Principal UX Researcher, StreetEasy

About the teamThe Research and Insights Team is part of Experience Design (XD) at StreetEasy, a Zillow Group subsidiary. We're a fast-paced, collaborative, and driven team of UX professionals that includes Content Strategists and Product Designers. Our team plays a key role in supporting StreetEasy's product, marketing, and business strategy organizations by addressing their diverse research needs. Together, we build innovative, user-friendly experiences across web, mobile, and internal platforms.
Our mission is simple: to solve real problems for real people — our customers, co-workers, and everyone else. We strive to make every experience better than we found it.

About the role

As a Principal UX Researcher, you’ll drive research and design strategies to create exceptional customer experiences. You’ll provide actionable insights to a data-driven team and collaborate closely with UX professionals and other cross-functional partners to evaluate outcomes. Our ultimate goal is to redefine how people buy, sell, and rent homes in New York City and New Jersey.

Responsibilities

• Apply diverse qualitative and quantitative research methods to tackle complex customer problems and find market opportunities.

• Synthesize and articulate customer needs to steer product strategy and innovation.

• Advocate for customer-centric design throughout the entire process while aligning with business objectives.

• Collaborate with marketers, designers, product managers, and engineers to enhance customer experiences.

• Lead research initiatives, including user interviews, contextual inquiries, surveys, diary studies, co-design sessions, concept evaluations, and usability testing.

• Measure the effectiveness of products and their impact on customer experiences.

• Present research findings to stakeholders, including senior leadership, to foster data-driven decision-making.

• Deliver high-quality work on time by leveraging existing data and insights to build on past findings and align with strategic objectives.

• Establish a range of research offerings, from full-service to self-service options that empower team members to answer their own questions.

• Ensure research efforts focus on critical business and customer needs by prioritizing the most important questions.

• Guide and collaborate with other UX researchers to manage projects, align them with business goals, and develop research roadmaps.

• Mentor and support other UX researchers.

• Travel to in-person collaboration sessions and team building events ~2-4 weeks per year

• Contribute, learn, grow, and have fun!

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $173,300.00 - $276,800.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location.

Who you are

• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

• 12+ years experience as a user researcher or similar role

• Experience working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, like a startup.

• Expertise in both qualitative and quantitative research methods and research design to understand user behavior and address business objectives.

• Proven success working with cross-functional product teams to guide strategic decisions.

• Experience collaborating with other UX and analytics professionals on complex, multi-modal studies.

• Experience defining customer experience opportunities, identifying connections across lines of business, and solving big-picture problems.

• Skilled in communicating research findings and actionable recommendations in a concise and visually compelling manner, leveraging storytelling skills to show impact on both customers and business outcomes.

• Skilled in engaging partners in research, driving usage of insights, and influencing outcomes.

• Experience conducting generative research to identify market opportunities, not just product-specific insights.

• Strong and well-established product sense and business curiosity.

• Nice to have: PhD in relevant field (social science, psychology, HCI), familiarity with NY real estate market

• We value candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skills. If you meet some of the criteria and are excited about this opportunity, we encourage you to apply!

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do helps people get home and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making home a reality for more and more people.

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging, and world-class benefits. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages as well as parental leave, family benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Applicants who receive job offers from Zillow Group will be asked to sign a Proprietary Rights Agreement which includes confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, customer and employee non-solicitation, and non-competition provisions. If you are contacted for a role at Zillow Group and wish to review a copy of the Proprietary Rights Agreement prior to receiving an offer, you may request a copy from your Recruiter.