The questions you'd ask on a first call, answered before it.

Work authorisation

I need sponsorship. The route is the standard one.

I hold no German or EU work permit. The route is the EU Blue Card, which exists for this case: a degree-qualified specialist with a concrete offer.

The degree question usually stalls an Indian application. Mine is already settled. My Master's, M.Des Design Research & Strategy at NIFT Delhi, is rated H+ on anabin, the German database of foreign qualifications. H+ means it counts as equivalent. Your HR team can check that independently before we talk further, and I'd rather they did.

That leaves an employment contract meeting the Blue Card salary threshold. At the standard threshold you do not need approval from the Federal Employment Agency, and there is no priority check against domestic candidates. The paperwork has a known shape and a known end.

Language

A2 today, working toward B2. I work in English.

I'm at A2 and study toward B2 daily, using material I built myself, because that turned out to be the only way I'd actually do it. Where that leaves me: I can hold a simple conversation. I can't yet run a research session in German or read a German contract without help.

If the role needs B2 German now, I'm not the right candidate this year, and I'd rather say so than waste a process. If the working language is English, the German is something I keep improving in the background.

Timing

60 days notice, relocating in 2027.

I've been a UX Researcher III at Trellix since July 2025. That is Trellix's Senior band. My notice period is 60 days, and the visa timeline sits on top of it, so a realistic start is a few months after a signed offer. Worth factoring in early.

My search is confidential. I'd appreciate it staying between us until there is something concrete.

What I do

Four years in research, three of them full-time.

Enterprise B2B security research at Trellix: how security analysts decide to trust an AI verdict when the stakes are high, and where they stop. Before that, nine-plus studies at a consultancy for clients including Google and YouTube, plus the GenAI tooling that halved our study turnaround. Before that, a 0→1 fintech product, and field research with drivers, warehouse managers and contractors at OLX Autos.

Three of the Trellix studies are written up in full on this site. Two more are published openly on GitHub with their corpus, codebook and stated limitations, so the findings can be checked rather than believed.

One correction I make often, because an earlier version of this site got it wrong: my Master's is design research, not social science. I'm taking Methods and Statistics in Social Sciences through the University of Amsterdam on Coursera. That is a course, not a degree, and I describe it that way.

What I'm looking for

A senior research role on a team that already knows why it wants one.

Germany, working in English, on complex professional software where the users are experts who already know how to do the job without the tool. That is the work I'm best at and the work I want more of.

In a first call I screen for the remit, not the title. What share of the role is discovery, who does that work today, and what happens to a finding after I hand it over. A research title on a team that wanted a usability service is a worse fit than a generalist title on a team that wanted a researcher.