative approach.

• Final Executive Interview: Potentially a final conversation with a higher-level executive to confirm strategic alignment and assess overall fit for the organization.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Strategy & Impact: Prioritize case studies that demonstrate your ability to define and execute research strategy, influence senior leaders, and drive measurable business outcomes.

• Showcase Leadership: Clearly articulate your role in building, mentoring, and leading research teams. Highlight instances of team development and process improvement.

• Methodological Rationale: For each project, explain why specific methodologies were chosen and how they contributed to solving the business problem. Don't just list methods; explain their strategic application.

• Quantify Results: Whenever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the impact of your research. This could include user adoption rates, conversion improvements, cost savings, or revenue impact.

• Structure for Clarity: Organize your portfolio logically, perhaps by strategic challenge, product area, or your leadership journey. Ensure it's easy to navigate and understand quickly.

Challenge Preparation:

• Strategic Scenario: Be prepared for questions that present a complex business or product challenge and ask how you would approach it from a research strategy perspective. Focus on your framework for problem definition, stakeholder alignment, and research planning.

• Leadership Hypotheticals: Discuss how you would handle common leadership challenges, such as managing underperforming team members, resolving conflicts between research findings and product priorities, or advocating for research investment.

• Process Improvement: Be ready to discuss how you would assess and improve existing research processes within Elsevier, focusing on efficiency, scalability, and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process for a Senior Director role is rigorous and designed to assess strategic leadership, influencing capabilities, and operational oversight. The portfolio review is critical and should be tailored to showcase executive-level contributions.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Qualitative & Quantitative Research Platforms: Familiarity with tools such as Qualtrics, UserTesting.com, Lookback, SurveyMonkey, Typeform for conducting surveys, usability tests, interviews, and gathering user feedback at scale.

• Analytics & Data Visualization: Experience with tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Tableau, Power BI, or similar platforms to analyze user behavior data, track KPIs, and create insightful dashboards.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Proficiency with tools like Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello, or Monday.com for managing research projects, tracking progress, and facilitating team collaboration.

• User Research Repository/Database: Experience with platforms that centralize research findings, participant data, and insights for easy access and knowledge sharing across teams.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics for tracking website and app user behavior.

• BI Tools: Tableau, Power BI, Looker for creating comprehensive dashboards and reports on user engagement and research impact.

• Reporting Dashboards: Ability to design and present clear, actionable reports for various stakeholders, from product teams to executive leadership.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly the focus, understanding how UX research insights can inform CRM strategies or be integrated into marketing automation platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) is beneficial. Experience with data integration tools might be a plus for understanding how research data feeds into broader systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: The job description explicitly mentions Qualtrics, UserTesting, and Lookback, indicating these are highly relevant and likely part of the current or desired stack. A Senior Director should be adept not just at using these tools but at evaluating and selecting appropriate tools for their team.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A fundamental value, driving all research efforts to deeply understand and serve the needs of researchers, clinicians, and educators.

• Excellence & Rigor: A commitment to high-quality, evidence-based research that provides reliable and actionable insights.

• Collaboration & Partnership: Fostering strong working relationships with Product, Design, Engineering, and commercial teams to ensure research is integrated and impactful.

• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Encouraging the exploration of new research methods, tools, and approaches to stay at the forefront of the field and enhance research effectiveness.

• Impact & Business Acumen: A focus on translating research findings into tangible business value and strategic decisions that advance science and healthcare.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: The team actively partners with Product, Design, and Engineering, indicating a collaborative style where research is embedded within the product development lifecycle.

• Data-Driven Decision Making: A culture that values evidence and data to inform strategy and priorities, encouraging open discussion and debate based on insights.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging the dissemination of research findings and best practices across teams to build collective understanding and expertise.

• Strategic Influence: Operates at a senior level, requiring collaboration with executive leadership to shape company-wide strategy, not just product-specific features.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture emphasizes a blend of deep user empathy, scientific rigor, and business impact, all within a collaborative, global enterprise structure.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scaling Research Globally: Ensuring consistent, high-quality research delivery across diverse geographical regions and product lines within a large organization.

