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Description

Join us in shaping the future of Amazon's revolutionary products! As a Principal Cultural Researcher on the Futures Insights team, which is part of Amazon's Devices and Services Design Group, you'll play a pivotal role in influencing mid-to-long term strategic planning for next-generation and net-new device and service innovations. Your research, which starts at Phase Zero, will help the organization situate emerging technologies within a deep understanding of enduring and emerging human needs, cultural trends, and broader systems (e.g., STEEP analysis). Our work begins at the start of the design process, identifying insights and opportunities to drive humanity-centered innovation throughout. We collaborate with a variety of teams and functions in our work, driving efforts that are at times embedded within futures concept explorations or independent of them.

We recognize that the combination of skills and experience required to do this work can take many forms. Maybe you're a design ethnographer, cultural anthropologist, futures researcher, strategic foresight analyst, design strategist, or user experience researcher with deep experience in the 0-1 product space? Either way, we'd love to hear from you if this role sounds exciting. This role is currently based in our Seattle studio.

Key job responsibilities

* Independently plan and execute global, in-field research programs on topics of strategic relevance to the organization, leading the output and activities of the project's lifecycle (e.g., screener development to final insight reports)

* Translate insights into inspiring design guidance (e.g., design directions, principles, scenarios), strategic frameworks, and other operational criteria aligned to business goals to drive adoption of the work

* Drive the development and scaling of mechanisms to help the team operationalize and optimize how we execute, socialize, and drive adoption of strategic cultural insights and trends work across multiple organizations and executive leaders within the Devices & Services leadership team

* Collaborate with Futures Design and other key partners to inform and shape mid-to-long term concept development and innovation roadmaps

* Help leadership determine the right research questions to ask, informing long-term research roadmaps that align with business strategy and goals

* Persuade decision-makers at all levels of the organization to take aligned action on research findings

* Define, invent, and execute research methods appropriate to the questions at hand, including but not limited to ethnographic, foresight, and survey techniques

* Act as a subject matter expert within the UXR team and the broader researcher community, mentoring researchers and helping to elevate their work, where necessary

A day in the life

In this role, you'll dive deep into understanding human needs, behaviors, motivations, and sociocultural trends to inform futures design explorations or broader organizational strategy. Your work will consist of two major types:

1) embedded within a cross-disciplinary team exploring new concepts (3-5 years out) and

2) driving independent foundational research programs around themes of strategic relevance to the organization.

To that end, your day-to-day might consist of:

* Closely partnering with the Futures Design team to shape concept development and innovation roadmaps.

* Leading in-home customer interviews in Brazil, talking to academic experts about social robotics, or exploring the fringes of cultures for emerging signals and trends.

* Creating the artifacts necessary to plan and deliver insights (e.g., screeners, discussion guides, insights reports), as well as artifacts and activities necessary to help activate them.

* Planning and facilitating workshops to help teams immerse in and design with the insights surfaced by your work.

* Working with the Head of Futures Insights and Futures Design leaders to invent new and optimize existing mechanisms to help the team execute global research faster and scale its outputs across multiple organizations across the Devices and Services organization.

About the team

The Futures Insights team is a research team within a larger user experience research (UXR) team inside Amazon's Devices and Services Design group. Our team is split across our Seattle and London studios. We draw on a variety of methods and disciplines to inform our work: strategic foresight, cultural analysis, ethnography, and design research methods. The Devices and Services UXR team is a collaborative group of ethnographers, psychologists, human factors researchers, and research scientists dedicated to providing deep insights into customer motivations and behaviors. The broader team's research supports multiple time horizons, with product line research teams influencing existing roadmaps and Futures Insights shaping the furthest out time horizons. Collectively, we work closely with the business and design to clarify opportunities, inspire innovation, and translate insights into operational outcomes.

Basic Qualifications

* 10+ years of field research with a focus on early, generative research that informs long-term business strategy, ideally in the digital products and services industry

* A portfolio that illustrates how your research has informed strategic decision-making, with a focus on innovation initiatives

* Ability to independently drive multiple concurrent projects in an agile environment

* Working knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods, with deep expertise in ethnographic, semiotic, co-design, or other qualitative-led design research methods

* Excellent written communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills; the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences and varying levels of the organization

* Experience translating and creatively activating insights via design principles, strategic frameworks, scenarios, design provocations, workshops, or other similar approaches

* Strategic, business-building approach to research with a proven capacity for translating data into bottom-line impact

* Experience planning and executing international, in-context, in-person research (e.g., home, workplace, office)

* Ability to travel, including internationally, as needed to conduct research, collaborate with partners and teammates

* BA in Anthropology, Design Research, Sociology, Media and Cultural Studies, or a related field

Preferred Qualifications

* Passion for understanding and applying the latest learnings and innovations in social and behavioral science, research methods, and design

* Demonstrated ability to balance human needs with business needs, translating insights into inspiring design guidance and strategic business impact

* Ability to handle high complexity and ambiguity in research questions and ways of working

* Experience systematically weaving research insights into ideation and design sprint processes

* Ability to plan and comfortably facilitate workshops and other collaborative working sessions with cross-functional partners to help activate the work

* Experience with emerging technologies (e.g., AI, XR, etc.) and multi-modal device interaction (e.g., touch, voice, and mediated control)

* Strong design acumen and comfort working with design tools to create research outputs (e.g., Figma-based presentations, trend reports) and activation materials (e.g., scenarios, design prompt cards)

* Experience with futures or foresight-focused methodologies and frameworks, like STEEP analysis, the Futures Triangle, Scenario development, Causal Layer Analysis, etc.

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay for this position ranges from $163,000/year in our lowest geographic market up to $269,500/year in our highest geographic market. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Amazon is a total compensation company. Dependent on the position offered, equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.aboutamazon.com/workplace/employee-benefits . This position will remain posted until filled. Applicants should apply via our internal or external career site.