Staff Experience Researcher

Position Overview

• Location Type: Hybrid
• Employment Type: Full-time
• Salary: Not specified

Thumbtack helps millions of people confidently care for their homes. Thumbtack is the one app you need to take care of and improve your home — from personalized guidance to AI tools and a best-in-class hiring experience. Every day in every county of the U.S., people turn to Thumbtack to complete urgent repairs, seasonal maintenance and bigger improvements. We help homeowners know which projects to do, when to do them and who to hire from our growing community of 300,000 local service businesses. If making an impact inspires you, join us. Imagine what we’ll build together.

About the Research Team We are a high-performing, tight-knit team of embedded researchers who work closely with cross-functional product partners to deliver outstanding experiences for our users. Our researchers tackle complex challenges, generating insights that shape both product strategy and user experience. We're a nimble, ever-evolving group that learns from one another and our collaborators to refine our methods, stay ahead of industry trends, and push the boundaries of what’s possible in UX.

About the Role As a Staff UX Researcher on Thumbtack’s New Hiring Experiences team, you’ll be at the forefront of discovering what’s next—using creative, iterative research approaches to bring clarity to ambiguity and guide early-stage product direction. You won’t just conduct research; you’ll play a key role in shaping bold, strategic bets and influencing how we build dynamic, complex user experiences. You’ll collaborate closely with product, design, engineering, data science, and other disciplines to move quickly, learn deeply, and build with purpose. With a focus on qual-leaning mixed methods and sprint-style collaboration, you’ll not only inform what we build—you’ll influence how we build, mentoring others and helping elevate the team’s research culture along the way. This role is essential to making sure our innovation efforts are not only fast and inspired—but grounded in real user needs.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience leading user research.

Responsibilities

• Lead fast-paced, mixed-method research to inform early-stage product strategy and uncover new opportunities.
• Translate ambiguous problem spaces into clear direction through sharp insights and strategic thinking.
• Partner closely with design, product, and engineering to rapidly test concepts, iterate on ideas, and shape MVPs.
• Craft compelling narratives that influence senior stakeholders, align cross-functional teams, and drive evidence-informed decisions.
• Inspire a prototype-forward, innovation culture across cross-functional teams—mentoring peers, guiding research practice, and championing bold, iterative ways of working across product teams.
• Champion a user-centered mindset across the broader team, advocating for the needs of both customers and pros.
• Influence multiple product areas and partner teams, scaling the impact of research beyond your immediate scope.