Senior User Researcher Jobs in California
Senior User Researcher jobs in California are concentrated in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, where companies like Google, Apple, and Meta maintain large UX research teams and recruit consistently at the senior level. Demand is strongest in enterprise software, consumer technology, and health tech, with specialties in mixed-methods research, usability strategy, and accessibility research drawing the most consistent interest. California is one of the most active markets in the country for experienced researchers who can lead studies end to end and influence product direction. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Senior User Researcher II
Location:-Palo Alto,CA
About Rubrik
Rubrik is a public company on a mission to secure the world’s data. With Zero Trust Data Security™, we have over $1 Billion in ARR this year! We’re proud to be positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and to have won prestigious design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award & the iF Design award.
Rubrik helps organizations achieve business resilience against cyberattacks, malicious insiders, and operational disruptions. Rubrik Security Cloud, powered by machine learning, secures data across enterprise, cloud, and SaaS applications. Rubrik helps organizations uphold data integrity, deliver data availability that withstands adverse conditions, continuously monitors data risks and threats, and restore businesses with their data when infrastructure is attacked.
About Team
At Rubrik, our UX team is a global collective of over 60 talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, including Product Designers, User Researchers, UX Writers, Visual Designers, Program Managers, and Technical Publications. We are deeply committed to understanding the needs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of our users to inspire and inform our designs.
With over 30 UX professionals based in our Palo Alto Design Studio, our team plays a crucial role in creating industry-leading cyber resilience products. We foster close collaboration within the UX team, as well as with engineering and product management, to deliver valuable products for our users and for Rubrik’s businesses.
Sneak peek to our product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9949Q-_onc&t=9s
- Red Dot design Award
- iF Design Award
- Rubrik Design Medium Page
The Opportunity
We are growing our research team! We are looking for a highly-skilled Senior User Researcher to lead and take ownership of meaningful, strategic and impactful research that can help us drive towards making Rubrik a benchmark for enterprise design.
We're a close-knit, collaborative group, guided by a highly iterative user-centered design process. Combining research, data, and thoughtful critique, as a researcher you will help discover needs and solve fundamental problems that impact how organizations around the world manage and protect their data. In this role, you will champion the voice of the customer throughout the entire product and design lifecycle. Your responsibilities will involve engaging directly with customers to understand their needs, defining user personas and use cases, and applying a variety of research methods to gather insights. Your research work will encompass formative inquiries, evaluative studies, rigorous usability testing, and data analytics. A key aspect of your work will be to synthesize your findings into actionable recommendations and communicate them through impactful artifacts to drive customer adoption and product success. Collaborating closely with product managers and designers, you will influence product strategy and validate design concepts through usability testing and behavioral data analysis.
What you will do
- Champion End-to-End User Research: You'll drive the entire research lifecycle by defining, planning, and executing studies to build a deep, empathetic understanding of customer needs. This includes identifying research goals, selecting appropriate qualitative or quantitative methods, and advocating for a consumer-grade user experience backed by a strong portfolio of impactful work.
- Collaborate to Build a Strategic Roadmap: Working in close partnership with product design, development, and product teams, you will identify key research topics and build a research roadmap. You'll be responsible for communicating this plan regularly to ensure it remains relevant and aligned with team priorities.
- Synthesize Data into Actionable Insights: A core function is to analyze and synthesize research findings into clear design and product recommendations. You will also develop metrics to measure user experience quality, effectively communicating results to influence decisions and advocate on behalf of the customer.
- Execute with Methodological Rigor: You must possess the ability to independently select the correct methodological framework for any given research question. This includes managing all logistics, from participant recruitment to scheduling, while effectively navigating shifting priorities and time constraints.
- Integrate AI into Workflows: You are expected to have experience with critically evaluating and incorporating AI into your workflows. This includes leveraging AI-powered tools, automating workflows, and analyzing AI-driven insights to enhance problem-solving and decision-making within your role.
