Staff User Researcher

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Staff User Researcher Company: Ethos Life Location: Remote US Job Type: Full-time Category: User Research / Product Operations Date Posted: August 11, 2025 Experience Level: 7+ Years Remote Status: Remote (US-based)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the establishment and strategic growth of the user research function at Ethos, defining its vision, processes, and methodologies.
• Drive end-to-end research initiatives across complex user journeys, including agent tools, quoting systems, application pipelines, and customer onboarding.
• Develop and implement scalable research frameworks for continuous discovery, satisfaction measurement, and feedback loops to inform product development.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative data with usage analytics and operational metrics to identify product opportunities and influence strategy.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is a foundational, "build-from-scratch" position, requiring a strong builder mindset and the ability to operate autonomously in an ambiguous environment. The focus on complex user journeys and systems implies a need for strategic thinking and the ability to connect user insights to business impact, which aligns with advanced operations roles.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Establish the research function at Ethos by defining research processes, methodologies, and research operations for a growing design and research team.
• Lead strategic research initiatives across complex user journeys and systems, encompassing agent tools, quoting flows, application pipelines, and customer onboarding.
• Deeply understand and simplify multi-step workflows, decision-making contexts, compliance constraints, and multi-user systems to uncover user needs and pain points.
• Build scalable research frameworks to support continuous discovery, satisfaction measurement, longitudinal tracking, and robust feedback loops across customer and agent experiences.
• Lead mixed-method research efforts, designing and executing both qualitative and quantitative studies using advanced methodologies such as survey science, behavioral data analysis, and experiment design.
• Synthesize research findings with usage data, operational metrics, and market insights to create compelling narratives that identify clear product opportunities and drive action.
• Communicate research insights with clarity and influence, delivering high-impact narratives and visualizations tailored for technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executive leadership.
• Shape product strategy by translating user insights into actionable roadmap recommendations, influencing prioritization, and advocating for user-centered thinking across the organization.
• Mentor and scale research capabilities by guiding future researchers and designers, and contributing to building a strong, insight-driven product culture.
• Innovate with tools and technology, leveraging AI-enabled research tools or custom frameworks to accelerate learning, improve research efficiency, and maximize impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities indicate a need for operationalizing research processes, which directly translates to defining and managing workflows, establishing measurement frameworks (e.g., NPS, CSAT), and ensuring data integrity for research studies. This is a key aspect of revenue and product operations.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• While not strictly mandated, an advanced academic background (e.g., MS or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Behavioral Science, Psychology, Economics, or a related field) is considered a bonus, indicating a strong theoretical and methodological foundation.

Experience:

• 7+ years of experience in user research, with a preference for experience within complex product ecosystems such as B2B SaaS, financial services, or enterprise tools, demonstrating a capacity to handle intricate user flows and business requirements.
• Proven track record of establishing and scaling research functions or processes, showcasing an ability to build foundational elements for a growing team.
• Experience in operationalizing research processes, including setting up feedback loops, continuous discovery mechanisms, and satisfaction measurement systems.

Required Skills:

• Extensive User Research Expertise: Deep proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including user interviews, usability testing, surveys, diary studies, contextual inquiry, and heuristic evaluations.
• Mixed-Methods Proficiency: Expert ability to design, execute, and analyze research studies using a range of methods, encompassing surveys, user testing, interviews, behavioral analytics, and experimental design.
• Data Synthesis & Storytelling: Skilled at transforming raw data and research findings into compelling, concise stories that clearly communicate user needs, pain points, and opportunities, effectively influencing product and business decisions.
• Strategic Influence: Demonstrated ability to build relationships with and influence leadership, guide product priorities based on user insights, and connect user experience improvements to measurable business impact (e.g., conversion rates, customer retention).
• Systems Thinking: Comfort and aptitude for understanding and navigating cross-platform journeys, multi-user systems, and complex workflows, with the ability to build frameworks that support broad insight generation across interconnected services.
• Builder Mindset & Autonomy: Proactive, highly autonomous individual who thrives in ambiguous environments, enjoys laying foundations, and sees opportunity in starting new initiatives from scratch.
• Collaborative Operations: Proven experience partnering effectively with cross-functional teams including product management, engineering, design, sales, operations, and data analytics in fast-paced, agile environments.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience within the life insurance, fintech, or other regulated industries, providing context for compliance and financial product complexities.
• Expertise in advanced research techniques such as conjoint analysis, choice modeling, or predictive modeling for deeper quantitative insights.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled research tools or custom frameworks to enhance research efficiency and impact.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "establishing the research function," "building scalable research frameworks," and "collaborating with operations teams" strongly suggests that this role will require a significant degree of operational design and process implementation, akin to a Product Operations or Revenue Operations specialist focused on user insights.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrate a history of successfully establishing or significantly enhancing user research processes within an organization.
• Showcase case studies that detail the end-to-end research process, from defining research questions to delivering actionable insights that influenced product strategy and business outcomes.
• Highlight examples of building and managing research frameworks, such as continuous discovery programs, feedback loops, or satisfaction measurement systems.
• Present evidence of synthesizing diverse data sources (qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, operational) to create holistic user understanding and identify strategic opportunities.
• Include examples of influencing product roadmaps and stakeholder decisions through compelling research narratives and data visualization.

