Senior Staff UX Researcher

Lead research strategy for major product areas at Gusto and partner with senior leaders to shape roadmaps based on customer needs. Conduct high-impact research and influence product strategy across teams to enhance customer experiences.

Responsibilities

• Shape strategic research direction. Build and evolve a research roadmap aligned to business priorities, spanning multiple product areas and levels of ambiguity. Partner closely with Product, Data, Design, and Engineering leadership.
• Lead high-impact research. Independently conduct complex generative and evaluative studies that uncover unmet needs, inform product vision, and de-risk decisions at scale.
• Influence cross-org priorities. Identify patterns and connections across teams. Ensure insights cascade and inform decisions across teams and timelines. Partner with senior leadership to identify and evangelize the highest-impact opportunities for our customers.
• Advance AI-native practices. Explore and embed AI tools into research workflows to enhance speed, quality, and impact. Help define what it means to work AI-natively across research internally and for our customers.
• Mentor and multiply. Coach peers and cross-functional teammates. Develop tools, templates, and guidance that scale research craft and impact.
• Drive research rigor and storytelling. Craft compelling, actionable narratives tailored to executive and stakeholder audiences. Bring clarity and urgency to insights.
• Elevate customer understanding. Collaborate with cross-functional partners to connect insights and build a holistic view of the customer journey.
• Advance research influence and scale. Partner with Design Ops to evolve scalable methods, workflows, and systems. Pilot and champion new tools and practices.

Requirements

• 10+ years of user research experience, with a record of leading high-impact, strategic work
• Deep expertise in UX research methods, with the judgment to select and adapt the right approach to the problem
• Skilled in mixed methods, and experienced across end-to-end journeys, from digital experiences to service touchpoints
• Demonstrated experience influencing product direction across multiple teams through your insights and opinions
• Strong communicator and systems thinker, able to synthesize complexity and drive alignment across disciplines
• Thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; proactive, detail-oriented, and able to operate with autonomy
• Demonstrated success in mentoring others, democratizing research, and embedding customer connection into team culture and rituals
• Curious and opinionated about emerging tools, including AI, with a drive to evolve how research is done
• Mission-driven, with genuine empathy for small business owners and a desire to improve their lives through thoughtful product development

Benefits

• Competitive compensation packages with a strong emphasis on equity based compensation (ownership in Gusto)
• Cash compensation range for this role is $172,000/yr to $215,000/yr in Denver & most remote locations, and $202,000/yr to $253,000/yr in San Francisco, Seattle & New York