Principal UX Researcher

Bright Horizons Family Solutions; Newton (MA); Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 154,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Paid vacation and parental leave

401(k) retirement plan

Wellness programs

Job summary

Bright Horizons is seeking a Principal UX Researcher to lead qualitative research efforts across enterprise products. You will plan, execute, and synthesize studies, manage a research repository, and partner with UX designers and product owners to drive evidence-based decisions.

The role focuses on planning and facilitating discovery, usability, and validation research while elevating insights into actionable product recommendations and user stories. Hybrid work at headquarters in Newton, MA.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in UX Design, UX Research, Human Factors, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science, HCI or related field.
• If no degree, an additional 3 years of relevant experience may be considered.
• 7 years of experience in UX Design.
• 4–5 years of experience in UX Research, including planning and facilitating UX interviews across multiple projects.

Responsibilities

• User Centered Design: align user needs with product solutions and research-informed decisions.
• Research Planning: design studies, screeners, guides, and recruit across audiences.
• Research Facilitation: conduct interviews, observations, and collect feedback at scale.
• Research Analysis: synthesize insights and craft user stories for requirements and roadmaps.
• Strategic Leadership: develop and evolve a UX research roadmap aligned to priorities.
• Stakeholder Management: translate business questions into learning agendas and drive adoption.
• Research Repository: maintain centralized repository of insights.
• Research Forum: lead share-outs and workshops across teams.

Skills

UX Research

UX Design

Stakeholder interviews

Executive summaries

Research platforms

Education

Bachelor's degree in UX fields or related

3 years experience alternative to degree

Tools

GA4

UserInterviews.com

UserTesting.com

Job description

Primary Purpose

The Principal UX Researcher will support planning, strategy and facilitation of UX research as part of an enterprise design team, supporting products across multiple products and business suites. This role is focused on driving qualitative research initiatives, establishing and managing research repository, and collaborating across product teams to support planning and facilitating all types of user research. Role will include discovery research interviews, card sorts, validation research, competitive analysis, quantitative surveys, usability studies, and elevating research analysis and insights into formal product recommendations and user stories. This role requires being inherently curious, detail-oriented, and self-directed. This role will collaborate directly with UX designers and product owners.

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days a week onsite at our headquarters in Newton, MA.

Bright Horizons is a leading education and care company that helps employees thrive at work and at home by partnering with employers to offer high-quality child care, elder care, and educational support. Our workplace reflects this commitment- with collaborative environments, meaningful benefits, and a culture that supports both career growth and personal well-being. Whether you’re caring for children or powering the systems and partnerships that make it all possible, at Bright Horizons, you’re the difference.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

• User Centered Design: Embracing UX design framework. Cultivating relationship between user objectives, needs, pain points and product solutions and how UX research informs design decisions and product strategies.
• Research Planning: Defining, designing, and executing research efforts. Knowing which methodology to apply for different types of investigations. Drafting screeners and moderator guides, counseling product and design partners on best practices and approaches. Recruiting participants across audience segments. Prioritizing research goals, priority areas for questioning, and moderator guidance.
• Research Facilitation: Setting up research interviews studies with target audiences in UserTesting.com. Facilitating one-on-one interviews, field observations and product feedback channels to examine user behaviors and workflows, uncover attitudes and pain points needs and barriers. Conduct large-scale foundational study across core audiences and support smaller quick turnaround research initiatives. Manage recorded transcripts and recorded video sessions and asynchronous surveys.
• Research Analysis: Using various frameworks to produce research analysis and reports. Produce high-quality insights and crafted user stories to inform user requirements. Leverage product analytics, customer feedback, support trends, and surveys to inform recommendations. Deliver recommendations to leadership and product teams and supporting share-outs and research insight transparency across the design team.
• Strategic Leadership: Develop and maintain a research roadmap aligned to business and product priorities. Establish and evolve UX research with best practices, templates, standards, and processes. Champion research rigor across methodology selection, execution, and reporting.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with creative team to understand research needs, desired goals and manage planning, execution and testing opportunities. Translate business objectives into research questions and strategic learning agendas. Influence product strategy through evidence-based recommendations. Drive adoption of research insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Research Repository: Cultivate and maintain a UX research repository with insights from past and future research efforts available in one place.
• Research Forum: Establish and lead share outs of design research in collaborative forums inclusive of product, UX, development and marketing team partners. Facilitate research workshops and readouts.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in UX Design, UX Research, Human Factors, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Cognitive Science, HCI or other related degree
  • In lieu of a degree, an additional 3 years of experience may be considered
• 7 years of experience in UX Design
• 4-5 years of experience in UX Research, including planning and facilitating UX research interviews across multiple projects or workstreams

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous working experience in UX Design, UX Strategy, Product Design or Product Marketing
• Fluid with all aspects of UX design: stakeholder interviews and analysis, screener preparation, participant recruiting, Moderator guide creation, research survey preparation, research interview facilitation, research analysis and Executive Summary preparation
• Experience working within an enterprise organization or large global brand
• Experience supporting multiple product or business suites in parallel
• Experience working with research platforms (GA4, UserInterviews.com, UserTesting.com)
• Experience establishing and maintaining research repository
• Comfortable incorporating AI into research workflows
• Comfort planning and strategizing research efforts
• Comfort facilitating and engaging with research participants
• Excellent attention to detail, organization
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and deadlines
• Strong communication skills
• Experience working with agency partners or cross-functional teams is a plus

At this time, Bright Horizons will not sponsor an applicant for employment authorization/visa for this position.

Be part of a community where people grow, futures are shaped, and lives are changed. We offer the rewards, opportunities, and support you deserve because making a difference goes both ways. We’re changing the world of work and family, and it starts with you. At Bright Horizons, you’re the difference.

Compensation:

The annual salary for this position is between $145,000-$154,000. The pay range listed here is what Bright Horizons in good faith anticipates offering for this job opening. Actual compensation offers within this range will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education and training, certifications, geography, and other relevant business or organizational factors.

This position is also eligible for a bonus.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid vacation, sick, holiday, and parental bonding leave
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Long-term and short-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Money-saving discounts and financial planning tools
• Tuition assistance and education coaching
• Caregiving support and resources for the children and adults in your family
• Learn more at https://careers.brighthorizons.com/us/en/health-and-wellness

Life at Bright Horizons:

At Bright Horizons, you’re more than your job title - you’re the difference. Whether you’re nurturing a child’s first steps or supporting the systems behind the scenes, your work creates real impact. We’re a community that celebrates individuality, invests in your growth, and supports your whole self. Because when you thrive, so do the children, families, and clients we serve. Join us and help build a brighter future - for yourself and for others.

Bright Horizons provides equal opportunity in all aspects of employment and does not discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law. Bright Horizons complies with the laws and regulations described in the following federal government resources: Know Your Rights, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).

If you require assistance or a reasonable accommodation in completing these application materials or any aspect of the application and hiring process, please contact the recruitment helpdesk at 855-877-6866 or [e-mail]. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.