• Influencing Senior Stakeholders: Effectively translating complex research insights into compelling arguments that drive strategic decisions among busy executives.

• Measuring Research Impact: Developing and implementing robust methodologies to quantify the ROI and business impact of UX research initiatives.

• Balancing Strategic Vision with Execution: Maintaining oversight of long-term research strategy while ensuring effective day-to-day execution and team development.

• Navigating Ambiguity: Tackling complex, ill-defined problems and defining research approaches to bring clarity and actionable insights.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership Development: Opportunities to hone executive-level strategic planning, financial acumen, and organizational leadership skills.

• Industry Thought Leadership: Potential to present at major UX and industry conferences, publish articles, and build a personal brand within the scientific and healthcare information sectors.

• Cross-Functional Acumen: Deepen understanding of business strategy, product management, and engineering processes within a complex global enterprise.

• Mentorship & Coaching: Develop advanced skills in coaching and mentoring research leaders and practitioners to foster talent within the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are typical for a senior leadership role in a large, complex organization, focusing on scale, influence, and impact measurement. Growth opportunities are geared towards expanding leadership capacity and industry influence.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe your approach to defining and operationalizing a global UX Research strategy for a company like Elsevier. How would you ensure alignment with product and business objectives?"

  • Preparation: Focus on frameworks for strategy development, stakeholder alignment, and cascading goals.

• "How do you measure and demonstrate the business impact and ROI of UX Research at a senior leadership level?"

  • Preparation: Prepare examples of KPIs, impact metrics, and how you communicate value to executives.

• "Imagine we are facing a strategic challenge in [specific Elsevier domain, e.g., clinical decision support]. How would you, as Director of UX Research, mobilize your team to tackle this?"

  • Preparation: Outline your process for problem definition, research planning, methodology selection, and insight synthesis in a high-stakes scenario.

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What do you know about Elsevier's mission and our customer segments (researchers, clinicians, educators)? How would your research leadership approach support these groups?"

  • Preparation: Research Elsevier's products, target audiences, and recent news. Connect your experience to their domain.

• "How would you foster a culture of user-centricity and continuous learning within your research team and across the wider organization?"

  • Preparation: Discuss your leadership philosophy, team-building strategies, and methods for embedding user insights into organizational DNA.

• "Describe a time you had to influence a senior executive who was resistant to user insights. What was your approach, and what was the outcome?"

  • Preparation: Prepare a STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) answer demonstrating strong influencing and communication skills.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Executive Summary First: Begin with a high-level overview of your strategic contributions and team leadership achievements before diving into specific case studies.

• Focus on "Why" and "So What": For each case study, clearly articulate the strategic problem, your research approach (and why it was chosen), and the concrete business/product impact.

• Demonstrate Leadership: Highlight your role in team building, process improvement, and stakeholder management within each example.

• Visual Clarity: Use clear, concise visuals. Ensure any data presented is easy to understand and directly supports your narrative.

• Storytelling: Frame your achievements as compelling stories that illustrate your expertise, leadership, and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on strategic thinking, executive-level communication, and demonstrating a track record of building and leading high-impact research functions.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the provided Workday link: https://relx.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/ElsevierJobs/job/London/Sr-Dir-UX-Research_R109717-2

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to highlight strategic leadership, team development, and measurable business impact. Select 2-3 of your most impactful projects that demonstrate your ability to define and execute research strategy at scale.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your extensive leadership experience (10+ years), expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research, and proven ability to influence senior stakeholders. Use keywords from the job description like "UX Research strategy," "stakeholder management," "team leadership," and "product strategy."

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your strategic vision, leadership philosophy, and how you measure research impact. Prepare specific examples for common interview questions related to influencing executives, building teams, and driving user-centricity.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Elsevier's mission, products, target audiences (researchers, clinicians, educators), and recent company news. Understand their position in the scientific and healthcare information market.

⚠️ 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.