Lead Hardware UX Researcher

Toast is driven by building the restaurant platform that helps restaurants adapt, take control, and get back to what they do best: building the businesses they love.

We’re looking for a Lead UX Researcher strategist for hardware product research delivering data and insights we serve up to our restaurant customers to power the health and growth of their business. You will work on products intended to deliver these insights with appropriate context so restaurants can make confident decisions at every level of their business. As a Toast UX Researcher, you’ll work in an embedded model where you’ll be the expert in the mental models restaurant decision-makers are using to run their businesses sustainably. You’ll join a diverse, multidisciplinary team of problem solvers creating with purpose; to enable restaurants with the tools they need to do what they love and thrive.

About this roll* (responsibilities): 

• You will collaborate with Product team leadership (Product, Design & Engineering)  to identify areas of confidence & risk in the roadmap and craft a plan to address them
• You will develop and administer schedules, may have budget responsibilities, and act as advisor to the team to meet schedules and/or resolve technical problems
• You will scope, plan and conduct high-value UX research throughout the product development process, from generative to evaluative, crafting multi-method approaches to inform solutions to hairy problems, employing your quantitative and qualitative expertise as needed
• You will evangelize research insights & create a shared understanding of user needs (both restaurant & guest) across teams in your domain to drive user-centered strategy and decision-making
• You will exemplify great research practices for your cross-functional teams; delegate, mentor, coach and provide guidance to others as needed to level up everyones’ learning competencies
• You will collaborate with the Research team to establish and promote consistent, rigorous research practices and standards; model and advocate for those standards on your Product team and promote research excellence across the organization

Do you have the right ingredients*? (requirements):

• Experience in people management and leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to use collaboration & influence to lead the research strategy for a product area and connect that to a broader product vision, including identifying & prioritizing research needs
• Demonstrated ability to use systems thinking to  build out research infrastructure, defining cadences, processes and best practices 
• Executive level presentation storytelling using persuasion & communication to drive user-centered strategy & design
• Deep and broad research toolkit - experience with generative research, workshop facilitation, concept testing, unmoderated methods, evaluative research and measurement, with deep expertise in at least one method
• Experience with unmoderated testing tools (ex. UserTesting) & survey tools (ex. Qualtrics)
• Experience conducting research in B2B environments, ideally including high-complexity experiences combining data visualization & information architecture
• 5+ years experience in industry conducting applied research on consumer products with a depth in hardware product research.
• 5+ years experience as a researcher on an end to end product – creating strategic research vision, defining and tracking user experience goals and metrics, driving execution on projects, and managing the work of additional resources.

Special sauce* (nonessential skills/nice to haves):

• Your collaborative style inspires others to the point where people ask to work with you and your expertise and confidence have others seeking out your informed perspective.
• You’re passionate about maintaining a healthy work-life balance by scoping, setting expectations and maintaining your boundaries.
• You have a growth mindset - you see challenges as opportunities, believe feedback is a gift and can speak confidently about failures & what you learned from them.

Our spread* of Total Rewards (benefits):

• Flexible paid time off
• Sabbatical opportunity after five years
• 401(k) and matching
• Medical, dental, & vision coverage
• Mental Health Benefits
• 100% paid childbirth recovery medical leave
• 16 weeks of 100% paid parental leave
• Eligibility for 100% paid medical or family leave
• Subsidized backup childcare
• Professional Development Reimbursement Program
• Home office and telecommunications stipends
• Free access to Certified Financial Planners
• Commitment to Employee Wellness through resources such as a quarterly Wellness Stipend
• Various peer and company recognition programs

*We love great food and bread puns!

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