Senior UX / Design Researcher

The Company

The Irish Times Group is Ireland's leading independent quality news publishing organisation. The core activity of The Irish Times Group has evolved from six-day print publishing to a seven-day multi-platform news publisher with a market-leading position in subscriptions, audience engagement and digital innovation.

We focus on producing trusted journalism for our readers, providing media solutions for customers and continuously evolving our products, platforms and ways of working in a rapidly changing media landscape.

The Company is owned by The Irish Times Trust and is managed by The Irish Times DAC. In recent years, The Irish Times Group has expanded its interests to include the Irish Examiner, The Echo, regional newspapers, RecruitIreland.com, MyHome.ie, RIP.ie, The Gloss, Score Beo and other leading Irish digital brands.

The Role

We’re looking for a UX / Design Researcher to help us understand our readers, subscribers and customers. You’ll sit in the Product Design team, working side by side with designers, product managers, data, engineers and the editorial and commercial teams.

This is a hands-on role for a researcher with strong design experience. It will suit someone proactive, curious and comfortable with ambiguity, who can bring teams together, try new approaches and build things from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Research Ownership: Design, scope and run generative and evaluative research, including interviews, usability testing and contextual inquiry. Choose the right method for the question and the timeline.
• Insight & Synthesis: Uncover user needs and motivations, spot patterns and translate insights into clear design opportunities and product decisions.
• Collaboration & Facilitation: Plan and facilitate workshops and co-design sessions, aligning Product, Engineering, Editorial and Commercial stakeholders around user needs.
• Design & Concepts: Work as part of the design team to frame problems and shape concepts. Sketch and map ideas and test them early with users.
• Research Practice: Contribute to how we run research, from recruitment and consent through to sharing insights across teams.
• New Approaches: Try new methods and tools, including AI-assisted research and synthesis, and share what works with the team.
• Storytelling: Clearly communicate insights and the thinking behind design concepts to audiences from squads to senior leadership.

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• 4+ years of experience in UX research, design research or a research-led product design role.
• A degree in design, HCI, psychology or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• A portfolio or case studies demonstrating your research process, facilitation and the impact of your work.
• Solid design experience: you can map journeys, understand UX/UI principles and turn insight into creative solutions and strategic decisions.
• Ability to lead and scope research, from planning and recruitment through to analysis and playback.
• Strong qualitative research skills and a working knowledge of quantitative methods such as surveys, analytics and A/B testing.
• Strong communication, storytelling and presentation skills.
• Solid facilitation skills, with experience running workshops and co-design sessions.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity, taking initiative and adapting your approach when required.
• Curious, driven and open to trying new methods, tools and ways of working.

Desirable

• Startup or scale-up experience, comfortable with change and moving fast.
• Experience in news, publishing or subscription products.
• Inclusive or participatory design experience.
• Experience with AI-assisted research tools.
• Service design and prototyping experience.

If you are excited by content, technology, storytelling and the future of journalism, this is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact while working on challenges that are both technically complex and highly visible.

Please send your CV through the Apply button below

The Irish Times Group operates a hybrid working policy.

Our benefits include Health Insurance Contribution, Pension Contribution, Sick Leave Cover, Maternity and Paternity Leave, Irish Times Premium Digital Subscription, Income Protection Policy, Corporate Gym Membership Discounts, Free Digital GP and Life Assurance Policy.