Skillenai

user research jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills

As of 2026-11-04, user research appears in 2,868 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Product Manager has the most postings mentioning user research.

Last updated · 90d ending 2026-11-04

Postings · last 90 days
2,868
Top role · 38.2% of skill postings
Product Manager
Top hiring metro
San Francisco

Which roles want user research?

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Frequently asked questions about user research

+Is user research in demand in 2026?

Yes. user research appears in 2,868 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-11-04. Product Manager accounts for the most postings mentioning user research (38.2% of all postings mentioning user research).

+What jobs require user research?

According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-11-04, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning user research are UX Designer (39.9% of that role’s postings mention user research), Digital Product Designer (35.0% of that role’s postings mention user research), UX/UI Designer (30.7% of that role’s postings mention user research).

+What skills are commonly paired with user research?

Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-11-04), user research most often appears alongside prototyping, design systems, Figma, A/B testing, Product Management.

+Where is user research most in demand?

As of 2026-11-04, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring user research are San Francisco, New York City, London, Berlin, Singapore, according to the Skillenai jobs index.

+How can I keep up with new user research content and jobs?

Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning user research alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new user research content from your Skillenai account.

+Which skills come before and after user research?

The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.

Weekly indexed postings requiring user research — last 90 days

Salary distribution

Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized

Career paths around user research

Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.

Historical career profiles · all locations

Skills before user research

Before user researchwireframes → user research: 22 observed employer moves with this skill pairFigma → user research: 17 observed employer moves with this skill pairprototypes → user research: 13 observed employer moves with this skill pairwireframing → user research: 12 observed employer moves with this skill pairusability testing → user research: 10 observed employer moves with this skill pairUser interviews → user research: 10 observed employer moves with this skill pairinformation architecture → user research: 9 observed employer moves with this skill pairPrototyping → user research: 9 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser researchwireframes: 22 moveswireframes22 movesFigma: 17 movesFigma17 movesprototypes: 13 movesprototypes13 moveswireframing: 12 moveswireframing12 movesusability testing: 10 movesusability testing10 movesUser interviews: 10 movesUser interviews10 movesinformation architecture: 9 movesinformationarchitecture9 movesPrototyping: 9 movesPrototyping9 moves

Skills after user research

After user researchuser research → usability testing: 25 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → Figma: 20 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → wireframes: 20 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → Prototyping: 15 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → user flows: 12 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → design system: 12 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → information architecture: 11 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser research → wireframing: 11 observed employer moves with this skill pairuser researchusability testing: 25 movesusability testing25 movesFigma: 20 movesFigma20 moveswireframes: 20 moveswireframes20 movesPrototyping: 15 movesPrototyping15 movesuser flows: 12 movesuser flows12 movesdesign system: 12 movesdesign system12 movesinformation architecture: 11 movesinformationarchitecture11 moveswireframing: 11 moveswireframing11 moves
How to read this chart · view counts

Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.

The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.

Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.

Observed connections and move counts
ConnectionMoves
Before: wireframes22
Before: Figma17
Before: prototypes13
Before: wireframing12
Before: usability testing10
Before: User interviews10
Before: information architecture9
Before: Prototyping9
After: usability testing25
After: Figma20
After: wireframes20
After: Prototyping15
After: user flows12
After: design system12
After: information architecture11
After: wireframing11

Roles most likely to require user research

Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.

RolePostings mentioning skill% of role postings mentioning skill
UX Designer22439.9%
Digital Product Designer735.0%
UX/UI Designer5130.7%
UI/UX Designer8830.1%
Product Designer86829.6%
UX Researcher4620.8%
AI Product Designer418.2%
Interaction Designer617.1%
Lead Product Manager812.9%
Digital Product Manager118.7%

Roles with the most user research postings

RolePostings mentioning skillShare of skill postings
Product Manager1,09538.2%
Product Designer86830.3%
UX Designer2247.8%
Product Owner1565.4%
UI/UX Designer883.1%
UX/UI Designer511.8%
UX Researcher461.6%
Product Engineer200.7%
Technical Product Manager170.6%
Business Analyst140.5%

Top companies posting jobs requiring user research

Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.

Top companies posting jobs requiring user research
CompanyPostings · 90 days
Bjakcareer562
CLERA46
Stripe18
The Home Depot18
Mastercard17
Spotify14
Bjak12
Wise12
Intuitive11
Delivery Hero11

Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.

Top metros hiring for user research

NamePostingsShare
San Francisco1214.2%
New York City1174.1%
London822.9%
Berlin592.1%
Singapore501.7%
Toronto481.7%
Bengaluru391.4%
Seoul341.2%
Sydney341.2%

Skills commonly paired with user research

prototyping (1,066)design systems (942)Figma (923)A/B testing (849)Product Management (828)usability testing (756)stakeholder management (621)Interaction Design (616)Success metrics (570)Product ownership (524)

Explore related pages

How this was computed

Weekly job-count charts omit the incomplete current week (weeks start Monday, UTC). Totals include all postings in the stated window. Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-11-04. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning user research by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s user research postings by all user research postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). An adjusted trend is not shown because comparable posting coverage is insufficient.

source
Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
entity_id
482d76d4e026700e
data_as_of
2026-11-04
window_days
90
Compiled by Jared Rand · Data sourced from the Skillenai labor market index