SENIOR UX RESEARCHER & PRODUCT EXPERIENCE, AI-NATIVE INCUBATOR

We are banking at another level.

Choosing BDC as your employer means working in a healthy, inclusive, and skilled workplace that puts forward the best conditions to bring together unique teams where employees are empowered to act. It also means being at the centre of ambitious economic and financial projects to see further and to do things differently, to fuel the success of Canadian entrepreneurs.

Choosing BDC as your employer also means:

• Flexible and competitive benefits, including an Employee Savings and Investment Plan where BDC matches part of your voluntary contributions, a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, a $750 wellness and health care spending account, to name a few   

• In addition to paid vacation each year, five personal days, sick days as necessary, and our offices are closed from December 25 to January 1

• A hybrid work model that truly balances work and personal life

• Opportunities for learning, training and development, and much more... 

Explore the BDC Way in our Culture Book

Canada is experiencing a period of intense economic and technological change that won't wait for traditional timelines. To adapt, BDC is founding a new AI-native incubator with the mission to discover new ways to support Canadian entrepreneurs and reimagine how BDC works.

At the incubator, our goal isn't to study the future — it's to create it. As part of this ambition, we're recruiting a small team of experienced AI-native builders who will work on a blank canvas to reimagine how banking for small and medium-sized businesses works.

We sit at the intersection of strategy, technology and execution. We work with unusual speed, challenge existing assumptions, and focus on delivering practical outcomes that will meaningfully change how BDC serves entrepreneurs.

You'll be joining a team with strong executive sponsorship and a mandate to experiment, learn quickly, and turn promising ideas into real solutions. Our success won't be measured by how many ideas we generate. It'll be measured by the value we create for employees, clients and Canadian businesses.

POSITION OVERVIEW

We're looking for a senior UX researcher to help us build accessible, innovative and inclusive digital experiences for entrepreneurs. We need someone who will make research something the whole team does, not just one person.

You're passionate, curious, and you genuinely care about users. You own the research program end to end: you plan it, you run it, and you make sure the insights change what we build. But you don't hoard the work. Half the job is doing great research yourself. The other half is coaching the people around you so that everyone on the team is talking to users, not just you.

You'll also work at two speeds. Some weeks you're generating insights on a fast, weekly cycle to keep pace with the product. Other times you're doing the deeper work — questioning our fundamentals and testing them over weeks or months. You'll know which one a given problem needs.

You're a strategic thinker who discovers, interprets, and communicates user data in ways that inspire people to act. If you want to be part of a multidisciplinary design, research, and content team, you've come to the right place.

CHALLENGES TO BE MET

• Help define the vision of our digital products and services through a user-centric lens — the kind that guides real strategic decisions and shapes a shared roadmap.
• Own the UX research practice across the full toolkit: interviews, surveys, usability tests, card sorting, A/B testing, focus groups, heat maps, user journey mapping, heuristic evaluation, competitive analysis, guerrilla testing, co-creation workshops.
• Run the program at two speeds. Fast, weekly discovery cycles that deliver insights when the team needs them — and deeper foundational research that challenges our assumptions and holds up over weeks and months.
• Turn user needs into business opportunities. Take research data and make it land as clear, actionable recommendations that guide designers in co-creating solutions.
• Build a real partnership across design, product development, and architecture so we're all working from the same vision.
• Lead Design Thinking, brainstorming, and strategic planning workshops.
• Build a research culture inside the team. Coach and mentor the people around you, and give them the skills and confidence to talk to users themselves and make research part of how they work every day.
• Provide thought leadership — circulate and promote research knowledge and practices across the organization, and help teams adopt a user-centric mindset.
• Build relationships with other BDC research groups (CX, Market Intelligence, Economics, Voice of the Customer) to share results and find ways to collaborate.
• Contribute to the Design System by making sure research informs decisions on the consistency and effectiveness of components.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• At least 8 years of hands-on UX research experience, and a track record of giving advice that actually improved digital products and services.
• A degree in a field related to behavioral research (psychology, human-centered interactions, user experience design) — or equivalent experience that got you to the same place.
• You've stood up a UX research program across an organization, not just run projects.
• You can coach and level up other people. You know a research culture isn't built by one expert — it's built when everyone feels equipped to talk to users.
• You're comfortable running both fast, continuous research and longer foundational studies, and you can hold both without dropping either.
• You're an outstanding communicator. You share your analysis with enough skill that your recommendations get heard.
• You've worked with AI and new user interaction paradigms.
• Knowledge of the banking or financial world is a nice bonus, not a requirement.

More specifically:

• Creative — in how you think, solve problems, and find your way to solutions.
• Rigorous — you manage your priorities well and you genuinely care about the craft.
• Fully bilingual in French and English — you'll write and present in both, not just understand them.

Proudly one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible environment where all employees can thrive and feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work. If you require an accommodation to complete your application, please do not hesitate to contact us at accessibility@bdc.ca.

While we appreciate all applications, we advise that only the candidates selected to participate in the recruitment process will be contacted.