Process Documentation:

• Evidence of designing and documenting research methodologies, including study protocols, participant recruitment strategies, and data analysis plans.
• Examples of creating and maintaining user research repositories or knowledge management systems to ensure insights are accessible and actionable across teams.
• Showcase how research insights were integrated into product development lifecycles, from ideation and design to validation and iteration, demonstrating process integration.

📝 Enhancement Note: While not explicitly a "process portfolio" in the traditional operations sense (like CRM workflow optimization), the expectation for establishing research functions and building frameworks implies a need for candidates to demonstrate their ability to structure, document, and operationalize research activities. This is a critical skill for any foundational operations hire.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• The US national base salary range for this full-time position is $126,000 - $224,000 USD per year.
• This range is determined by role, level, and specific work location within the US. Individual pay will be influenced by factors such as job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.
• The displayed range reflects target new hire salaries across all US locations.

Benefits:

• Details on specific benefits are available at https://www.ethoslife.com/careers/. While not explicitly listed in the provided text, typical benefits for a role of this caliber and remote status in the US often include:
  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Stock options or equity grants.
  • 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
  • Generous paid time off (PTO) and holidays.
  • Professional development and learning stipends.
  • Home office stipend for remote workers.

Working Hours:

• The role is full-time, with an expected standard of 40 hours per week.
• Given the remote nature and the "builder" aspect of establishing a new function, there may be flexibility in daily scheduling, but responsiveness and availability for key meetings and research activities will be crucial.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is provided and appears competitive for a staff-level research role in the US tech industry. The note about "applicable bonus, equity, or benefits" not being included in the base salary suggests a total compensation package that is likely more comprehensive.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Insurtech / Financial Services / Technology. Ethos aims to modernize the life insurance industry through technology and data science, making it faster and more accessible. Company Size: Midsize (implied by "BuiltIn's Top 100 Midsize Companies in San Francisco" award). This suggests a company that is past the startup phase but still growing rapidly, offering opportunities for high impact and influence. Founded: Ethos was founded to disrupt the traditional life insurance market. Its approach blends industry expertise with technology and a human touch to streamline the process.

Team Structure:

• The User Researcher will be the first dedicated researcher on the team, indicating a nascent but growing design and product organization.
• This role will likely report into a Head of Product, Design Lead, or a similar senior leadership position within the product development function.
• Close collaboration is expected with product managers, designers, engineers, sales, operations, and data analytics teams, requiring strong cross-functional partnership skills.

Methodology:

• Ethos leverages deep technology and data science, utilizing predictive analytics to transform a multi-week process into a modern digital experience.
• The company emphasizes a user-centered approach, aiming to simplify complex processes and barriers in the life insurance application journey.
• There's a clear focus on continuous improvement and innovation, as evidenced by their investment in technology and their recognition on industry lists like CB Insights' Global Insurtech 50.

