Nielsen Norman Group is hiring usability specialists (both experienced and entry-level). For more information, please see the complete job description at:
> http://www.nngroup.com/about/jobs.html
Job Openings
Nielsen Norman Group is hiring usability specialists. We currently have job openings at two levels (see details for each further down this page):
Entry-level (fresh out of university or less than 2 years’ work experience)
Experienced (several years experience as a full-time usability specialist)
Our ideal profile is as follows:
Master’s degree in human factors or HCI (though we have also hired people with Ph.D. or bachelor’s degrees).
Experience working as a full-time professional, dedicated usability specialist in a big company’s development organization.
This means being the person who actually conducts user testing for their team. We don’t want people who don’t personally do user testing as their professional focus. Candidates should have experience actually running user tests in support of big design projects.
Location:
We hire people based anywhere in the continental United States, and we are particularly looking for people to join our New York-area (or other East Coast) team. These jobs are well-suited for people who live in remote suburbs because our people work from home and only rarely have to commute.
While you work from home most days, these jobs require travel, both within the U.S. and internationally.
NN/g is a bureaucracy-free organization: your focus is on excellence in the usability profession, not on paperwork or office politics.
These are mainly full-time positions (with benefits), but since we have no rules, we can do part-time if you prefer.
Entry-Level Usability Specialist
Experience:
This is for people who are either
just about to graduate from university, or
graduated recently (within the last 1-2 years) and have spent the time since graduation in a job somewhat associated with usability, such as interaction design, graphic design, information architecture, GUI development, online writing, Internet marketing, website analytics, or SEO
It’s nice if you have a degree in human factors, human-computer interaction, or interactive media, but we don’t require this. We will use the next several years to train you in the correct way to do usability and all the details of how to conduct valid user testing.
The main job is to learn how to do usability so well that you will rise above entry level and become a senior member of staff on the world’s most elite team of usability experts.
One of the greatest benefits of this job is that you will be closely mentored by the best experts in the business. You learn more in less time than you would in any other company, because of the diversity of assignments, the excellence of the team, and the power of using the most accurate user research methods.
Skills:
Extremely smart, ability to quickly grasp new situations, ability to synthesize large amounts of information
High productivity, strong work ethics, commitment to meeting deadlines
Highly self-motivating and able to work without supervision, since this is a work-from-home position
Excellent presentation skills in spoken English
Excellent writer, superb written-English communications skills
(Ability to conduct user testing in other languages a plus, but not required)
Knowledge of the principles of human-computer interaction
Passion for usability and making things easy to use
Job Duties:
User testing, mainly qualitative, but also some benchmark and measurement studies
Writing reports, editing highlights videos
Travel (domestic and international) to user research sites, client locations, conference venues, etc.
Gradually taking on more advanced assignments, such as those listed for experienced staff below (e.g. complex user research, public speaking, working with clients)
See bottom of this page for how to apply for the job.
Experienced Usability Specialist
Experience:
This is for people who have held positions as full-time dedicated usability professionals for several years, mainly in big companies with professional design & development teams, where they were the team member who actually conducted the user testing. It’s preferable if you have experience testing a range of websites and other user interface designs.
We don’t specify an exact number of years’ experience, because somebody who runs a user test every week builds experience much faster than somebody who only runs a test every few months. The more actual testing you have done with real users, the better.
Educational background is irrelevant at this level: we assume that you have learned everything you need to know from working on projects with high-quality colleagues in a professionally-managed user experience department and from observing the behavior of your test users.
Skills:
Extremely smart, ability to quickly grasp new situations, ability to synthesize large amounts of information
High productivity, strong work ethics, commitment to meeting deadlines
Highly self-motivating and able to work without supervision, since this is a work-from-home position
Excellent presentation skills in spoken English
Excellent writer, superb written-English communications skills
(Ability to conduct user testing in other languages a plus, but not required)
Expertise with the main usability methods, especially qualitative user testing (mainly using think-aloud) and paper prototyping
Deep knowledge of the principles of human-computer interaction, as well as familiarity with main user experience issues such as interaction design, IA, writing for the Web, and SEO
Passion for usability and making things easy to use
Job Duties:
User testing, mainly qualitative, but also some benchmark and measurement studies
Other forms of user research, such as field studies
Writing reports, editing highlights videos
Conducting design reviews for consulting clients
Presenting findings to clients
Running workshops for clients
Working with clients in small and large teams
Conducting independent research to discover new usability guidelines
Public speaking: presenting tutorials and seminars at conferences or at client sites
Travel (domestic and international) to user research sites, client locations, conference venues, etc.
Mentoring entry-level staff
See bottom of this page for how to apply for the job.
How to Apply
To apply for either of these positions, send your resume and a writing sample (a document or article you have written yourself; a usability report if possible) with a short cover letter to Susan Pernice at jobs@nngroup.com
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