Research Jobs in Grand Rapids, MI

Make a Meaningful Impact Every Day!

At GT Independence, people are at the heart of everything we do. If you thrive in a collaborative environment, love what you do, and are eager to grow, you’re in the right place. Discover a career where your work genuinely improves lives and supports a mission that matters.

Our Mission: To help people live a life of their choosing, regardless of age or ability.

GT Independence has earned multiple awards for being an exceptional workplace, including being named a 2026 National “Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.” We are also proudly certified as a Great Place to Work® for 2025/2026—a distinction reserved for top employers committed to outstanding employee experiences.

The UX Researcher is responsible for understanding and evaluating customer behaviors, user needs, workflow pain points, design concepts, and the usability of existing and future GTI solutions. This role is focused on user experience research and design ownership.

The UX Researcher partners with Product Owners, the Director of Product, IT Development, Operations, Support, Third-Party Design Contractor(s), and end users as GTI's design partner to ensure research findings inform product strategy, roadmap decisions, design validation, backlog prioritization, and launch readiness. This role guide accessibility standards and common design systems and will create or direct designs and prototypes for testing and development.

Responsibilities

• Plan and conduct user research across customer, participant, caregiver, employee, support, and operational stakeholder groups.

• Develop research plans, interview guides, surveys, usability tests, journey maps, and synthesis approaches aligned to product questions.

• Evaluate current products, workflows, prototypes, and future solution concepts for usability, accessibility, friction, comprehension, and adoption barriers.

• Partner with Product Owners and the Director of Product to connect research findings to roadmap priorities, requirements, and backlog decisions.

• Define the design system and create or collaborate on design elements for design exploration, prototype validation, usability testing, and customer experience considerations.

• Build and guide development of prototypes and designs for testing and development

• Coordinate research sessions, including participant recruitment support, scheduling, consent expectations, and privacy-sensitive handling of feedback.

• Build and maintain a lightweight research repository, including findings, themes, artifacts, and reusable insights.

• Define and track usability signals such as task success, friction points, adoption barriers, satisfaction feedback, and support themes.

• Communicate research findings through concise readouts, artifacts, and stakeholder discussions that drive product decisions.

Requirements

• 4+ years of experience in UX research, design, product research, customer research, service design research, or related roles.

• Experience user experience research methods, including interviews, surveys, usability testing, observation, and synthesis.

• Experience building prototypes and designs that meet accessibility, usability, and brand standards

• Familiarity with key UX concepts such as design systems, design sprints, usability testing, etc.

• Ability to evaluate complex workflows, internal tools, customer-facing experiences, and service interactions.

• Strong skills in translating research findings into actionable product recommendations and decision support.

• Experience partnering with product managers, product owners, designers, engineers, operations, and customer-facing teams.

• Familiarity with accessibility, inclusive practices, usability heuristics, and research ethics.

• Comfort working with external design partners and cross-functional teams to validate design concepts.

• Strong written, visual, and verbal communication skills, including clear presentation of insights to stakeholders.

• Experience with research and design tools such as Figma, Adobe, UserTesting, Qualtrics, Miro, or similar platforms.

• Experience in regulated, healthcare, public sector, or complex service environments, preferred.

Location

• Hybrid (business and team presence as needed; flexibility based on candidate)

As a family-founded national leader in personal and financial services for individuals who rely on home- and community-based care, GT Independence supports tens of thousands of people across the country as they find and hire their own caregivers or personal assistants.

Our operations team is driven by trust, autonomy, and—yes—fun. We believe great teams come from people who are intrinsically motivated, empowered, and valued. We respect each other, we care about the work we do, and we succeed because we work with purpose.

We value excellence, but we won’t micromanage to achieve it. If you are self‑motivated, we give you the space and support to grow and thrive. Team members enjoy flexible paid time off, competitive wages & benefits, and meaningful opportunities for professional growth.

Grow your career with us. Grow your impact with us.

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What Culture & Belonging Means at GT: Bring Your Authentic Self To Work

GT is committed to being a welcoming and inclusive community. We aspire for all staff to feel comfortable bringing their full, authentic selves to work. We want people to feel valued and have a sense of belonging. GT strives to create a workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We recognize that our diversity makes us stronger. It also drives innovation and ultimately helps us achieve our mission of self-determination.

Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.