Senior UX Researcher, Qualitative at Suno in Los Angeles

Job description

• Application
• For most people, making music has always felt out of reach. Suno is changing that, and mobile is where that change will happen for the majority of people.
• We are looking for a Senior Qualitative UX Researcher to own the deepest questions about the people we haven't reached yet. Not the users who already know what a stem is, but the ones who open the app with no idea what's possible and no vocabulary for what they want. Understanding how creative confidence gets built, across a very wide range of ages and levels of experience, is one of the highest-leverage research problems at the company right now.
• You'll be the research partner to the PM and designer leading mobile create, co-located with them in LA, working on the same problems at the same time. You'll also work alongside our researcher covering rapid mobile evaluation, so that fast usability signal and deep foundational understanding feed each other rather than competing for your calendar.
• This is a senior individual contributor role. You will not be handed a research roadmap. You'll build one, argue for it, and change your mind in public when the data says you were wrong.

Responsibilities

• Own the foundational research agenda for mobile create - Define and run the generative studies that shape where the product goes: ethnography, diary and longitudinal studies, in-context observation, concept work. Decide what's worth studying, and say no to what won't change a decision.
• Research the full range of new creators - Design and moderate research with participants across a wide age range, including early childhood and early elementary ages, using developmentally appropriate methods for pre-readers and early readers. Set the standard for participant care, guardian consent, and assent.
• Go where the creating happens - Lead in-person and in-field research, including in-home sessions and sessions with more than one participant at once, such as household and family settings. Some of the most important behavior here will never show up in a remote unmoderated test.
• Be a true partner, not a service desk - Sit with the mobile create PM, designer, and engineers as decisions are being made. Bring user signal early enough to change the shape of the work, not late enough to only validate it.
• Turn findings into things the org keeps using - Segmentations, journey and jobs-to-be-done frameworks, opportunity maps, design principles that outlive any single launch and get cited in rooms you're not in.
• Connect qual to the numbers - Pair depth with survey and behavioral data. Work with data science as a peer to size what you find, and with growth partners to translate insight into acquisition, onboarding, and retention bets.
• Raise the craft bar - Mentor, review study designs, and unblock other researchers. This is an IC role with real influence, not a management track.

Requirements

• Someone who would have started something themselves if they hadn't found a problem this good:
• 7+ years of industry UX research experience, with deep specialization in qualitative methods and consumer mobile products
• A track record of research that shifted strategy, not just UI. You can name the roadmap decisions, product bets, or reversals your work drove
• Experience designing and moderating research with participants across a very wide age range, including early childhood and early elementary ages, using developmentally appropriate methods for pre-readers and early readers
• Experience running in-person research with families, including in-home and in-context sessions, sessions with more than one participant at a time, and the consent and assent workflows that come with them
• Rigorous methodological judgment and the range to match method to question rather than reaching for the same study every time
• Sound instincts about ethics and participant comfort with people who are not professional research subjects
• Fluency with quantitative data. You can read an experiment readout, design a survey that holds up, and hold your own with a data scientist
• Genuinely self-directed. You find the important question before anyone assigns it, and you have a high tolerance for ambiguity, shifting priorities, and moving faster than feels comfortable
• The ability to influence senior stakeholders without authority, and to hold a position when the room disagrees
• Excited by consumer products, creativity, music, and AI, and by the idea that the interaction patterns for this category don't exist yet
• PhD in HCI, Human-Centered Computing, Psychology, Learning Sciences, or a related field, combined with real industry experience. We're specifically looking for people who have both the methodological depth of research training and the pragmatism of shipping under deadline
• Startup experience, especially as the first or only researcher, or as a founder. Even with a research team around you, this role runs on ownership rather than process
• Experience in sensitive product areas such as safety, trust, or wellbeing
• Background in consumer mobile in audio, music, or social
• Experience researching AI and generative products, where user mental models are still forming
• You know of a good UX research lab or in-person session space in LA that we could use, and bonus points if you've worked out of it
• Bonus points if you've used Suno to make music

Skills

Required

• Qualitative research methods
• Consumer mobile products
• In-person research with families
• In-home and in-context sessions
• Consent and assent workflows
• Rigorous methodological judgment
• Ethics and participant comfort
• Quantitative data fluency
• Self-directed
• Hold a position when the room disagrees

Preferred

• Experience using Suno

Benefits

• Company Equity Package
• 401(k) with 3% Employer Match & Roth 401(k)
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance (PPO w/ HSA & FSA options)
• 11 Paid Holidays + Unlimited PTO & Sick Time
• 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Creative Education Stipend
• Generous Commuter Allowance
• In-Office Lunch (5 days per week)
• The annual salary range for this role is $176K-$220K (before equity)