Senior User Experience (UX) Researcher

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior User Experience (UX) Researcher

Company: Vacances Air Canada Vacations / Air Canada Rouge

Location: Montreal, QC, Canada

Job Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Category: Digital Product & Design / User Experience Research

Date Posted: September 02, 2026

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: Hybrid (4 days in office, 1 day remote)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead comprehensive UX research initiatives to deeply understand traveler needs, behaviors, and decision-making processes throughout the vacation planning and booking journey.

• Develop actionable traveler personas and detailed user journey maps to inform product strategy and design decisions for the Air Canada Vacations website.

• Execute a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including customer interviews, usability testing, and analytics, to identify friction points and opportunities for improvement.

• Translate complex research findings into clear, strategic insights and actionable recommendations for product owners, UX/UI designers, and business stakeholders.

• Validate design solutions through prototype testing, ensuring an intuitive, trustworthy, and engaging booking experience that drives conversions.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Senior UX Researcher, indicating a need for independent leadership in research strategy, execution, and stakeholder management. The focus on the travel industry and online booking platforms suggests a requirement for domain expertise and an understanding of e-commerce conversion funnels. The hybrid work model with a significant in-office component implies a need for strong in-person collaboration and communication skills.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design and implement a strategic UX research plan to uncover how travelers discover, evaluate, and purchase vacation packages online.

• Identify key traveler segments, their motivations, behaviors, and critical decision-making factors influencing booking choices.

• Define clear research goals, select appropriate methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), and manage project timelines aligned with product and business objectives.

• Plan, recruit participants for, and conduct in-depth customer interviews to understand trip planning behaviors, booking preferences, and pain points.

• Analyze qualitative data to identify recurring themes, user insights, and actionable opportunities for enhancing the travel booking experience.

• Develop data-driven traveler personas that accurately represent key customer groups (e.g., families, couples, solo travelers, deal seekers).

• Document persona motivations, goals, behaviors, and pain points to ensure they are actionable for product, design, and marketing teams.

• Create comprehensive end-to-end user journey maps, detailing touchpoints across the website and digital channels to pinpoint friction areas.

• Plan and execute usability testing on wireframes and interactive prototypes to evaluate ease of use for search, comparison, and booking functions.

• Gather user feedback to validate design decisions, identify usability issues early, and provide concrete recommendations for prototype improvement.

• Translate research findings into clear, strategic insights and present them effectively through reports, workshops, and presentations to diverse audiences.

• Collaborate closely with UX designers, product managers, and marketing teams to ensure research insights directly inform product design and feature prioritization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a full-cycle research process, from strategic planning and discovery to validation and communication of insights. The specific mention of "drivers of bookings" and "friction points" highlights a direct link between research outcomes and business objectives, common in e-commerce and GTM operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Post-secondary degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Cognitive Science, Psychology, or a closely related field. Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of dedicated experience in UX research, customer research, or design research roles.

• Proven experience within the Tourism/Travel online booking industry is essential. Required Skills:

• Expertise in conducting research using a wide array of qualitative and quantitative UX research methods, including field studies, usability testing, card sorting, surveys, analytics, and A/B testing.

• Strong proficiency in developing actionable traveler personas and comprehensive user journey maps.

• Excellent analytical skills with a demonstrated ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with meticulous attention to detail and accuracy.

• Proven ability to translate complex research findings into clear, strategic insights and actionable recommendations for product teams.

• Strong communication, storytelling, and stakeholder facilitation skills, with the ability to present research outcomes effectively to diverse audiences.

• Experience in prototype testing and design validation, including evaluating wireframes and interactive prototypes.

• Ability to work independently while also being a highly collaborative team player.

• Aptitude for working closely with a diverse group of executives, managers, and subject matter experts.

• Bilingual proficiency (written and spoken) in English and French is a requirement. Preferred Skills:

• Experience with web analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics) for quantitative data analysis.

• Familiarity with user feedback tools and platforms for survey distribution and analysis.

• Understanding of agile development methodologies and experience integrating research into agile sprints.

• Experience with remote usability testing tools and methodologies.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for bilingualism and specific experience in the travel industry are critical differentiators. The explicit mention of various research methods, combined with persona and journey mapping, points to a need for a researcher who can drive strategic product direction rather than just conduct tactical usability tests.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements