Senior Design Researcher - Accessibility

Company Description
Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.
Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora,你好, hallo, vítejte!
Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.
Where and how you can work
Our flagship campus is in Sydney. We also have a campus in Melbourne and co-working spaces in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. But you have choice in where and how you work. That means if you want to do your thing in the office (if you're near one), at home or a bit of both, it's up to you.
What you'd be doing in this role
As Canva scales change continues to be part of our DNA. But we like to think that's all part of the fun. So this will give you the flavour of the type of things you'll be working on when you start, but this will likely evolve.
Job Description
The Team
At Canva, our users are at the heart of everything we do. Our UX Research team plays a vital role in the vision and success of our company. One of the best things about Canva is how much everyone across the business cares about users and improving their experience - you'll never have to sell anyone on the value of user research.
Our team conducts qualitative and quantitative research to inform design decisions, product strategies, and identify opportunities. We believe that research findings are most powerful when they're out of reports, and actively being applied and used by product teams. Researchers partner with PMs, designers, engineers, and marketers to help them better understand Canva's multi-faceted user base, solve complex challenges, and improve the product experience for millions of users worldwide.
Our research team is diverse, collaborative, and supportive. We each bring unique strengths and interests to the group and encourage each other to grow in our craft every day.
The Supergroup
Product Platform supergroup is in its second year as a collective with a shared mission to “Build pathways that empower Canva to deliver a delightful experience for billions of users”.
The supergroup is made up of two core Groups:

• Application Platform focuses on backend services that empower Canvanauts to deliver delightful Product features easily, quickly and safely (APIs, Security, CMS, User permissions and settings)
• Client Platform: Ensures a delightful experience for every user on every device through frontend systems and tooling (Design Systems, Accessibility, Internationalisation, Native apps, Performance).

The Group
Client Platform and its subgroup, UX Platform is home to Canva's Accessibility (a11y) team, as well as Design System (Easel) and Internationalisation (i18n) teams, with a shared mission to “Inspire and drive world-class, equitable, and inclusive user experiences”.
The Accessibility team is working on a range of initiatives across the Canva platform as a part of the company-wide strategy, Ultra Inclusive “Make Canva an ultra inclusive and equitable experience for all”, including empowering Canva users to navigate and design in Canva using a screen-reader/ keyboard/voice and using the power of AI to leapfrog our a11y journey.
About You
We are searching for an experienced Lead UX Researcher to help us define the design direction and product strategy for our Accessibility team and accessibility initiatives across Canva. Research projects you'll oversee directly tie to Canva's company-wide goals, so increasing user understanding and identifying key product opportunities is of critical importance.
Your sphere of ownership covers:

• Supporting user feedback and testing for Accessibility product features. E.g. Accessible editing discovery and validation - users can create an accessible design end-to-end
• Managing/triaging/promoting user interviews via Fable
• Accessibility compliance benchmarking
• Creating visibility of emerging needs / requirements for inclusive and accessible considerations across single-user, education and enterprise customers
• Competitive and complementary landscape audits of design tools across the industry
• …plus more!

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead high-priority research projects for the Accessibility team including

• Product audit of critical paths which establishes a benchmark for Accessibility across Canva's product features and offerings
• Acquire interviews / demos with disabled customers and manage/triage into Fable's repository
• Competitive and complementary landscape audits that help inform product features
• Support the Accessibility team with insights that will help shape Canva's State of Accessibility of Design Tools publication
• Apply a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze user or product data and distill this into written and visual reports.
• Build relationships and closely collaborate with your project stakeholders, and across the Supergroup
• Participate and contribute to our UX Research sub-specialty: own or contribute to special projects, provide feedback to fellow researchers, share your ideas for how we can improve
• Provide consultative guidance to PMs and Designers conducting their own research, within the Product Platform Supergroup (e.g. office hours)
• Be a champion for our users, and product experience: share your insights publicly across the company and inspire change that needs to be made to improve the Canva user experience.
• Be a role model for the quality of research work we strive for at Canva

Desired Experience & Skills

• Experience (or subject matter expertise) in conducting research with users with a disability in testing inclusive product experiences
• Highly experienced with qualitative and quantitative research methods

• Deep expertise in defining quantitative metrics to assess quality (and/or user experience)
• A systems thinker and go-getter: has experience developing programs of research from the ground up
• Experience working with product teams
• Experience collaborating closely with engineering teams / data
• Experience conducting programs of research at scale
• Pragmatism. You know when to move quickly to get something delivered, and when rigour is truly needed
• Problem-first mindset. You're obsessed with identifying gaps/opportunities and enjoy deeply investigating ambiguous problems.
• Growth Mindset. You're eager to learn and develop your skills whilst having fun along the way!
• Able to share back findings in a clearly and compelling manner (like all researchers)

Additional Information
What's in it for you?
Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a stack of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.
Here's a taste of what's on offer:

• Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more
• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.
Other stuff to know
We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.
Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.