Principal UX Researcher

About the role

BetterUp is a company built on the conviction that human transformation is not an abstract concept but a tangible, daily reality. This role exists at the very core of that mission, shaping how we understand and serve the humans we exist to help. You will own the research backbone of our product organization, ensuring that every decision, from the smallest tweak to the largest strategic shift, is grounded in deep human understanding. This is not just about asking users questions; it is about defining the entire research operating system for a high-growth enterprise. You will establish the guardrails, the language, and the legacy of insight that allow research to flourish across the company. The work demands a rare blend of strategic vision, operational rigor, and empathetic curiosity. If you thrive on defining the unknown and then teaching others how to think, this is your arena. Joining at this level means you are not just a contributor but the architect of a discipline.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Define and evolve the end-to-end UX research practice, establishing methodologies, quality standards, tooling, and governance frameworks that ensure insights are robust, scalable, and actionable across the entire product organization.
• Drive strategic research initiatives that directly inform company-level product strategy, acting as the primary thought partner to the VP of Design and executive leadership to identify high-leverage opportunities rooted in human need.
• Lead foundational and generative research programs designed to uncover unmet user needs, validate nascent market opportunities, and shape multi-quarter product roadmaps with evidence-based confidence.
• Synthesize quantitative and qualitative data streams in partnership with PMM, the Labs behavioral insights team, and Product to generate actionable insights that directly influence go-to-market strategy and product direction.
• Represent the discipline of UX Research as the definitive voice in executive forums, design reviews, and strategic planning sessions, ensuring that research evidence is central to critical decision-making.
• Build and scale research operations end-to-end, including evaluating and selecting research tools and vendors, designing participant recruitment strategies, establishing research repositories, and creating self-serve research capabilities for the broader organization.
• Mentor and coach researchers and design partners across the organization, elevating the craft of research, building research fluency in adjacent teams, and creating a rising tide of insight across the company.
• Establish governance frameworks and best practices for the responsible use of AI in research processes, including AI-augmented analysis, synthesis, and the design of ethical and effective participant experiences.
• Partner deeply with key stakeholders such as Product Management, Product Marketing, Labs, Engineering, and Data Science to ensure research outputs are integrated into planning, execution, and measurement.
• Define the career ladder for researchers, creating clear progression frameworks, evaluation criteria, and growth paths that attract and retain top research talent in a competitive market.
• Champion research rigor by designing and implementing longitudinal studies that track behavioral shifts and outcomes, providing insight into the long-term impact of the BetterUp experience.
• Lead cross-functional research sprints that rapidly explore new concepts and prototypes, balancing speed with depth to keep product experimentation cycles both ambitious and well-informed.
• Establish a best-in-class research repository and knowledge management system, ensuring that insights are discoverable, reusable, and connected to strategic business questions over time.
• Partner with the Labs team to integrate behavioral science findings from controlled experiments into the broader research evidence base, strengthening the validity of product decisions.
• Act as the external-facing research ambassador, articulating the value of UX research to internal stakeholders and setting the standard for research-led product development across the industry.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in UX research, design research, or a closely related field, with 6+ years operating at a senior or staff level of scope, impact, and independence.
• Demonstrated mastery of the full spectrum of research methodologies, including but not limited to qualitative one-on-one interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, quantitative surveys, A/B testing interpretations, and mixed-methods approaches.
• A proven track record of leading research that directly shaped major product strategy and business outcomes at an organizational scale, showing clear line of sight from insight to decision.
• Experience defining, launching, and scaling a research practice from the ground up or leading the evolution of a mature function, including setting processes, standards, tooling, and governance.
• Exceptional ability to synthesize complex, ambiguous data from multiple sources into clear, compelling narratives that resonate with and drive executive-level decision-making.
• Strong cross-functional partnership skills, with a history of influencing and collaborating effectively with Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Data Science stakeholders at the highest levels.
• Demonstrated success in mentoring and developing researchers at various career stages, fostering a culture of continuous learning and rigorous analysis within the team.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to make research accessible, memorable, and actionable for technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Practical notes

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