Senior Manager, User Research

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior UX Research Manager to lead research across our Retailer Storefront, Ads, and Connected Stores businesses. This role will play a critical part in realizing Instacart’s long-term vision: transforming the in-store experience, driving innovation and growth for CPG advertisers, and becoming the default choice for retailers seeking end-to-end solutions. You’ll provide strategic leadership for a team of researchers, mentoring talent and driving a culture of insight-driven decision making across high-impact business lines.

About the team

The Instacart Research team is dedicated to understanding the future of grocery shopping and how current behaviors and needs may be rapidly evolving. We generate insights that drive product strategy and innovation. We are a collaborative and tight-knit team, and we partner with product, design, data science, and engineering to help build products that solve real problems for people and support Instacart’s mission.

About the Job

• Lead and mentor a team of senior UX researchers, providing guidance, career development, and a supportive environment that fosters growth, psychological safety, and a culture of excellence.
• Shape and drive research strategy, balancing generative and evaluative work to uncover opportunities, evaluate solutions, and influence both near-term product direction and long-term company priorities.
• Elevate research quality and impact by establishing best practices, championing methodological rigor, and embedding insights into decision-making at all levels.
• Partner cross-functionally with product, design, engineering, business development, data science, and marketing leaders to ensure research directly informs strategy and execution.
• Manage resources and vendors effectively, including budgets, contracts, and external partners, to scale the reach and efficiency of the research function.
• Champion new methods, tools, and technologies, including AI-driven approaches to expand research capabilities and accelerate insight generation.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of research experience, including 5+ years managing and scaling research teams in enterprise or complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Proven ability to build, retain, and inspire high-performing teams
• Strong track record of influencing senior leaders—Directors, VPs, and C-suite executives—through clear communication, storytelling, and opinionated recommendations.
• Deep expertise across a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods, with the ability to tailor approaches to enterprise-scale challenges.
• Experience leading research in B2B and B2B2C domains (e.g., Ads platforms, SaaS tools, retailer solutions) is highly desirable.
• Skilled at leading through change, thriving in ambiguous environments, and bringing clarity and focus to evolving priorities.
• Degree in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Design, Human Factors, Anthropology, or a related field—or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Psychology, Cognitive Science, HCI, Statistics, Data Science, Anthropology, or a related field.
• Background in e-commerce, online marketplaces, grocery, or consumer technology.
• Experience managing research operations at scale, including tooling, processes, and governance.
• Experience applying service design methods to complex, omnichannel ecosystems (e.g., in-store and online journeys, B2B2C platforms).