Senior User Research Analyst - Port of San Francisco (9976)

Career Opportunity

Senior User Research Analyst - Port of San Francisco (9976)

Recruitment: RTF0164301-01159215

Published: June 17, 2026

Contact

Vitra Thai - vitra.thai@sfport.com

Apply using SmartRecruiters, the City and County of San Francisco's application portal.

Department: Port
Job class: 9976-Technology Expert I
Role type: Temporary Exempt What does this mean?
Hours: Full-time

About:

Appointment Type: Temporary Exempt (TEX). This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process, is considered "at will" and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer.

Specific information regarding this recruitment process is listed below:

Application Opening: June 17, 2026
Application Deadline: July 6, 2026
Compensation Range: $171,158 - $215,306 annually
Required Supplemental Questionnaire: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/VW4ZM3LwHq
Recruitment ID: RTF0164301-01159215

The Port of San Francisco is an enterprise agency of the City and County of San Francisco and is governed by a Commission of five members appointed by the Mayor. The Port Commission is responsible for overseeing a broad range of waterfront commercial, maritime, and public access facilities that are held in public trust for the people of California. The Port’s jurisdiction covers approximately 7.5 miles of waterfront land from Pier 98, near Hunter’s Point in the southern part of San Francisco, to Fisherman’s Wharf in the northern part of the City.

The Port’s diverse business portfolio includes over 550 ground, commercial, retail, office, industrial and maritime industrial leases including cargo shipping, layberthing, excursion boats, ferry boats, fishing and fish processing/distribution, tourism, filming, harbor services, and cruise operations. With some of the most flexible cargo handling facilities on the West Coast, as well as naturally deep water, the Port can handle various types of cargo such as, dry-bulk, neo-bulk, roll-on/roll-off, and project cargoes.

The Port of San Francisco has many internationally recognized landmarks such as Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, the Exploratorium, the Ferry Building and Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. With its unique and historic properties, the Port is home to a variety of tenants and uses. The Port Commission over the last five decades has led a remarkable transformation of the Port; maintaining its industrial maritime heritage while developing new uses, including commercial and public activities, that have helped San Francisco remain one of the most visited and popular cities on the globe.

For more information about the Port of San Francisco, visit SFPort.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Role description

The Port of San Francisco is embarking on a multi-year project to replace the organization’s legacy enterprise business applications with a modern, unified platform built on Salesforce. This project will lead the replacement and migration of Port Enterprise technologies that have reached end-of-life with modern systems that support and promote the department's business capabilities. The project is focused on building and implementing data-rich, constituent-and user-focused, integrated systems. As a user researcher, the Senior User Research Analyst will conduct research with staff and stakeholders of the Port and synthesize that research into actionable insights for the product team.

Under direction, the Senior User Research Analyst:

Plans, organizes, performs, delivers, directs and/or controls highly complex technology-related work products requiring industry or product expertise in broad areas of information technology.
Ensures the Port’s modern platform meets the business needs of the Port and doesn’t just replicate the existing workflows.
Develop and conducts workshops, brainstorming sessions, and other interactive activities with end-users, including employees, partners, and tenants, as applicable, to identify user needs and apply them to business capabilities.
Evaluates the impact of the incremental improvements in the Port’s platform and suggest course correction and incremental improvement to maximize its effectiveness.  
Responsible for developing and maintaining system requirements for all Port Modernization projects.
Collaborates closely with product, technology, and business stakeholders to ensure user research findings inform requirements, prioritization, and product decisions throughout the Port Modernization program. 
Directly contributes, as the voice of the end-users, in project and work prioritization discussions with the technology project management and leadership team, ensuring that user needs are always considered up-front.   
Leads the development and delivery of technology oriented organizational change management, including establishing relationships with and elevating change champions across the organization, developing training materials, and leading user adoption.

How to qualify

Possession of an associate degree in Business, Information Technology, Product Design, Industrial Design, Multi-Media Arts, or closely related field from an accredited college or university OR its equivalent in terms of total course credits/units [ i.e., at least sixty (60) semester or ninety (90) quarter credits/units with a minimum of twenty (20) semester or thirty (30) quarter credits/units in computer science or a closely related field].

AND

Two (2) years of recent and verifiable experience working as a product manager, product designer, implementation manager, technology trainer, UX designer, service designer user researcher, or another closely related field.

Desirable Qualifications (Ideal Candidate)

The stated desirable qualifications may be considered at the end of the selection process when candidates are referred for hiring.

The Ideal Candidate:

Is a highly independent thought leader that is ready and capable of identifying user experience needs and providing an evidence-based defense of those needs to leadership in prioritization discussions.
Has experience with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Has strong ability to define research questions and choose the right methodology.
Has extensive experience conducting usability testing (remote and in-person).
Demonstrates proficiency with research tools (e.g., UserTesting, Optimal Workshop, surveys).
Has strong storytelling and communication skills—can translate insights into product direction.
Has experience synthesizing data (affinity mapping, journey mapping, personas).
Has a history of ability to work autonomously and manage multiple research projects.
Has experience with rapid or iterative research in fast-paced environments.
Has proven experience designing end‑to‑end services across digital and offline channels, ideally in a government or regulated environment.
Shows ability to map complex service ecosystems, including people, processes, policies, technology, and channels.

Verification

Please make sure it is clear on your application exactly how you meet the minimum qualifications. Every application is reviewed to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications as listed in the job ad. Please review our articles on Employment Application and Minimum Qualifications and Verification of Experience and/or Education for considerations taken when reviewing applications.

Important Note(s):

Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process.
One-year full-time employment is considered equivalent to 2000 hours (2000 hours of qualifying work experience is based on a 40-hour work week). Any overtime hours that you work above forty (40) hours per week are not included in the calculation to determine full-time employment.
Applicants must meet minimum qualification requirements by the final filing date unless otherwise noted.
Please be aware that any misrepresentation of this information may disqualify you from this recruitment or future job opportunities.

What else should I know?

Selection Procedures: Applications and Supplemental Questionnaires will be screened for relevant qualifying experience. Additional mechanisms may be implemented in order to determine candidate’s qualifications. Only those applicants who most closely meet the requirements for this position will be invited to participate in the selection process. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit https://careers.sf.gov/ and begin the application process.

Select the “Apply Now" button and follow instructions on the screen.
As part of the application process, all candidates must complete this supplemental questionnaire to advance in the recruitment process via this link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/VW4ZM3LwHq

The deadline to submit an application AND REQUIRED Supplemental Questionnaire is July 6, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

Only individuals who submit a completed job Application and Supplemental Questionnaire at the time of application submission will be considered.

Recruitment Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment, please send your inquires to Vitra Thai, at vitra.thai@sfport.com.

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date.

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @first5sf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.