---
title: "UX Researcher"
description: "Studies how people use apps, websites and devices through interviews, usability tests and surveys, then guides design decisions with what they learn."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/ux-researcher"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# UX Researcher

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1255 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1255.00

Studies how people use apps, websites and devices through interviews, usability tests and surveys, then guides design decisions with what they learn.

Also advertised as: User Experience Researcher; User Researcher; Design Researcher; Usability Researcher; Product Researcher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $104,000 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $50.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $53,750 to $201,550, with the middle half between $73,290 and $158,820
- **Total US employment:** 113,330
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 8,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 8/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 113,330 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $53,750 |
| 25th | $73,290 |
| 50th (median) | $104,000 |
| 75th | $158,820 |
| 90th | $201,550 |
| Mean (average) | $117,490 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $136,110 | $122,932 | 27,090 |
| WA | $130,480 | $121,929 | 11,580 |
| NY | $120,990 | $112,110 | 16,560 |
| MA | $113,540 | $107,359 | 2,740 |
| NH | $111,150 | $106,706 | 430 |
| DC | $107,650 | $97,952 | 480 |
| RI | $105,990 | $103,627 | 240 |
| PA | $104,160 | $106,752 | 2,820 |
| GA | $103,810 | $107,806 | 2,800 |
| TX | $102,650 | $105,763 | 5,910 |
| OR | $102,220 | $98,896 | 1,230 |
| UT | $99,990 | $101,139 | 1,060 |
| AZ | $98,070 | $97,411 | 810 |
| NC | $97,990 | $103,884 | 3,400 |
| MD | $96,760 | $92,188 | 1,310 |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/ux-researcher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/ux-researcher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 132,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 140,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 8,000 jobs, or +6.0%. Faster than average: 6.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 8,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Plan research studies around open product questions
- Recruit and screen research participants
- Run interviews and moderated usability tests
- Design and analyze user surveys
- Synthesize observations into findings and recommendations
- Create personas and customer journey maps
- Present research to design and product teams
- Maintain a shared library of past research

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Programming — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.22 |
| A — Artistic | 4.76 |
| C — Conventional | 4.37 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.13 |
| S — Social | 2.98 |
| R — Realistic | 2.59 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 78.4 |
| INTP | 75.9 |
| INFJ | 72.6 |
| INFP | 69.3 |
| ENTP | 61.0 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ, INTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Web Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-designer) — median $104,000
- [Web Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-developer) — median $92,650
- [Web Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/web-administrator) — median $116,580
- [Software Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/software-developer) — median $135,980
- [Computer Programmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-programmer) — median $100,390
- [Computer Systems Engineers/Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-engineers-architect) — median $116,580
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500
- [Graphic Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/graphic-designer) — median $62,960
- [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/ux-researcher