At Instagram Research, our purpose is to advocate for people through high-quality, empathy-driven research to shape product experiences and business decisions. UX researchers here tackle some of the most complex business questions in order to assess current strategy and inform future app strategy and product roadmaps, working closely with engineers, product managers, designers and data scientists. The decisions made based on their research impact the daily experiences of billions of people on a global scale. To achieve this, we must employ the full range of qualitative and quantitative methods delivered at scale and with the highest level of rigor. We value a diverse range of perspectives and stem from many different backgrounds— geographically, culturally, educationally, philosophically. At Instagram Research, our principles are: 1. Deeply understand people: We lead with empathy, equity, and inclusion to elevate people and uncover their latent needs, attitudes, and desires. 2. Ask the “why” behind the “what”: We look ahead and around corners to challenge assumptions and proactively identify the unknown unknowns. 3. Uphold quality and rigor: We use optimal, varied research methods to answer the highest priority questions. 4. Drive impact from insights: We don't just deliver high-quality insights; we care deeply about improving everyone's experiences. We are looking for an experienced research leader with seasoned research, communication and people management skills. The successful candidate has a proven track record of translating research into design and product decisions. It's not enough to answer interesting questions about user behavior; our team focuses on impact. You will oversee a team of world-class researchers across multiple research disciplines. The successful candidate must be an expert research leader who can generate and socialize insights that impact the strategy and product roadmaps of complex and diverse products. The role also requires a proven track record of building and managing high-performing teams, preferably with researchers of different disciplines. Candidates must be able to articulate the vision of the team to cross-functional partners and be a strong advocate for the role of research in product development. This particular role will have an emphasis on defining the future of entertainment for consumers through ecosystems that provide incentives, insights, and capabilities for Creators to craft it through the future of creative expression.

Responsibilities

• Develops and provides strategy, vision, and direction to team managers and individual contributors
• Influences goals and strategies across the company focused on productivity and value delivery
• Contributes to community through sponsoring and championing organizational efforts to build and sustain diversity, culture, recruitment, onboarding, mentoring, and/or development programs
• Forms internal partnerships, influences, resolves conflict, builds alignment, negotiates critical matters, and works effectively across teams to execute the strategy
• Recognized as an influential leader and provides leadership and direction for the organization
• Considers factors beyond their immediate team to innovate, take appropriate risks, and balance short, medium, and long-term needs
• Influences and drives strategies that enable scale and alignment across multiple teams
• Designs and cascades strategic communications to inform and influence across and outside of the company
• Operate as a product, organizational, and research leader who manages the UXR function within this organization, identifying ways to elevate and up level Research throughout in strengthening the business.
• Identify gaps and solutions for future growth and scale within the org, including system, product, function, partnership, culture and/or organization opportunities
• Proactively addresses the largest problems impacting their team's execution and makes decisions to resolve issues and enhance efficiency including risk mitigation and contingency plans
• Builds the org and bench with the diversity, skills mix, and capability required to deliver the priorities of the business
• Responsible for the quality of the team, including coaching, growing ICs and managers and addressing under-performance
• Developing a cohesive and strong leadership team of managers
• Be a role model for inclusive behaviors and build a diverse organization that values, respects and taps into different backgrounds and perspectives
• Makes the company better through engaging in cross-company efforts like recruiting, cross-functional partnerships, diversity & inclusion, or site initiatives
• Actively recruit and close top tier talent to fill strategic open positions for both IC and management roles beyond your immediate organization
• Identify relevant metrics and track trends to report progress relative to goals. (E.g., team health, research impact, product goals)

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or significant experience conducting UX research with meaningful business impact
• 18+ years of experience conducting research post-Bachelor’s degree
• 8+ years directly managing, coaching and developing full-time researchers
• 5+ years experience managing managers
• Experience directly conducting primary research (either qualitative or quantitative) end-to-end (i.e., designing, fielding, analyzing and reporting out data)
• Experience building teams over time through hiring, growing, and retaining high-performing researchers
• Experience building and setting research strategy that connects with business strategy
• Track record of translating research into business impact
• Experience working with a variety of cross-functional peers and stakeholders (e.g., product managers, data scientists, designers, engineers, policy, communications, marketing)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with consumer products, consumer insights, or product development
• 5+ years of UX research experience
• Experience with startup environments or new app development