Overview
User Experience Researcher Jobs in San Francisco, CA at UXR Hunt
Title: User Experience Researcher
Company: UXR Hunt
Location: San Francisco, CA
Senior Qualitative Researcher — AI × Behavioral Health
Vinci Studio
- Freelance / Contract
- Remote (Europe-friendly)
About Vinci Studio
Vinci Studio is an experience design studio for the age of AI. We envision, design, and prototype the products that will define the next decade — shaping the evolving relationship between people and technology. Research is how we understand: not a phase to get through, but the ongoing engine of good decisions. The depth of understanding determines the quality of everything that follows.
We're looking for an extraordinary qualitative researcher to join us on a project where that belief is put to work — in a domain where getting it right genuinely matters.
The project
Our Partner Is a US Behavioral Health Startup Building An AI-driven Platform For Addiction Treatment Centers. Two Products Need Deep Research Before Anything Gets Designed Or Built, And You'll Own The Research Across Both
Study 1 — from August 2026 (evaluative). How does an agentic AI interface land with healthcare operators and executives who've spent their careers in traditional, grid-based tools? You won't just test a stimulus — you'll help create it. The study opens with a design-input phase: reviewing the tools clinics use today, capturing and prioritizing the use cases worth testing, and shaping an interactive concept prototype together with a dedicated prototyper. Then up to ~12 remote interviews with clinical, risk, finance, and leadership roles, followed by synthesis and a recommendation.
Study 2 — early 2027 (generative). Discovery research into the post-treatment recovery journey — the period right after someone leaves care, when relapse risk and isolation are highest. Interviews with people in recovery and the clinicians who support them, to build a durable understanding of unmet needs, independent of any specific solution.
All interviews are remote and timeboxed. Recruiting and scheduling — including all patient participants — are handled by the partner and its clinics. You receive a roster and run the sessions.
What you'll deliver (per study)
- Discussion guides and screening criteria per participant type
- Interviews conducted, recorded, and documented per consent protocol
- Synthesized findings: themes, pain points, behavioral patterns
- A clear, prioritized recommendation — a defensible point of view on which problems to solve first
- A final presentation walking the partner through insights and recommendations, plus one interim readout mid-fieldwork
- Study 1 additionally: a prioritized use-case set and a stimulus brief co-developed with the prototyper
Who we're looking for
- You turn research into a recommendation. Not "here's what we heard," but "here's what it means and here's what I'd do" — with reasoning that holds up in front of executives who push back. This is the core of the role.
- You've worked with sensitive or vulnerable populations. Genuine comfort and care interviewing people in recovery or mental-health contexts; a sound grasp of consent, ethics, and how to support a participant who becomes distressed. Essential.
- You're fluent in AI and agentic products. You understand how agents and companion-style interfaces work — enough to probe reactions to them intelligently. Mandatory.
- You can shape a stimulus, not just test one. You translate use cases into testable concepts, working shoulder-to-shoulder with a designer.
- Strong qualitative craft and storytelling. Generative and evaluative methods, non-leading interviewing, and the ability to turn messy data into a narrative a busy executive can act on.
- A plus: behavioral-health or clinical-adjacent experience; service-design sensibility.
Practical details
- Freelance / contract engagement across two sequenced studies (Study 1 confirmed; Study 2 confirmed closer to its start)
- Fully remote; Europe-based welcome — availability for US business-hours interviews required
- NDA required; participant data handled confidentially and securely, with consent and data-care protocols agreed before fieldwork
- Quotes structured as a flat fee per study (assuming 12 interviews) with a per-interview deduction if the final count is lower
To apply
Send a short intro, your CV or portfolio, and your availability from August to [email protected].
Most importantly: tell us about one project where your research led to a specific, consequential recommendation — what you concluded, what you recommended, and what the team did as a result.