What you will bring
- A degree (B.A., B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) in Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, HCI, or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated expertise in an applied UX research role.
- 7+ years of work experience conducting customer-centered research.
- End-to-end experience with all aspects of research (study design, recruiting, moderation, analysis, reporting and analytical tools) across multiple product areas.
- Deep knowledge of user interface design, usability evaluation techniques, task analysis, and experimental design.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Experience in enterprise or B2B software is a plus, but not required—what matters most is your willingness to learn new technical concepts quickly and your proactive attitude.
- A strong team player who enjoys working in international, cross time-zone, cross-functional product teams and actively shaping UX strategies.
- Ability to drive vision and strategy discussions through research by analyzing, consolidating, or synthesizing what is known about user, product, service, or business needs.
If you are ready to embrace the rewarding challenge of setting the bar for industry-leading user experience, this could be the role for you. Please send your resume and user research portfolio to noopur.mer@rubrik.com
Join Us in Securing and Accelerating the World's AI Transformation
Rubrik (RBRK), the Security and AI Operations Company, leads at the intersection of data protection, cyber resilience, and enterprise AI acceleration. Rubrik Security Cloud delivers complete cyber resilience by securing, monitoring, and recovering data, identities, and workloads across clouds. Rubrik Agent Cloud accelerates trusted AI agent deployments at scale by monitoring and auditing agentic actions, enforcing real-time guardrails, fine-tuning for accuracy and undoing agentic mistakes.
Inclusion @ Rubrik
At Rubrik, we are dedicated to fostering a culture where people from all backgrounds are valued, feel they belong, and believe they can succeed. Our commitment to inclusion is at the heart of our mission to secure the world’s data.
Our goal is to hire and promote the best talent, regardless of background. We continually review our hiring practices to ensure fairness and strive to create an environment where every employee has equal access to opportunities for growth and excellence. We believe in empowering everyone to bring their authentic selves to work and achieve their fullest potential.
Our inclusion strategy focuses on three core areas of our business and culture:
Our Company: We are committed to building a merit-based organization that offers equal access to growth and success for all employees globally. Your potential is limitless here.
Our Culture: We strive to create an inclusive atmosphere where individuals from all backgrounds feel a strong sense of belonging, can thrive, and do their best work. Your contributions help us innovate and break boundaries.
Our Communities: We are dedicated to expanding our engagement with the communities we operate in, creating opportunities for underrepresented talent and driving greater innovation for our clients. Your impact extends beyond Rubrik, contributing to safer and stronger communities.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled
Rubrik is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
Rubrik provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Rubrik complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please contact us at hr@rubrik.com if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
Senior User Researcher II
Location:-Palo Alto,CA
About Rubrik
Rubrik is a public company on a mission to secure the world’s data. With Zero Trust Data Security™, we have over $1 Billion in ARR this year! We’re proud to be positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and to have won prestigious design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award & the iF Design award.
Rubrik helps organizations achieve business resilience against cyberattacks, malicious insiders, and operational disruptions. Rubrik Security Cloud, powered by machine learning, secures data across enterprise, cloud, and SaaS applications. Rubrik helps organizations uphold data integrity, deliver data availability that withstands adverse conditions, continuously monitors data risks and threats, and restore businesses with their data when infrastructure is attacked.
About Team
At Rubrik, our UX team is a global collective of over 60 talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, including Product Designers, User Researchers, UX Writers, Visual Designers, Program Managers, and Technical Publications. We are deeply committed to understanding the needs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors of our users to inspire and inform our designs.
With over 30 UX professionals based in our Palo Alto Design Studio, our team plays a crucial role in creating industry-leading cyber resilience products. We foster close collaboration within the UX team, as well as with engineering and product management, to deliver valuable products for our users and for Rubrik’s businesses.
Sneak peek to our product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9949Q-_onc&t=9s
- Red Dot design Award
- iF Design Award
- Rubrik Design Medium Page
The Opportunity
We are growing our research team! We are looking for a highly-skilled Senior User Researcher to lead and take ownership of meaningful, strategic and impactful research that can help us drive towards making Rubrik a benchmark for enterprise design.
