UX Design Researcher at Arifu

Arifu, a high-growth edtech company in Nairobi, is looking to recruit an insightful UX Design Researcher to lead a hands-on research and design agenda guiding product innovation and realize a bold vision of placing a smart personal learning assistant in everyone’s hands across Africa and globally. This is a full-time position with equity participation based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi.

The UX Design Researcher will work closely with learning designers, product managers, sales teams, and data scientists to discover insights and turn them into product innovations that improve the user experience for both our learners and partners.

Job Description:

The UX Design Researcher will report directly to the Director of Research and be responsible for:

• Developing and executing a user experience research program that delivers continuous insights to product and management teams to fuel product development and project design;
• Conduct user research and devise product testing strategies to use across segments of our actual and potential learner base to deepen our understanding of user needs, behavior, and the value they derive from the Arifu solution using ethnographic methods, participatory design, and prototype testing;
• Engaging partners—content providers, distributors, researchers—and industry experts including people at large banks, mobile operators, iNGOs, and others in structured interviews to identify opportunities for increasing the ROI of Arifu platform and content services;
• Collaborating with a growing team of exceptional researchers, data analysts, and product managers to translate the research-based insights into actionable recommendations;
• Participating in sprints with cross-functional teams to design user journeys and feature flows across our smartphone and basic phone presence based on your insights, recommendations, and other analysis;
• Building internal systems for compiling our growing knowledge base and making it accessible across teams;
• Maintaining strong project management capabilities with planning, communicating, documenting, and tracking milestones and results;
• Contributing to Arifu’s external thought leadership by sharing the interesting discoveries coming out of your research through blogs and speaking engagements;
• Actively participating in community events, trade meetups, and industry workshops in Nairobi and globally.

Qualifications:

A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

• 3-5+ years of professional experience in a product research and design capacity preferably with low-income populations in East Africa;
• Minimum Bachelor-level degree. Masters degree preferred;
• Experience conducting HCD and qualitative research with working knowledge of effective research methodologies suitable for low-income audiences.
• Experience developing and administering usability tests and prototyping to inform effective design recommendations;
• Quantitative research skills and ability to work with R or STATA will be advantageous but not essential;
• Fluency in English required and fluency in Swahili preferred;
• Innate curiosity, measured skepticism, and a desire to find answers to the difficult “Why’s”;
• Ability to enjoy (and survive) the chaos of an early stage company.

Compensation and Benefits:

First and foremost, we care about your success and will support you along your journey to achieving remarkable success. We offer competitive compensation packages with the opportunity to participate in the Arifu Rewards Program that rewards strong performance. We also offer a comprehensive health insurance package and will cover the cost of a work permit for foreign staff. Other benefits include monthly airtime allowance, extra leave, a stocked kitchen, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball.