Member of the UX Staff
Bell Labs introduced the “Member of Technical Staff” title in the mid-20th century (well before Xerox PARC was founded in 1970). It was held by legendary figures in computing and physics, including Unix co-creator Dennis Ritchie when he joined in 1967.
Bell Labs deliberately designed the title to serve specific cultural goals:
Flattening Hierarchies: Instead of using rigid corporate rankings like “Junior Engineer” or “Principal Engineer,” the broad MTS designation was applied to researchers and engineers alike.
Promoting Fluidity: It allowed employees to move seamlessly between writing code, constructing experimental hardware, and doing pure mathematical or scientific research without being pigeonholed by a narrow job description.
Academic Fellowship Vibe: It functioned more like a scientific research fellowship than a corporate ladder step, emphasizing collective expertise.
AI and research-heavy tech organizations like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Deep Mind have adopted that title.
So should UX adopt something similar? Member of the User Experience Staff? It doesn’t seem that crazy right now.