We're a close-knit, collaborative group, guided by a highly iterative user-centered design process. Combining research, data, and thoughtful critique, as a researcher you will help discover needs and solve fundamental problems that impact how organizations around the world manage and protect their data. In this role, you will champion the voice of the customer throughout the entire product and design lifecycle. Your responsibilities will involve engaging directly with customers to understand their needs, defining user personas and use cases, and applying a variety of research methods to gather insights. Your research work will encompass formative inquiries, evaluative studies, rigorous usability testing, and data analytics. A key aspect of your work will be to synthesize your findings into actionable recommendations and communicate them through impactful artifacts to drive customer adoption and product success. Collaborating closely with product managers and designers, you will influence product strategy and validate design concepts through usability testing and behavioral data analysis.
What you will do
- Champion End-to-End User Research: You'll drive the entire research lifecycle by defining, planning, and executing studies to build a deep, empathetic understanding of customer needs. This includes identifying research goals, selecting appropriate qualitative or quantitative methods, and advocating for a consumer-grade user experience backed by a strong portfolio of impactful work.
- Collaborate to Build a Strategic Roadmap: Working in close partnership with product design, development, and product teams, you will identify key research topics and build a research roadmap. You'll be responsible for communicating this plan regularly to ensure it remains relevant and aligned with team priorities.
- Synthesize Data into Actionable Insights: A core function is to analyze and synthesize research findings into clear design and product recommendations. You will also develop metrics to measure user experience quality, effectively communicating results to influence decisions and advocate on behalf of the customer.
- Execute with Methodological Rigor: You must possess the ability to independently select the correct methodological framework for any given research question. This includes managing all logistics, from participant recruitment to scheduling, while effectively navigating shifting priorities and time constraints.
- Integrate AI into Workflows: You are expected to have experience with critically evaluating and incorporating AI into your workflows. This includes leveraging AI-powered tools, automating workflows, and analyzing AI-driven insights to enhance problem-solving and decision-making within your role.
What you will bring
- A degree (B.A., B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) in Human Factors, Cognitive Psychology, HCI, or a related discipline, or equivalent demonstrated expertise in an applied UX research role.
- 7+ years of work experience conducting customer-centered research.
- End-to-end experience with all aspects of research (study design, recruiting, moderation, analysis, reporting and analytical tools) across multiple product areas.
- Deep knowledge of user interface design, usability evaluation techniques, task analysis, and experimental design.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
- Experience in enterprise or B2B software is a plus, but not required—what matters most is your willingness to learn new technical concepts quickly and your proactive attitude.
- A strong team player who enjoys working in international, cross time-zone, cross-functional product teams and actively shaping UX strategies.
- Ability to drive vision and strategy discussions through research by analyzing, consolidating, or synthesizing what is known about user, product, service, or business needs.
If you are ready to embrace the rewarding challenge of setting the bar for industry-leading user experience, this could be the role for you. Please send your resume and user research portfolio to noopur.mer@rubrik.com
Join Us in Securing and Accelerating the World's AI Transformation
Rubrik (RBRK), the Security and AI Operations Company, leads at the intersection of data protection, cyber resilience, and enterprise AI acceleration. Rubrik Security Cloud delivers complete cyber resilience by securing, monitoring, and recovering data, identities, and workloads across clouds. Rubrik Agent Cloud accelerates trusted AI agent deployments at scale by monitoring and auditing agentic actions, enforcing real-time guardrails, fine-tuning for accuracy and undoing agentic mistakes.
Inclusion @ Rubrik
At Rubrik, we are dedicated to fostering a culture where people from all backgrounds are valued, feel they belong, and believe they can succeed. Our commitment to inclusion is at the heart of our mission to secure the world’s data.
