Experienced Games User Researcher (Brighton UK, Permanent) – Player Research – UK Brighton

At Player Research we want the world to experience brilliant games; ones full of adventure, surprise and intrigue – the ones you can’t put down, and those you talk about for days. Across the world we partner with game development teams to realise their creative visions by providing meaningful insight into how real players experience play. We are the world’s premier partner for games user research. From our Brighton and Montreal studios we design and conduct award‑winning user experience studies for video games: usability testing, expert reviews, engagement diaries, full playthroughs, training courses, accessibility testing… and so much more. We uncover insights that drive game development forward.

As an external research studio we collaborate far and wide: game developers, publishers, platform owners, incubators, indies, and beyond. Around one third of our projects are commissioned by games user research teams inside studios and publishers to extend their reach and capabilities. Hundreds of game development studios rely on our insights into usability, UX, appeal, and play. Our projects come in all shapes and sizes, from testing user interfaces to interviewing super‑fans; game console UI improvement, to toys‑to‑life; AAA full‑playthroughs, discovery research, difficulty balancing, narrative comprehension, and so much more.

Our consultant Researchers are brought into the heart of design decision‑making in projects of all types. Some spanning years of development, some as one‑off studies. We are exceptionally proud of our decade‑long reputation for authenticity, transparency and rigour. And we’d love to make you a part of it. Player Research is an exceptional place to work & grow. Our team is a healthy mix of expert practitioners and academically trained staff, each bringing their unique perspectives; each offering rich insight to our client studios, and one another. We maintain a strong vision of company culture and values: rooted in deeply‑held trust and empathy among peers, deliberate communication, self‑determination, and taking pride in the work we deliver together.

Do you fit the role? You are an experienced games user research specialist, with demonstrable success in research strategy and project management, earned through your ownership of impactful games user research in a commercial setting. You are hungry to implement your battle‑tested instincts to improve the way developers apply research, and to deliver our clients the very best insight and consultative advice. All of our Games User Researchers execute research as part of small, agile teams. Our smoothly run and insightful studies reliably help developers understand their audience and improve game design.

You’re ready to take on the challenges of building research strategies, training of peers, consultative selling of research programmes to high‑level client stakeholders. You want to take a steering role in making our team’s research super effective. You’re passionate about seeing effective research delivered, be that longform or shortform studies. You’re able to consult and plan campaigns of research suitable for complex and high‑profile titles, and to become a trusted ‘single point of contact’ for the decision‑makers and business leaders we work with: helping them map Player Research’s diverse capabilities to their business context. You are ready for a career ‘turbo‑charge’, becoming a world‑class individual contributor for our wide variety of clients making the best games in the world. All toward making unforgettable games through player‑centric development.

Responsibilities include:

• Being our clients’ trusted point‑of‑contact for advice and consultancy, nurturing long‑term, high‑quality client relationships.
• Applying our client‑centric strategy, in partnership with our client Relations team, focusing on meeting client needs through campaigns of research; overseeing how each project matures our clients’ understanding of research, and joining‑up both processes and insights from one project to the next.
• Building research roadmaps and proposals for insightful individual studies, promising extraordinary business and creative value: wowing our clients and winning our pitches.
• Using your initiative to improve our internal processes for the benefit of colleagues and clients.
• Capturing your knowledge in training materials, articles, talks, and mentoring your colleagues.
• Acting as an ambassador, speaking, writing and educating the world on the importance of games user research.
• Designing, scoping, project managing and delivering exceptional games user research, on time and on budget.
• Executing a variety of methods including large lab playtests, usability playtests, writing competitor and expert analyses, remote research studies, desk and secondary research.
• Presenting to clients. Owning the responsibility to effectively embed our findings and player‑centric design philosophy into their development processes.
• Applying continuous improvement of yourself through training, writing, and evaluating video game UX.

Management: You’ll have two managers: a People Manager and a global Head of Research Craft, ensuring your professional and technical growth respectively.

Skills/experience required:

• 4+ years’ commercial User Research experience either in a games or mainstream technology setting OR previous experience in a commercial game development role.
• We are seeking candidates with diverse academic backgrounds, such as human computer interaction (HCI), psychology, interaction design, or product design. Providing that you have the commercial experience, we will review all candidates regardless of university degree (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD) or equivalent industry experience.
• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with a demonstrable experience of building trust and rapport, collaborating effectively and problem solving with confidence.
• Strong commercial acumen with a focus on how to consistently deliver value and positive outcomes into our clients and into Player Research’s commercial strategy.
• Highly collaborative, able to pivot between project leadership, project support, and coaching roles, liaising effectively with your colleagues across our team.
• Expertise in research design and a wealth of experience conducting user research across multiple research methodologies, including research with school‑age children.
• A strong understanding of the game development process, and the role (and limitations of) user research at each development stage.
• Excellent written and verbal communication adaptable to a range of environments and levels within an organisation.
• Good negotiation and influencing skills. Work well with and win‑over our cross‑functional stakeholders, including designers, producers, engineers, artists and studio leadership.

We are pleased to offer visa sponsorship to support international applicants for this role, where they have sufficient relevant experience to be eligible for visas. Please identify on your application whether you have an existing right to work in the UK. To be eligible for a UK visa you need:

• 3+ years industry research experience.
• Professional‑level spoken and written English.

This is a full‑time, permanent role. In mid December we will open further roles for 6 month fixed‑term contracts, if you would like to be considered for fixed‑term roles in addition to full‑time position, please indicate this in your application.

Location and starting:

• For immediate start; we are willing to wait for the right candidate. In order to facilitate playtest lab‑based research, relocation to Brighton (UK) is required. We are pleased to offer financial and operational support for relocation.
• We work hybrid. In‑office time is required as part of in‑person testing, training, and collaborative work. Working from your choice of location – in‑home or from our delightful offices — at all other times. You should expect occasional work on weekends and evenings as part of our research with school‑age children.

Salary, benefits and perks:

• Great salaries, in line with regional games user research pay.
• Generous annual leave allowance.
• Life assurance plan.
• Pension plan.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
• Extra pay for occasional research run on weekends and/or on national holidays.
• Optional subsidised private medical cover.
• Volunteer Time Off (VTO): 1 day per year paid for all employees.
• Relocation support for yourself and family.
• Friendly, inclusive teams with a range of interests and activities to join.

In addition to base salary we include a modest performance‑based annual bonus, based on your personal goals and company commercials.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

We are an equal opportunity employer and strongly value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion (or lack thereof), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, parental status, or disability. Player Research doesn’t simply accept differences — we actively celebrate and support it for the benefit of our job applicants, our employees, our services, and our community.