Remote Lead Researcher: Strategy & Discovery

ImagineX LLC; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

ImagineX LLC is seeking a Lead Researcher to define research strategy and execute across client engagements. You will partner with product leadership to translate findings into decisions, manage expectations from product owners to executives, and leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate desk research while maintaining rigor.

This full-time, 100% remote role emphasizes deep qualitative and quantitative methods, service design fluency, and the ability to influence product direction across

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in user research, design research, or product strategy, including time leading research on complex initiatives.
• Demonstrated range across qualitative and quantitative methods, with the judgment to know when to bring in specialist support.
• Proven ability to partner with senior client stakeholders and sustain the relationship through disagreement.
• A portfolio or set of case examples where research measurably changed a product decision, ideally including examples where the finding was unexpected.
• Experience embedded in client, consulting, or multi-client environments where you did not own the roadmap.
• Fluency with service design artifacts including blueprints, journey maps, and ecosystem models.
• Strong facilitation skills across mixed-seniority groups, from working teams to executive audiences.
• Working knowledge of modern discovery practices such as Dual-Track Agile, Continuous Discovery, or Double Diamond, and the ability to adapt them to real-world constraints.
• Familiarity with research and testing platforms, repositories, and participant privacy practices.
• Clear writing and presentation skills, with the ability to translate findings into both business and technical language.

Responsibilities

• Own research strategy and execution across one or two concurrent client engagements, from framing the question through supporting the decision.
• Design and run mixed-methods programs including generative interviews, contextual inquiry, concept and usability validation, surveys, literature review, and competitive or market analysis.
• Select methods based on the decision at risk, making the case for a lighter study when speed matters and for deeper rigor when the stakes justify it.
• Serve as the primary research and strategy partner for client stakeholders, managing expectations and alignment from product owners through executives.
• Synthesize qualitative, quantitative, and secondary sources into clear recommendations on what to build, what to sequence later, and what to stop.
• Develop and maintain service blueprints that connect user journeys to backstage processes, systems, and operational realities.
• Facilitate discovery workshops, opportunity mapping, and assumption-testing sessions with cross-functional client teams.
• Establish research operations on each engagement, including recruiting, screening, incentives, consent, and repository practices.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate desk research, synthesis, and reporting without compromising analytical rigor.
• Coach designers and researchers on the pod through study plan reviews, synthesis support, and feedback on readouts.
• Contribute to internal research and product strategy practices, including our shared methods library.

Skills

User research

Qualitative methods

Quantitative methods

Stakeholder management

Facilitation

Service design

Research ops

Job description

ImagineX LLC is seeking a Lead Researcher to define research strategy and execute across client engagements. You will partner with product leadership to translate findings into decisions, manage expectations from product owners to executives, and leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate desk research while maintaining rigor.

This full-time, 100% remote role emphasizes deep qualitative and quantitative methods, service design fluency, and the ability to influence product direction across