Lead User Experience Researcher in Toronto

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

The Lead User Experience (UX) Researcher helps digital and business teams understand clients, uncover opportunities, and make confident experience decisions. You will both drive efficiency across our research practice, as well as lead discovery research for ambiguous, open-ended challenges, connecting evidence across journeys, products, and client needs. You will partner with executives, stakeholders, designers, and product teams to frame the right questions, translate evidence into clear implications.

In this role you will:

• Strategic Discovery & Research
  • Lead discovery research for holistic, ambiguous, or open-ended challenges, from framing through synthesis and activation.
  • Use systems thinking to connect client needs, journeys, products, channels, and organizational factors.
  • Design fit-for-purpose research, combining qualitative, quantitative, participatory, or innovative methods as needed.
  • Proactively partner with executives and stakeholders to clarify questions, challenge assumptions, and align research to decisions.
  • Turn complex evidence into clear insights, opportunity spaces, and recommendations that shape UX strategy and priorities.
  • Facilitate internal workshops to extract priorities, align on direction and client 'so-what' and communicate findings with clarity, confidence, and appropriate evidence limitations.
  • Build and influence research roadmaps, helping teams prioritize the highest-value questions.
  • Connect client evidence to business outcomes, investment decisions, and strategic priorities.
  • Advance the maturity of the research practice by evolving methods, standards, governance, and ways of working.
• Research Enablement
  • Administer research tools, templates, and repositories so evidence is easy to capture, find, reuse, and connect across and beyond the UXR team.
  • Own the AI layer of the practice. Assisted synthesis and search across a governed evidence corpus, with the guardrails and quality checks that keep the outputs trustworthy rather than merely fast.
  • Build and run the enablement programme: curriculum, templates, coaching that let designers and product partners run sound research to our standard and with our review, extending capacity without extending headcount.

Do you have the skills that will enable you to succeed in this role? We'd love to work with you if you have:

• 7+ years of experience in UX research, design research, service design, or an adjacent insight or strategy role.
• Experience in financial services, regulated industries, or adjacent complex service environments is preferred.
• Demonstrated success leading discovery research for complex or ambiguous questions and translating evidence into strategic direction.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders, shape strategic decisions, and drive action through research.
• Hands-on experience with recruitment, incentives, research tools, repositories, surveys, and research reporting.
• Strong systems thinking, synthesis, facilitation, storytelling, and stakeholder partnership skills.
• A growth mindset, proactive approach, and strategic outlook, with the curiosity and confidence to navigate uncertainty and improve how research gets done.

What's in it for you?

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Allyship - We strive to create an inclusive culture where every employee is empowered to reach their fullest potential, respected for who they are, and are embraced through bias-free practices and inclusive values across Scotiabank.
• Accessibility and Workplace Accommodations - We value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.
• Upskilling through online courses, cross-functional development opportunities, and tuition assistance.
• Competitive Rewards program including bonus, flexible vacation, personal, sick days and benefits will start on day one.
• Community Engagement - no matter where you choose to work from; we offer opportunities for community engagement & belonging with our various programs such as hackathons, contests, Humans of Digital and much more!

Location(s): Canada : Ontario : Toronto

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.

If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our Recruitment team know. We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.