Senior UX Researcher

At Rovio you will get to work with multiple groundbreaking IP’s including one of the most famous game IP’s in the world: Angry Birds! We craft joy with player-focused gaming experiences that last for decades. In order to do that, we know that people need to bring their own joy to what we do. That’s why we value work-life balance, say no to crunch culture, and welcome people from all walks of life to join the flock. Today, we are a proud team of 500+ caring and talented professionals representing over 50 different nations.

We trust our teams to work autonomously by providing them the right tools and level of responsibility. We believe in our teams to remain creative and to keep learning – as well as ensuring everyone has opportunities for personal growth.

We’re looking for a Senior UX Researcher to join our research team to support our games in the Puzzle studio.

As a Senior UX Researcher at Rovio you will leverage your passion for mobile puzzle games and user research skills to help game teams understand their audience and enable them create the most intuitive, accessible, user friendly and engaging games in the mobile gaming industry.

In this role you will have the opportunity to work on both our live games as well as new games. You will focus on helping product teams answer the most challenging questions they face around design and target audience.

Through player insight you will influence and inspire positive change at all stages of the game development from concept into live-ops by conducting qualitative and quantitative research and delivering findings to stakeholders through workshops, collaboration, presentations, and documentation.

The players’ experience comes first at Rovio, so in this critical role your job as a Senior UX researcher is to drive a players first mindset by championing the user and being the voice of the player. Ultimately your role will enable game teams to acknowledge both business and player needs and define their target audience through understanding player experience, expectations and motivations.

You will have impact and fun at work by doing:

• Hands-on Mixed-method Research: Plan, coordinate, manage and carry out studies using various research methodologies, including qualitative, quantitative or any mixed approach that you consider the best-fit for the current need.
• Full Lifecycle Support: Work closely with the development and marketing teams throughout the life cycle of games, from concept and prototype to post-launch and live-ops. Understand their design intentions, define the research goals and carry out research projects on a continuous, iterative basis.
• User-centric Mindset in Games: Be a strong voice advocating for the players and drive player-focused decisions throughout game development and marketing with actionable insights in player experience, needs and motivations, usability, competitor benchmarking, game economy, etc.
• Cross-team Communication & Collaboration: Be the key point of contact and resident expert on all user research matters for your partner development teams. Collaborate across different function teams when needed, including but not limited to marketing, BI, art, UX/UI design, game design, community, player support, etc.

Experience and skills we are looking for:

• Several years of past experience working in a UX Research role in a business environment with experience of integrating user research into design and actionable product improvements.
• A degree or equivalent work experience in human computer interaction (HCI), psychology, interaction design, or product design or related field.
• Vast experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods such as one-on-one interviews, playtesting, focus groups, surveys, benchmarking, behavioural analytics, and basic statistical data analysis methods.
• Deep knowledge and passion for gaming and a good understanding of player motivations. Experience with casual games is an advantage.
• A proactive attitude to push forward product insights to key stakeholders and an ability to translate findings into actionable product improvements
• Great communication skills, both written and verbal
• Great organisational, project management and analytical skills
• Experience in collaborating with cross-functional teams including partnering with business intelligence and data scientists for data exchange

Interview process:

• First meeting: A TA Partner will reach out for a quick chat to understand who you are and what your experience has been. This is also an opportunity for you to learn about Rovio and this role.
• Second round: You will meet the hiring manager, UXR team lead. The aim is for us to understand you as a potential game UX researcher, what your experience has been and what motivates you. After this interview, you will do an exercise to complete in your own time.
• Third round: You will be invited to meet some of the team members and present your findings. Our aim is to get a clear overview of your skills, how you would fit with our working culture or what you would add to it, your ambitions and where we can help each other develop.
• Last round: You will meet the studio lead from our Puzzle studio and/or game team lead(s) separately. Our aim is to create an opportunity for you and the studios to learn more about each other.

Please submit your CV and be ready to complete a test showcasing your skills during the interview process. If you have any portfolio showcasing strong examples of research work, please kindly send along when you apply.

We welcome applicants to use the name they want to be addressed by in the application form, regardless of whether it is their legal name.