Our goal is to hire and promote the best talent, regardless of background. We continually review our hiring practices to ensure fairness and strive to create an environment where every employee has equal access to opportunities for growth and excellence. We believe in empowering everyone to bring their authentic selves to work and achieve their fullest potential.
Our inclusion strategy focuses on three core areas of our business and culture:
Our Company: We are committed to building a merit-based organization that offers equal access to growth and success for all employees globally. Your potential is limitless here.
Our Culture: We strive to create an inclusive atmosphere where individuals from all backgrounds feel a strong sense of belonging, can thrive, and do their best work. Your contributions help us innovate and break boundaries.
Our Communities: We are dedicated to expanding our engagement with the communities we operate in, creating opportunities for underrepresented talent and driving greater innovation for our clients. Your impact extends beyond Rubrik, contributing to safer and stronger communities.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled
Rubrik is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.
Rubrik provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Rubrik complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please contact us at hr@rubrik.com if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.
See All 14 Senior User Researcher Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Senior User Researcher JobsSenior User Researcher Jobs by City in California
Where California roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Senior User Researcher Job Market in California
A snapshot from current California openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software
- Consulting & Professional Services
- Electronics & Hardware
What California Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in senior user researcher jobs across California.
- Bachelor's or master's degree in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, or a related field
- Five or more years of UX or user research experience in a product-driven organization
- Demonstrated ability to design and lead mixed-methods studies independently
- Experience presenting research findings to cross-functional stakeholders and product leadership
- Proficiency with research tools such as UserTesting, Dovetail, Qualtrics, or similar platforms
- Portfolio of research projects showing measurable product or design impact
Senior User Researcher Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a senior user researcher in California?
Senior user researcher roles in California do not require a state-issued license or certification. The typical path is a bachelor's or master's degree in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, psychology, or information science, followed by several years in UX or product research roles. California employers, particularly those in the Bay Area and Los Angeles tech corridors, consistently prioritize a strong portfolio of mixed-methods research work and experience collaborating directly with product and design teams.
Which companies hire senior user researchers in California?
Companies currently hiring senior user researchers in California include Rubrik, Glean Technologies, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), per current listings on Migrate Mate as of July 2026. California's concentration of technology headquarters and health tech firms means senior researchers here often work on products with very large or global user bases.
Which California cities have the most senior user researcher jobs?
The California cities with the most senior user researcher openings are San Francisco, Cupertino, and Palo Alto. The San Francisco Bay Area drives the largest share of demand because of its density of technology headquarters and enterprise software companies, while Los Angeles draws openings from entertainment technology, media, and a growing consumer app ecosystem, and San Diego's health tech and biotech sectors generate consistent research roles tied to clinical and patient-facing products.
Are there remote senior user researcher jobs in California?
Yes, and more than most fields. User research is primarily an analytical and facilitation-based discipline, making remote and hybrid arrangements broadly compatible with the work. About 60% of senior user researcher openings tied to California are remote or hybrid as of July 2026, reflecting how normalized distributed research teams have become across the state's technology sector. The parts of the role most suited to remote work are moderated interviews, survey design, and synthesis, while in-person facilitation of lab studies or stakeholder workshops is more likely to require on-site availability.
How can I get hired as a senior user researcher in California with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is securing an associate or junior UX researcher role at a California technology or health tech company, then building toward senior through demonstrated project ownership. Large Bay Area employers including Salesforce and Adobe run UX research rotational or new-grad programs that accept candidates from HCI and cognitive science programs at UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon's California-affiliated programs. Adjacent roles in product design, customer insights, or data analytics at California companies also provide a lateral route, especially when paired with a portfolio of independent research projects or volunteer usability studies for nonprofits.
Where can I find and apply to senior user researcher jobs in California?
You can find and apply to senior user researcher jobs in California on Migrate Mate, which lists current California openings across technology, health tech, and enterprise software employers. Find roles that fit your experience and apply directly from the listings.
See All 14 Senior User Researcher Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Senior User Researcher Jobs