User Researcher, Care & Access

Socket.dev; Columbus (OH); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Gifthealth seeks a User Researcher, Care & Access to own research across patient access, fulfillment, and pharmacy operations. You will partner with Product and Design to shape problems, conduct on-site and remote research, and synthesize qualitative and operational evidence to guide decision-making.

You will work with Operations and other partners, travel for on-site research in Columbus, and help translate complex workflows into actionable insights within a growing research function.

Qualifications

• Experience leading ambiguous product or service research.
• Healthcare, pharmacy, or patient-access domain familiarity is a plus.
• Able to work independently in complex environments.

Responsibilities

• Own research across care and case-management workflows and pharmacy operations.
• Turn ambiguous problems into clear research questions and evidence needs.
• Conduct interviews, observations, contextual and field research, and usability testing, including on-site work.
• Partner with Product and Design early to shape problems and direction.
• Link qualitative findings with operational and quantitative data.
• Synthesize across tools and workflows to identify patterns and opportunities.
• Build ongoing relationships to surface important questions early.

Skills

Research ownership

Ambiguity management

Interviewing

Observation

Synthesis

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Contextual inquiry (preferred)

Education

No specific degree required

Job description

Description

User Researcher, Care & Access

About Us

At Gifthealth, we\'re revolutionizing the way people experience healthcare by simplifying the process of managing prescriptions and health services. Our mission is to provide a seamless, personalized, and efficient healthcare experience for all our customers. We\'re a dynamic, innovative, and customer-centric company dedicated to making a positive impact on people\'s lives.

Position Summary

We are seeking a User Researcher, Care & Access to own research across the people and workflows that make patient access and fulfillment possible. This position plays a key role in supporting the Productdepartment and reports to Gifthealth\'s Sr. User Researcher, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, operational excellence, and compliance standards.

Sometimes that means studying a product interface. Other times it means sitting alongside an internal team, following work across systems, talking with a prescriber office, going on-site, or combining firsthand research with operational data. A product team should be able to bring this researcher a problem that nobody completely understands ("This workflow isn't working the way we expected. What\'s actually happening?") and trust them to independently take it from "something seems wrong" to evidence the team can act on: where the problem actually sits, what the evidence supports, which parts are product-addressable, and what should happen next.

This is a role for someone who likes entering complicated, imperfectly understood environments and making them legible. This role joins a growing research function inside the Product organization and will also work closely with Operations teams and other partners across the company.

Key Responsibilities

• Research ownership: Own research across internal care and case-management workflows, pharmacy operations, prescriber experiences, and field-facing products.
• Problem framing: Independently turn ambiguous product and operational problems into clear research questions and determine what evidence is needed to answer them.
• Proximity to the work: Get close to how work actually happens through interviews, observation, contextual and field research, usability testing, and other methods appropriate to the problem, including on-site research with Gifthealth teams in Columbus.
• Early partnership: Partner with Product and Design early enough for research to shape the problem and direction, not just evaluate a proposed solution.
• Mixed evidence: Connect firsthand research with operational and quantitative evidence to distinguish symptoms from underlying causes.
• Cross-surface synthesis: Synthesize across tools and workflows to identify larger patterns, problems, and opportunities that no single product surface reveals.
• Persistent relationships: Build enough context and ongoing relationships in these areas to surface important questions before they become urgent requests.

Qualifications

• Education: No specific degree required; equivalent practical experience will be considered.
• Licensure/Certification: Not applicable
• Experience: Typically 6+ years of research experience, with a track record of independently leading ambiguous product or service research. Experience getting close to real workflows and understanding the difference between how a process is supposed to work and how it works in practice. Healthcare, pharmacy, or patient-access experience is welcome but not required.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • High agency: owns the path to an answer, not just the assigned task, and finds the people, evidence, access, or workaround needed to keep moving. Find a way or make one.
  • Comfort with ambiguity and speed: moves confidently when the question is messy, the timeline is short, or the evidence is incomplete, and knows how much research the decision actually requires.
  • AI-forward: assumes there is usually a faster or deeper way to work with AI and looks for it proactively, with strong judgment about when to trust, verify, or step outside the tool.
  • Claim discipline: precise about what the evidence does and does not support, and explicit about meaningful uncertainty.
  • Close to the work: prefers seeing how something actually happens over relying on process diagrams, secondhand descriptions, or assumptions.
  • Systems-minded: can study one workflow without losing sight of the larger system around it.
  • Strong research judgment and the ability to choose an approach based on the question rather than a preferred method.
  • Strong interviewing, observation, synthesis, and communication skills, with the ability to make complicated systems and evidence understandable without losing important nuance.
  • Experience influencing decisions across Product, Design, and operational teams; comfort working across qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, and operational evidence.
  • Preferred: Experience with contextual inquiry, ethnographic research, service design, or field research.
  • Preferred: Experience researching internal tools, complex workflows, or products spanning digital and offline interactions.
  • Preferred: Experience in complex or regulated environments.

Work Environment

• Location: Remote or Hybrid (US). We prefer candidates in or near Columbus, Ohio, where this role can work directly with many of the people and workflows it studies. Remote candidates within the United States are welcome and should expect to travel to Columbus regularly for on-site research.
• Schedule: Full-time
• Periodic on-site research at Gifthealth's Columbus operations, including time with care, pharmacy, and fulfillment teams.
• Regular meetings with the research lead and with Product, Design, Operations, and patient services partners to ensure alignment.

Key Essential Functions

• Must be able to work independently and remotely, with reliable internet access and a suitable environment for conducting interviews and moderated research sessions.
• Must be able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, with internal teams, prescriber offices, and cross-functional partners.
• Must be able to observe and work alongside care, pharmacy, and fulfillment teams on-site, including in operational environments.
• Must be able to travel regularly to Gifthealth's Columbus, Ohio operations for on-site research.

Employment Classification

Status: Full-time
FLSA: Exempt

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Gifthealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. If you do not meet every requirement but still feel you would be a great fit for this role, we encourage you to apply!

Disclaimer

This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, or skills required of personnel. Gifthealth reserves the right to modify job duties or descriptions at any time.