Senior UX Researcher (Mercari Marketplace)

Location: Minato City, Tokyo, Japan; hybrid work with an office in Roppongi

Company

hirify.global operates a marketplace app designed to circulate value and connect people through technology.

What you will do

• Lead end-to-end UX research for new business concepts, from framing research questions and selecting methods to managing timelines and presenting findings.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative research, including interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, usability testing, surveys, analytics, concept validation, and A/B testing.
• Plan international and cross-cultural research across markets such as the US and Asia-Pacific, translating findings into market, product, and business recommendations.
• Partner with product, design, marketing, business development, and senior stakeholders to influence product strategy, go/no-go decisions, and market entry decisions.
• Build research operations, repositories, market databases, competitive intelligence systems, playbooks, and scalable insight-sharing frameworks.
• Explore AI applications across research planning, recruitment, analysis, synthesis, visualization, and reporting while maintaining research rigor.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of UX research experience with a track record of independently leading research initiatives.
• Experience conducting strategic research that influenced business decisions or product strategy.
• Strong expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods, including interviews, ethnography, usability testing, surveys, analytics, concept validation, and A/B testing.
• Hands-on international or cross-cultural field research experience across multiple countries or cultures.
• Experience with research operations, repositories, planning frameworks, voice-of-customer programs, or scaling research across teams.
• Professional/executive English proficiency at C1 level is required. Experience with AI research tools and platforms such as UserTesting, Maze, or Qualtrics is also required.

Nice to have

• Experience with new market exploration, business model validation, ecommerce, or marketplace products.
• Japanese language skills for stakeholder communication and research moderation.
• Mandarin or Cantonese language skills for research in Asia-Pacific markets.
• Experience with emerging categories such as gaming, entertainment, creator economy, or Web3/blockchain.
• Experience in startups or scale-ups and familiarity with R, Python, Tableau, or Looker.

Culture & Benefits

• Full flextime with no core working hours.
• Hybrid work arrangement based around the Roppongi office.
• Collaboration with international and cross-functional product, design, research, engineering, and business teams.
• Opportunity to contribute to hirify.global-wide UX research practices, frameworks, and knowledge sharing.
• Inclusive hiring practices focused on equal opportunity and diverse backgrounds.

Hiring process

• Application screening.
• Potential skills assessment, followed by interviews; the number of interviews depends on the position.
• Reference check around the final interview, followed by an offer decision.