UX Researcher

Division: DATUM, Impac Exploration Services
Location: Remote, Oklahoma City (OK), Houston (TX)
Type: Full-Time

Find Truth at 10,000 Feet

We're not hiring you to run usability tests on buttons. We're hiring you to understand how humans make million-dollar decisions at 5 AM with incomplete data and coffee that's been sitting since midnight.

DATUM is building the future of industrial AI, and here's our secret: The technology isn't the hard part. Understanding the humans who use it—that's where the magic happens. While our ML team builds models that predict the unpredictable, you'll uncover why an operator trusts their gut over the algorithm, and how we fix that.

Your research won't live in slide decks. It'll ship in products used 24/7 by people whose decisions impact energy security, environmental safety, and human lives.

The Research Reality

Pack your steel-toes. You'll spend as much time in the field as in front of your laptop. One day you're conducting contextual interviews on a drilling rig. The next, you're in a boardroom understanding how executives parse risk. Then you're shoulder-to-shoulder with our designer, turning insights into interfaces that actually work where the work happens.

This isn't research theater. When you say "users need X," we build X. When you discover our assumptions are wrong, we pivot. Your findings directly shape what ships next week.

What You'll Actually Do

• Shadow operators through 12-hour shifts to understand their real workflows (caffeine provided)
• Design research studies that work in -40°F and 120°F environments
• Uncover why experienced engineers trust their instincts over our ML predictions—then fix it
• Map the journey from sensor data to executive decision across all user types
• Partner with our designer to validate every major design decision
• Build empathy bridges between PhDs building models and roughnecks using them
• Turn field observations into design principles that scale

Your Research Toolkit

Methods that matter:

• Contextual inquiry in extreme environments
• Rapid iterative testing (because we ship weekly)
• Journey mapping across vastly different user groups
• Diary studies with people who work when you sleep
• Quantitative analysis of how predictions become decisions
• Whatever methods help us understand users better, faster

You're Our Person If

• You're comfortable being uncomfortable—literally and figuratively
• You can build rapport with both MIT PhDs and people who've worked rigs for 30 years
• You see research as a sport, not a ceremony
• You know when to be rigorous and when to be rapid
• You can translate "user said X" into "we should build Y"
• You're excited to learn an industry most researchers never touch

Especially If

• You've done research in complex technical domains
• You've worked in environments where "fail fast" isn't just a motto
• You can make quantitative and qualitative research play nicely together
• You've influenced product decisions with compelling storytelling
• You're curious about how expertise develops and transfers

The Partnership

You'll work hand-in-hand with:

• Our UX Designer—validating designs before they ship
• ML researchers—helping them understand why users don't trust the black box
• Our marketing agency—ensuring brand promises match user reality
• Field operations—becoming fluent in their world
• Leadership—your insights drive strategy, not just features

Why This Research Matters

In consumer tech, bad UX means abandoned carts. Here, it means abandoned wells, environmental incidents, or worse. Your research doesn't optimize engagement metrics—it optimizes for safety, efficiency, and trust in AI systems where trust has never existed before.

You'll answer questions like:

• How do we visualize uncertainty in ways that increase appropriate trust?
• What makes an operator override an AI recommendation?
• How do we design for experts who can't articulate their expertise?
• What does "intuitive" mean to someone wearing fire-resistant gloves?

Growth and Impact

Start by understanding users. Within months, you'll be shaping how an entire industry thinks about human-AI collaboration. Your research will be cited when we publish papers. Your methods will be stolen by competitors (we'll take it as a compliment).

When IDEO or Frog eventually tries to hire you because you've become the expert on industrial UX research, we'll celebrate your success.

The Reality Check

You'll get dirty. You'll learn more about drilling operations than seems reasonable. You'll fight for users who can't fight for themselves. You'll challenge engineers who think they know what users want. You'll be the voice of reason when we want to ship too fast.

But you'll also define how an entire industry interfaces with AI. You'll make tools that matter. You'll prove that understanding users isn't a nice-to-have—it's the whole game.

Ready to Research What Matters?

Show us how you think about understanding users. We care more about your curiosity and methods than your years of experience. Tell us about a time you uncovered something nobody expected.

Let's go find some truth together.
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