Company Website: https://www.ethos.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on digital transformation in a traditionally analog industry suggests a culture that values innovation, efficiency, and data-driven decision-making. The "foundational" nature of this research role means the candidate will play a key part in shaping how user insights are integrated into Ethos's operational and product development processes.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Staff User Researcher. This is a senior individual contributor role, often considered a "player-coach" or a foundational leader for a discipline within a company. It implies a high degree of autonomy, strategic input, and the ability to mentor others. Reporting Structure: Likely reporting to a Director or VP of Product/Design. The role is positioned to influence product strategy and advocate for user needs at senior levels. Operations Impact: The insights generated by this role will directly impact product design, user experience, customer acquisition and retention, and agent efficiency. By simplifying complex journeys and identifying pain points, this research directly supports Ethos's mission to make life insurance more accessible, thereby driving revenue and market penetration.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Research: The primary growth path is to build and lead the user research function at Ethos, potentially growing into a Head of Research or Director of User Experience Research role as the company scales.
• Cross-functional Expertise: Opportunity to deepen understanding of product management, engineering workflows, sales processes, and operational metrics through close collaboration, broadening skill sets beyond core research.
• Strategic Influence: Grow in influence by consistently delivering high-impact insights that shape product strategy and contribute to key business decisions, becoming a trusted advisor to leadership.
• Mentorship & Team Building: Opportunity to mentor junior researchers and designers, and contribute to building a strong, user-centric product culture, developing leadership and team-building skills.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a significant opportunity for career growth by allowing the individual to shape a discipline from the ground up. The "Staff" level indicates a significant level of responsibility and influence, bridging individual contribution with strategic leadership and operational process development.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Remote-first, US-based. This indicates a distributed workforce where collaboration and communication primarily occur through digital channels. Office Location(s): While the role is remote, Ethos may have physical offices. However, the "Remote US" designation means candidates can be located anywhere within the United States.

Workspace Context:

• The work environment will be highly collaborative, requiring proactive engagement with product, design, engineering, sales, and operations teams via virtual communication tools.
• The role likely involves access to standard productivity and collaboration software, along with specialized research tools and potentially internal analytics platforms.
• As the first dedicated researcher, the individual will be instrumental in defining how the team interacts with research insights, fostering a culture of empathy and data-driven decision-making.

Work Schedule:

• Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours/week) are expected.
• Flexibility in daily scheduling is common in remote roles, but availability for team syncs, stakeholder interviews, and research participant sessions across different time zones will be important.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote nature of the role emphasizes the need for strong asynchronous communication skills and the ability to build relationships and influence outcomes without physical proximity. This requires a high degree of self-discipline and proactive engagement, mirroring aspects of remote operations management.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A recruiter or hiring manager will likely conduct an initial call to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and interest in the role and Ethos.
• Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper dive into your experience, research philosophy, approach to complex problems, and understanding of building research functions.
• Portfolio Presentation / Case Study: Expect to present a selection of your best work, demonstrating your research process, methodologies, synthesis skills, and impact. This is a critical stage for a foundational role.
• Cross-functional Interviews: Meetings with key stakeholders (e.g., Product Managers, Designers, Engineers, potentially Sales or Operations leads) to assess collaboration style and ability to integrate insights into workflows.
• Executive/Leadership Interview: A final discussion with senior leadership to evaluate strategic thinking, influence, and alignment with company vision.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Showcase how your research led to tangible product improvements or business outcomes. Quantify impact whenever possible (e.g., "increased conversion rate by X%," "reduced task completion time by Y seconds").
• Demonstrate Process: Clearly articulate your research process for each case study, from problem definition and methodology selection to data analysis and insight delivery.
• Highlight Complexity: Select projects that demonstrate your ability to tackle complex user journeys and systems, as this is a key requirement for the Ethos role.
• Showcase Synthesis: Provide examples of how you synthesized qualitative and quantitative data to form a comprehensive understanding and generate actionable recommendations.
• Tailor to Ethos: Research Ethos's products and target users. Frame your experience in a way that resonates with their business challenges and mission.
• Presentation Clarity: Practice presenting your work concisely and engagingly, ensuring you can articulate complex findings to diverse audiences.

Challenge Preparation:

• Be prepared for behavioral questions about how you handle ambiguity, build processes from scratch, influence stakeholders, and manage competing priorities.
• Consider how you would approach setting up Ethos's research function, including key metrics, foundational processes, and initial research priorities.
• Think about how you would integrate user research insights into Ethos's existing product development and operational workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "establishing the research function" and "building scalable research frameworks" means candidates should prepare to discuss their experience in operationalizing research, not just executing studies. This includes process design, tool selection, and stakeholder management for research insights.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• User Research Platforms: Familiarity with tools for usability testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, Lookback), survey creation (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Typeform), and interview management.
• Collaboration Tools: Proficiency in tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, Miro, Figma, Jira, and Confluence for communication, collaboration, and documentation.
• Analytics & Data Tools: Experience with web analytics (e.g., Google Analytics), product analytics (e.g., Mixpanel, Amplitude), and potentially data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker) to synthesize research with behavioral data.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Ability to work with product analytics platforms to extract and analyze user behavior data, complementing qualitative findings.
• Experience in designing and executing surveys to gather quantitative feedback on satisfaction, usability, and feature adoption.
• Skills in creating clear, impactful reports and dashboards that communicate research findings and their implications to various stakeholders.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how customer data is managed in CRMs (like Salesforce) and how research insights can inform sales and customer success processes would be beneficial.
• Familiarity with automation tools for research participant recruitment or data analysis could be a plus.

