Jobs

Do you want to help improve research communications in all corners of the globe? Come and join the world of non-profit open infrastructure and be part of improving the creation and sharing of knowledge as our new UX Researcher.

• Location: Remote and global, availability from 2-5pm UTC Mon-Fri to ensure sufficient overlap with the rest of the team.
• Type: Full-Time, 40 hours a week Mon-Fri.
• Remuneration: 80k USD equivalent. We pay salaries in the currency of the country in which you’re based. We arrive at the local USD-equivalent salary by determining the average 5-year USD exchange rate, to stabilise currency fluctuations.
• Benefits: Check out our Employee handbook for more details on paid time off, unlimited sick time, paid parental and medical leaves, and more.
• Reports to: Program Lead, Lena Stoll
• Timeline: Advertise in December 2025 (closing date is Dec 31st) and offer by end of January or beginning of February 2026

About the role

Crossref develops its products and services through three cross-functional programs to guide and accelerate our work. We introduced this new approach to work towards better cross-team alignment, shared responsibility, improved communication and learning, and make more progress on the things our members and users need. The three programs focus on Co-creation and Community Trends, Contributing to the Research Nexus, and Open and Sustainable Operations. Like other functions such as Data Science and Metadata Development, the User Experience Researcher will work across all three programs to build a nuanced understanding of the Crossref community and its needs.

We are a small team with a big impact, and we’re looking for an empathetic, technically-oriented User Experience Researcher to join us. We are planning to redesign our core system over the coming years, while also continuing to iterate and innovate on the other tools and services that we co-create with our community.

Reporting to the Program Lead for Co-creation and Community Trends, the User Experience Researcher will collaborate closely with our Programs & Services, Technology, Community, Membership, and Data Science teams to build up and advocate for a UX research practice at Crossref, as well as helping inform the work happening in all of our programs. Being community-led means we are not always the experts in what we are developing, so the ability to plan, research, convene, listen, and facilitate consensus-based decisions is a key factor to being successful in this role at Crossref.

Key responsibilities

• Plan and conduct user research, interviews, usability studies, and similar activities in close collaboration with cross-functional program groups and functional teams
• Engage in detailed technical discussions with current and prospective integrators of Crossref systems to explore the needs of users across a wide variety of backgrounds and geographies
• Build and continuously refine a deep understanding of Crossref’s existing systems and how our community interacts with them - from registering metadata programmatically or via a user interface, to retrieving data from our REST API or gleaning insights from a public data file
• Work independently with external partners and organisations in the scholarly communications space to explore opportunities for collaboration and carry out pilot projects to gauge the value of potential new service offerings for Crossref members
• Communicate insights from research activities to program steering groups and other stakeholders in an engaging and actionable way
• Synthesise insights on user journeys and needs to inform an iterative rebuild of the Crossref system and related services, in close collaboration with the Product Manager
• Work closely with the Technology and Programs & Services teams to develop strategies for building accessible and extensible user interfaces and API specifications
• Coordinate work across teams and programs at Crossref, by communicating ideas and writing project plans, gathering and assessing feedback, and using data to drive decision-making
• Develop and model a culture of UX research and user-centric service development at Crossref
• Influence the product development strategy and prioritisation by being a voice for members, metadata users, and the wider Crossref community

About you

You’ll need:

• You are curious about people, systems, and processes
• You think in terms of the big picture, but you can work closely with others to explain context and deliver on the details
• You have hands-on UX research experience
• You have an understanding of and experience with complex workflow systems and are not intimidated by technical intricacies
• You have enough technical understanding to translate a question about a tool into a research plan - regardless of whether the immediate user of the tool is a human operating a web browser, an API integration, or an automated script
• You can discuss technical and functional requirements with developers across frontend and backend systems, exploring how to meet user needs with features and functionality to be implemented across the entire Crossref technology stack - which includes Java, Elasticsearch, and Vue.js
• You care about open infrastructure and want to make scholarly communications better
• You communicate with empathy and precision
• You are able to clearly articulate your point of view and say no if needed
• You can convey and encapsulate strategic and technical concepts in presentations verbally, visually, and textually
• You understand how to use data and storytelling to inform decision-making and prioritisation
• You are self-motivated and proactive with a collaborative and can-do attitude, and enjoy working with a small team across multiple time zones
• You maintain order in a dynamic environment, managing multiple priorities

Nice-to-have:

• You have worked as part of a cross-functional program team in the past
• You have a background in scholarly comms and/or open infrastructure
• You have experience working in the non-profit space and for community-led organisations
• You have knowledge of best practices and regulations in interface design, and would be comfortable developing and owning an accessibility strategy for human and machine interfaces adhering to current WCAG, Section 508 and EU Accessibility Act requirements
• You are comfortable mocking up simple but effective visuals and wireframes to test with users or to help communicate insights

About Crossref & the team

We’re a non-profit membership organisation that exists to make scholarly communications better. We rally the community; tag and share metadata; run an open infrastructure; play with technology; and make tools and services—all to help put research in context.

We envision a rich and reusable open network of relationships connecting research organisations, people, things, and actions; a scholarly record that the global community can build on forever, for the benefit of society. We are working towards this vision of a ‘Research Nexus’ by demonstrating the value of richer and connected open metadata, incentivising people to meet best practices, while making it easier to do so. “We” means 23,000+ members from 160+ countries, 170+ million records, and nearly 2 billion monthly metadata queries from thousands of tools across the research ecosystem. We want to be a sustainable source of complete, open, and global scholarly metadata and relationships.

Take a look at our strategic agenda to see the planned work that aims to achieve the vision. The sustainability area aims to make transparent all the processes and procedures we follow to run the operation long-term, including our financials and our ongoing commitment to the Principles of Open Scholarly Infrastructure (POSI). The governance area describes our board and its role in community oversight.

It also takes a strong team – because reliable infrastructure needs committed people who contribute to and realise the vision, and thrive doing it. We are a distributed group of 50+ dedicated people who take our work seriously, but don’t take ourselves seriously - we like to play quizzes, measure coffee intake, and create 100s of custom slack emojis. We do this through fair policies and working practices, a balanced approach to resourcing, and accountability to each other.

We can offer the successful candidate a challenging and fun environment to work in. Together we are dedicated to our global mission and we are constantly adapting to ensure we get there. Take a look at our organisation chart, the latest Annual Meeting recordings, and our financial information.

Thinking of applying?

We especially encourage applications from people with backgrounds historically under-represented in research and scholarly communications. You can be based anywhere in the world where we can employ staff, either directly or through an employer of record.

We will invite selected candidates to an initial call to discuss the role. Following that, shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview. You will receive all questions in advance, and the interview will include some questions and/or exercises you’ll have a chance to prepare for. All interviews will be held remotely on Zoom.

Click here to apply!

Applications close on December 31st, 2025.

Anticipated salary for this role is approximately 80k USD-equivalent, paid in local currency. Crossref offers competitive compensation, benefits, flexible work arrangements, professional development opportunities, and a supportive work environment. Check out our Employee Handbook for more details on paid time off, unlimited sick time, paid parental and medical leaves, and more.

Equal opportunities commitment

Crossref is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, pregnancy or a condition related to pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, uniform service member status, or any other protected class under applicable law. Crossref will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities in accordance with applicable law.

Thanks for your interest in joining Crossref. We are excited to hear from you!