UX Research Lead | Candy Crush Soda Saga

We are seeking a highly experienced UX Research Lead to join the Candy Crush Soda team. This role will be responsible for centralizing UX research efforts, optimizing research operations, and driving a cohesive research strategy that aligns with Soda’s business goals. The UX Research Lead will manage a team of researchers, prioritize research initiatives, and foster the craft development of the UX Research team.
Your Role Within Our Kingdom
Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Leadership: Establish and drive a centralized UX research strategy and roadmap for Candy Crush Soda. Develop clear prioritization frameworks to allocate research resources effectively based on business needs and impact.
• Team Management & Craft Growth: Provide direct line management, career development support, and performance coaching to UX researchers, ensuring a strong research team culture. Foster the development of the UX Research craft by implementing structured learning opportunities, mentorship programs, and best practice sharing.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with game designers, product managers, data scientists, and other stakeholders to ensure research insights drive product innovation.
• Standardization & Best Practices: Define and uphold high-quality research standards, ensuring consistent methodologies, reporting, and impact measurement.
• Communication & Advocacy: Champion user research within the organization, advocating for a player-centric approach to decision-making and product design.

Skills & Experience

• Extensive experience in UX research, ideally within gaming or mobile applications.
• Proven track record of leading and growing UX research teams.
• Strong ability to collaborate, influence, and drive alignment across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Expertise in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
• Experience in setting up research operations, including tooling, documentation, and resource planning.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

About King

With a mission of Making the World Playful, King is a leading interactive entertainment company with more than 20 years of history of delivering some of the world’s most iconic games in the mobile gaming industry, including the world-famous Candy Crush franchise, as well as other mobile game hits such as Farm Heroes Saga. King games are played by more than 200 million monthly active users. King, part of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), has Kingsters in Stockholm, Malmö, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Dublin, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Malta. More information can be found at King.com or by following us on LinkedIn, @lifeatking on Instagram, or @king_games on X.