User Design Specialist

Overview

A Dynamic Opportunity to Shape the Future of Education Research

Join a leading mission-driven organization, partnered with Aquent, dedicated to expanding educational and career opportunities for all. This organization is committed to driving significant change and impact in the face of education’s biggest challenges through its innovative lab. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring that groundbreaking solutions are informed by the voices of those they serve, directly influencing the design and efficacy of programs that touch countless lives. Your expertise will not only streamline critical research processes but also establish ethical and inclusive frameworks that will resonate across the entire organization, leaving a lasting legacy on how impactful educational interventions are developed.

• This is a fully remote role.
• This is a part-time position – 20 hours per week
• This is a temp position expected to last 3-6 months from the start date

We are seeking a highly skilled and passionate individual to serve as a strategic partner across multiple innovation project teams, focused on designing, testing, and scaling bold solutions for students and educators. Your primary focus will be to lead recruitment, advise on best-in-class strategies, and enable high-quality, inclusive research execution. This role requires creative problem-solving and strategic judgment to ethically recruit participants across the student journey—from early childhood to post-secondary education. You will help shape what excellent research operations look like in a mission-driven, experimental context, contributing to the broader culture of evidence-informed design. Beyond direct team support, you will lay the groundwork for building scalable, inclusive, collaborative, and ethical research across the innovation portfolio, developing lightweight, fit-for-purpose processes for participant recruitment, research planning, knowledge management, and tooling.

What You’ll Do:

Own End-to-End Recruitment for Research:

• Lead participant recruitment for a variety of research methods (e.g., interviews, co-design, surveys, usability testing), including screening, informed consent, scheduling, and incentives.
• Draft accessible, plain-language consent and communication materials in collaboration with legal and compliance teams.
• Craft effective screeners and other materials to ensure inclusive and successful sessions.
• Conduct initial screening conversations to ensure individuals are appropriately prepared, informed, and confident in participating in innovative research methods.

Support and Advise Researchers:

• Act as a thought partner to user researchers and service designers, providing guidance on recruitment, logistics, study design, and resource planning.
• Develop and implement inclusive recruitment strategies, especially for underrepresented populations and beyond traditional pathways.
• Advise on recruitment and research practices that balance student privacy and allow for longer-term engagement with communities.
• Streamline and Standardize Research Operations: Identify and implement lightweight, scalable processes that support inclusive, ethical, collaborative, and innovative research across innovation teams.
• Identify gaps or friction in existing research workflows and recommend improvements.
• Establish toolkits, templates, and repeatable processes for recruitment, planning, and data handling.
• Advise on and implement privacy, consent, and data protection procedures aligned with relevant legal standards.

Lay the Groundwork for Long-Term Research Infrastructure:

• Evaluate research tools and vendor platforms (e.g., scheduling, transcription, incentives) and recommend fit-for-purpose solutions.
• Recommend and document sustainable practices that support equitable research at scale.
• Co-design an early iteration of a research repository with innovation designers, including recommended tooling and strategies for scaling and improving.

Must-Have Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in research operations, UX research, or related program management roles.
• Experience in research enablement — creating documentation, templates, and leading internal workshops around best practices.
• Established experience across the research lifecycle, which includes recruiting participants, managing a participant panel, and training teams on how to match participants to studies.
• Experience supporting qualitative and quantitative research methods across multiple teams with distinct products and user needs.
• Experience supporting data collection and analysis: taking notes on qualitative studies, preparing data for analysis.
• Experience with various research and project management tools, including supporting their use and driving decisions on best tools to meet team needs.
• Strong project management and systems design skills; ability to build processes that scale.
• Excellent organizational, collaboration, and communication skills.
• A creative, proactive, entrepreneurial mindset—comfortable bringing new ideas and strategies to improve research practice.
• Deep respect for ethical research practices and user data privacy.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment with shifting priorities.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications:

• Experience working in or with mission-driven organizations, public education, or nonprofits.
• Experience supporting research involving youth, families, or vulnerable populations.
• Experience creating inclusive research frameworks and protocols.
• Experience with or demonstrated interest in creative visual storytelling that brings research to life.

Additionally, all roles within the organization require:

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work.
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal.
• A learner’s mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

The target hiring compensation range for this role is $65 to $75 an hour. Compensation is based on several factors including, but not limited to education, relevant work experience, relevant certifications, and location.

About Aquent Talent:
Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world’s biggest brands.
Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. More information on our awesome benefits!
Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We’re about creating an inclusive environment—one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.

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