Our Purpose
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, weâre helping build a sustainable economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential.
Title and Summary
Experience Research Senior Specialist
OVERVIEW
We are excited to announce a new opportunity for an Experience Research Senior Specialist in our Experience Strategy and Research team, within the Customer Experience and Design team within Mastercard Foundry.
The Mastercard Foundry - an interdisciplinary group, including CXD (Customer Experience and Design) teams, data scientists, technologists and more â is the new product development group of Mastercard, focused on de-risking and delivering new and differentiated customer-centric solutions.
Our Experience Strategy and Research team, within Foundry, leads early-stage product innovation by uncovering customer needs, identifying opportunities, and translating insights into strategic direction for product and business teams. We operate across discovery, problem definition, and concept development, ensuring that new products and experiences are grounded in customer needs, market dynamics, and organizational objectives.
We focus on de-risking key customer, product, and business assumptions throughout the product innovation lifecycle, while fostering a continuous learning culture that drives more informed decisions and accelerates innovation.
ROLE
The Experience Research Senior Specialist is a key member of the team who supports research initiatives that reveal deep customer understanding and de-risk emerging assumptions. This role partners with other experienced researchers and works closely with experience strategists, designers, product managers, and technologists to uncover evidence-based insights that guide product innovation from early discovery through validation of MVP and roadmap assumptions.
The Experience Research Senior Specialist is an individual contributor who will be expected to support the design, execution and synthesis of research across diverse methodologies, including exploratory, generative, and evaluative research. These aim to uncover actionable insights to inform strategic decisions and derisk critical assumptions across the product development lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities:
Research Planning and Execution
o Support the lead researcher or strategist in identifying and prioritizing the riskiest assumptions to subsequently de-risk
o Support in choosing the optimal research approach and methodology to de-risk priority assumptions, taking into consideration business needs and project phase
o Aid in the design and conducting of rigorous, mixed-methods research studies to uncover customer needs, motivations, behaviours, and pain points, across all phases of the product development lifecycle -- from framing the problem to testing and iterating concepts.
o Help the lead researcher or strategist in defining research plans, goals and objectives, and develop recruitment screeners, discussion guides and surveys focused on testing assumptions, and informing actionable product and business decisions
o Support in the partnering with third-party vendors to execute and scale research plans as needed.
Analysis and Presenting Insights/Recommendations
o Aid in the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative data into clear insights, opportunity areas, and actionable recommendations that inform product and business strategy.
o Support the communication of research findings through compelling storytelling, presentations, and reports to senior stakeholders.
Informing strategic outputs and outcomes
o Collaborate closely with other researchers and strategists to translate insights into strategic frameworks, value propositions, and MVP hypotheses.
o Support the planning and facilitation of cross-functional design thinking workshops
Collaboration and Inclusivity
o Collaborate with the CX team to support the design of optimal testing stimuli based on research needs.
o Contribute to a collaborative and inclusive environment, where diverse perspectives shape research questions.
o Help the team to champion a research-driven culture within the organization by sharing knowledge and advocating for user-centred decision making.
Adaptability and Organization
o Support in adapting research approaches and plans based on new learnings and business constraints.
o Support multiple research projects simultaneously in a fast paced, dynamic environment.
o Continuously learn and experiment with new tools and methodologies, and contribute to evolving best practices.
Curiosity for Cultural, Tech, Research Trends
o Utilize your curiosity for cultural and technology trends to help the team identify opportunities for innovation.
o Learn about emerging research methodologies, tools, and best practices to continuously improve research rigor and impact.
ALL ABOUT YOU
You are observant, curious, and passionate about collaborating with others to build customer-centric solutions. You combine analytical rigor with empathy for customers and thrive on turning complexity into clarity. You are a practitioner and a thought partner who helps teams make smarter, faster, and more informed product decisions.
Must-have:
o 4 yearsâ+ experience in user experience research, market research, behavioral research, or related fields within innovation-driven organizations.
o Proven experience in a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods including ethnography, contextual inquiry, usability testing, surveys, analytics interpretation, and experimental design.
o Experience in synthesizing complex data sets and translating research findings into clear, actionable insights that influence product and business strategy.
o Familiarity with product development lifecycles, MVP concept testing, and iterative design processes.
o Storytelling and communication skills, with experience presenting research findings to diverse audiences.
Nice-to-have:
o Degree in a research-related field, for example, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Behavioral Economics, Marketing, etc.
o Curious about AND/OR direct experience with the following areas â payments, financial technology, business analytics, small business, digital identity, marketplaces, loyalty, and beyond.
o A collaborative and inclusive team player.
o Passionate about improving the world through âdoing well by doing goodâ.
Some practicalities:
o This is a hybrid role, and you must be able to attend the local office (Toronto, Canada) an average of 3 days a week.
Mastercard is a merit-based, inclusive, equal opportunity employer that considers applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We hire the most qualified candidate for the role. In the US or Canada, if you require accommodations or assistance to complete the online application process or during the recruitment process, please contact reasonable_accommodation@mastercard.com and identify the type of accommodation or assistance you are requesting. Do not include any medical or health information in this email. The Reasonable Accommodations team will respond to your email promptly.
Corporate Security Responsibility
All activities involving access to Mastercard assets, information, and networks comes with an inherent risk to the organization and, therefore, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, Mastercard is responsible for information security and must:
Abide by Mastercardâs security policies and practices;
Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;
Report any suspected information security violation or breach, and
Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with Mastercardâs guidelines.
In line with Mastercardâs total compensation philosophy and assuming that the job will be performed in Canada, the successful candidate will be offered a competitive pay based on location, experience and other qualifications for the role and may be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program. This posting reflects one or more current openings on our team.
Pay Ranges
Toronto, Canada: $83,000 - $132,000 CAD