📝 Enhancement Note: The mention of "AI-enabled research tools" suggests an openness to leveraging cutting-edge technology for efficiency. While not explicitly listed, experience with data analysis tools and BI platforms will be crucial for synthesizing mixed-method research with behavioral and operational data.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and advocating for the user in all product and business decisions.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Valuing insights derived from research and data to guide strategy and prioritize initiatives.
• Collaboration and Partnership: Working effectively across teams to ensure research is integrated and impactful.
• Innovation and Efficiency: Embracing new methods and tools to improve the research process and maximize its impact.
• Continuous Learning: A commitment to staying current with research methodologies and industry best practices.

Collaboration Style:

• Proactive and transparent communication across remote teams.
• Partnering closely with Product, Design, Engineering, Sales, and Operations to embed user insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Facilitating workshops and sharing sessions to disseminate research findings and build empathy.
• Providing constructive feedback and guidance to team members.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "builder mindset" and "collaborative operator" requirements highlight a culture that values proactive contribution, cross-functional teamwork, and a willingness to establish new ways of working, which are hallmarks of successful operations teams.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Establishing a New Function: The primary challenge is building the user research discipline from scratch, requiring the definition of processes, methodologies, and tools without established precedents.
• Navigating Complexity: Ethos deals with complex user journeys (agents, consumers), intricate workflows, and regulatory constraints, demanding strong analytical and systems-thinking skills.
• Driving Adoption of Research: Educating and influencing stakeholders across the organization to prioritize and act on user insights will be an ongoing challenge.
• Balancing Breadth and Depth: Covering a wide range of user experiences (agent tools, consumer applications) while also needing to conduct deep, impactful research will require effective prioritization.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Impact: Opportunity to significantly shape the product and user experience strategy at a growing company.
• Skill Expansion: Develop expertise in new research methodologies, potentially including advanced quantitative techniques or AI-driven research tools.
• Leadership Development: Grow into a leadership role by building and managing a research function, developing mentorship and team-building skills.
• Industry Exposure: Gain deep insights into the Insurtech and FinTech industries, understanding the unique challenges and opportunities in regulated environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for foundational roles in operations or specialized functions, offering significant opportunities for personal and professional growth by overcoming these hurdles.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you establish a user research function at Ethos from the ground up? What would be your first priorities, and what key processes would you implement?"
• "Describe a time you had to simplify a complex user journey or system through research. What was your approach, and what was the outcome?"
• "How do you balance qualitative and quantitative research to gain a holistic understanding of users? Provide an example."
• "How do you ensure your research insights are actionable and influence product strategy and prioritization? Give an example of how you've influenced leadership."

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you most about Ethos and its mission to transform the life insurance industry?"
• "How do you approach collaboration with product managers, designers, engineers, and other stakeholders, particularly in a remote environment?"
• "Describe your experience working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments. How do you maintain focus and drive progress?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: Organize your portfolio around key themes: building research processes, tackling complex systems, synthesizing mixed methods, and driving business impact.
• Case Study Depth: For each case study, clearly articulate: the problem, your role, the research methodology used, key findings, the insights derived, the recommendations made, and the impact of those recommendations.
• Visuals: Use visuals (e.g., personas, journey maps, key data charts, quotes) to bring your research to life and make it more digestible.
• Metrics: Quantify the impact of your research wherever possible. If direct quantification is difficult, articulate the qualitative impact on product direction or team understanding.
• Conciseness: Be mindful of time. Prepare a concise narrative that highlights your most relevant skills and achievements.

📝 Enhancement Note: Candidates should be prepared to discuss not just their research skills but also their ability to operationalize research, build frameworks, and strategically influence product development. Demonstrating a "builder" mentality and understanding of how research integrates into broader business processes will be key.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Staff User Researcher position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Greenhouse.
• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight experience in establishing research functions, working with complex systems, and driving product strategy through mixed-methods research. Use keywords from the job description.
• Portfolio Preparation: Curate a portfolio that showcases your ability to build research processes, tackle complex user journeys, synthesize diverse data, and demonstrate measurable impact. Prepare to present 2-3 strong case studies.
• Company Research: Familiarize yourself with Ethos's mission, products, and target audience. Understand their technological approach and how user research can support their business goals.
• Interview Practice: Prepare for behavioral questions focusing on ambiguity, process building, collaboration, and strategic influence. Practice articulating your research process and impact clearly.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.