UX Research Manager
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 8, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 8, 2026.
About Us
The Freeman Company is a global leader in events, on a mission to redefine live for a new era. With a data-driven approach and the industry’s largest network of experts, The Freeman Company's insights shape exhibitions, exhibits, and events that drive audiences to action. The integrated full-service solutions leverage a 99-year legacy in event management as well as new technologies to deliver moments that matter.
Summary
The Freeman Company is building a consumer-grade digital shopping experience for trade show exhibitors - one that makes it simple and intuitive for them to plan, purchase, and manage what they need for every event. That means raising the bar on the digital experience: reducing friction, surfacing the right products and services at the right time, and giving exhibitors confidence that they have everything they need to show up and succeed.
The User Experience Research Manager is critical to that mission. This role will deliver the customer insights needed to prioritize the most impactful solutions across the exhibitor journey, discovering where exhibitors struggle, validating ideas before they are built, and measuring whether what we ship improves the experience. Because the digital experience exists to help exhibitors succeed at live events, this research must connect what exhibitors do online with what happens on the show floor, before, during, and after each event.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on researcher with a proven track record of using qualitative and quantitative methods to shape complex, customer-facing digital products in an enterprise environment. They should be comfortable operating across research strategy, discovery, usability testing, analytics, and executive communication. This role will partner closely with product, UX design, marketing, and merchandising to improve the end-to-end exhibitor experience.
This position will sit within the Commerce product management team within Technology Services. It is eligible to work a hybrid schedule, generally requiring work in-office 1-2 days per week. The ideal candidate will be based out of the following locations:
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- Las Vegas, NV
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Plan, conduct, and analyze hands-on UX research on how exhibitors and customers use the digital experience at live events, using methods such as diary studies, moderated and unmoderated testing, intercept surveys, and prototype testing.
- Select the right method for each question, balancing speed, rigor, and business need, and translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations for product and design partners.
- Moderate sessions and interviews, and develop screeners, discussion guides, test protocols, and prototypes.
- Conduct field research at live events, including on-site observation and exhibitor interviews, partnering with Exhibitor Services to connect digital improvements to the in-person experience.
- Lead UX research for a cross-functional product and design team, embedding research into discovery, design, and delivery.
- Prioritize the research roadmap based on business priorities, product roadmap, customer feedback, and stakeholder input.
- Serve as the voice of the customer for the digital experience, combining quantitative analytics, secondary research, and qualitative findings into insights, personas, journey maps, and prioritized recommendations.
- Manage customer satisfaction metrics (OSAT, CSAT) and develop KPIs and measurement plans for new features, such as task success and ease of use, partnering with development, design, analytics, and QA to measure post-release outcomes.
- Establish UXR best practices, including study design standards, recruitment, data privacy, and a shared research repository.
- Coach and mentor researchers, designers, and product partners, while remaining a hands-on practitioner.
- Manage research tools, recruitment vendors, and budget, and work with insights teams to align customer surveys.
- Present findings to executive leaders with clear storytelling that drives evidence-based decisions and identifies new opportunities.
Education & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Design, Business, or a related field required, or equivalent experience. Masters Degree Preferred.
- Required: 5-8 years’ experience in UX research, including hands-on experience conducting studies end to end and demonstrated ability to lead user research for digital products
- Hands-on experience planning, conducting, and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative UX research, such as usability testing, interviews, diary studies, and surveys, with a portfolio showing research that influenced product decisions
- Proficiency with UX research and prototyping tools such as UserTesting, Qualtrics, Dovetail, Figma, or similar platforms
- Demonstrated ability to turn research findings into clear deliverables, including journey maps, personas, and design recommendations, and to partner with designers and engineers to act on them
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to understand and act on complex business needs
- Demonstrated ability to leverage behavioral psychology concepts into the approach and design recommendations to solve observed user challenges
- Familiarity with ecommerce and data platforms or related digital commerce capabilities.
- Preferred: Experience in a B2C Ecommerce environment and demonstrated success using research insights to improve digital experiences and customer outcomes
- Experience with user research, analytics and work management tools such as Qualtrics, UserTesting, Dovetail, Adobe Analytics, GA4, Jira, Confluence, or similar platforms preferred.
Travel Requirements
Travel up to 25%
What We Offer
The Freeman Company provides benefits that aim to empower our people and their families to thrive mentally, physically, and financially. These are a handful of the types of programs and benefits our full-time people may be eligible for. There may be some variances in specific benefits across regions.
- Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Paid Parental Leave
- Life, Accident and Disability
- Retirement with Company Match
- Paid Time Off
- Salary range of $110,000-$135,000 based upon experience
- Eligible for an annual bonus of up to 5% of the base salary
Diversity Commitment
At The Freeman Company, our commitment to diversity and inclusion is helping us to create not only a great place to work, but also an environment where our employees, our customers and our communities around the world can reach their goals and connect with each other. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status and other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.