Senior User Researcher Jobs
Senior User Researcher jobs are open across tech, healthcare, fintech, and consumer goods, with specializations in generative research, usability testing, and mixed-methods research, from mid-level individual contributor to principal and staff. See the openings below and apply to the ones that match your experience.
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Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.
The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.
Snap Research serves as an innovation engine for the company. Our projects range from solutions to hard technical problems that significantly enhance Snap’s existing products, to riskier explorations that can lead to fundamental paradigm shifts in the way people communicate and express themselves. The team consists of scientists and engineers who experiment with and invent new technology that has a lasting impact on Snap’s products. We also frequently publish our work at top conferences and journals in computer science and related fields.
We are looking for a Research Scientist to join our User Modeling and Personalization Research Team! Our team’s mission is to invent new ways to model user behavior, and empower our business partners to build world-class user-centric ML systems which shape personalized experiences across Snap. Our work spans the domains of generative and language models for information retrieval, efficient large-scale recommender systems, and representation learning for structured graph data. Together with you, we seek to redefine the state-of-the-art in technology to deliver our users customized experiences which delight them.
What you'll do:
Formulate and derive a research agenda in the user modeling and personalization domains, including generative modeling, recommendation systems, information retrieval, and efficiency
Partner with engineering teams to translate research to business impact for real-world ML applications used by millions of Snapchatters
Build scalable research prototypes and evaluate them in large-scale machine learning scenarios
Share your expertise with teammates and interns
Publish your findings at top conferences
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:
Strong technical knowledge of machine learning, information retrieval, personalization, language and state-of-the-art deep learning literature
Demonstrated ability in defining, leading and executing challenging research projects
Strong computer science fundamentals, problem-solving and engineering skills (Python, PyTorch)
Pragmatic, hands-on approach to research with a drive to build working prototypes rather than solely rely on theoretical exploration
Proven ability to mentor interns, students and junior researchers
Minimum Qualifications:
PhD in computer science, machine learning, language technologies or related technical field such as statistics, mathematics, or equivalent years of experience
5+ years of industry or postdoctoral experience
Track record of publications in top machine learning, information retrieval or language venues (e.g. ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, KDD, RecSys, SIGIR, WSDM, ACL, COLM, etc.)
Experience with distributed (multi-node and multi-GPU) ML model training, inference and experimentation
Experience applying language models in the context of generative search, ranking and/or personalization
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with large-scale machine learning problems in an academic or industrial research lab, or equivalent open-source experience
Experience with large-scale data processing, collection or synthesis using machine learning frameworks on Enterprise Cloud solutions like Google Cloud, AWS, and/or Azure
Familiarity with post-training, preference optimization, working with large-scale search or recommendation interaction data, and recommender systems
Demonstrated ability to transform cutting-edge research into tangible product improvements
If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don’t be shy and provide us some information.
"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.
At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).
Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!
Compensation
In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.
Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):
The base salary range for this position is $229,000-$343,000 annually.
Zone B:
Zone C:
The base salary range for this position is $195,000-$292,000 annually. This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.
The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.
Snap Research serves as an innovation engine for the company. Our projects range from solutions to hard technical problems that significantly enhance Snap’s existing products, to riskier explorations that can lead to fundamental paradigm shifts in the way people communicate and express themselves. The team consists of scientists and engineers who experiment with and invent new technology that has a lasting impact on Snap’s products. We also frequently publish our work at top conferences and journals in computer science and related fields.
We are looking for a Research Scientist to join our User Modeling and Personalization Research Team! Our team’s mission is to invent new ways to model user behavior, and empower our business partners to build world-class user-centric ML systems which shape personalized experiences across Snap. Our work spans the domains of generative and language models for information retrieval, efficient large-scale recommender systems, and representation learning for structured graph data. Together with you, we seek to redefine the state-of-the-art in technology to deliver our users customized experiences which delight them.
What you'll do:
Formulate and derive a research agenda in the user modeling and personalization domains, including generative modeling, recommendation systems, information retrieval, and efficiency
Partner with engineering teams to translate research to business impact for real-world ML applications used by millions of Snapchatters
Build scalable research prototypes and evaluate them in large-scale machine learning scenarios
Share your expertise with teammates and interns
Publish your findings at top conferences
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:
Strong technical knowledge of machine learning, information retrieval, personalization, language and state-of-the-art deep learning literature
Demonstrated ability in defining, leading and executing challenging research projects
Strong computer science fundamentals, problem-solving and engineering skills (Python, PyTorch)
Pragmatic, hands-on approach to research with a drive to build working prototypes rather than solely rely on theoretical exploration
Proven ability to mentor interns, students and junior researchers
Minimum Qualifications:
PhD in computer science, machine learning, language technologies or related technical field such as statistics, mathematics, or equivalent years of experience
5+ years of industry or postdoctoral experience
Track record of publications in top machine learning, information retrieval or language venues (e.g. ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, KDD, RecSys, SIGIR, WSDM, ACL, COLM, etc.)
Experience with distributed (multi-node and multi-GPU) ML model training, inference and experimentation
Experience applying language models in the context of generative search, ranking and/or personalization
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with large-scale machine learning problems in an academic or industrial research lab, or equivalent open-source experience
Experience with large-scale data processing, collection or synthesis using machine learning frameworks on Enterprise Cloud solutions like Google Cloud, AWS, and/or Azure
Familiarity with post-training, preference optimization, working with large-scale search or recommendation interaction data, and recommender systems
Demonstrated ability to transform cutting-edge research into tangible product improvements
If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don’t be shy and provide us some information.
"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.
At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).
Our Benefits: Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!
Compensation
In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.
Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):
The base salary range for this position is $229,000-$343,000 annually.
Zone B:
Zone C:
The base salary range for this position is $195,000-$292,000 annually. This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.Senior User Researcher Jobs by Experience Level
See All 57 Senior User Researcher Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software11
- Consulting & Professional Services7
- Banking & Financial Services3
- Education1
- Automotive1
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in senior user researcher jobs.
- 5 or more years of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative user research
- Proficiency with usability testing, in-depth interviews, and survey design methods
- Experience with research tools such as Dovetail, UserTesting, Qualtrics, or Maze
- Demonstrated ability to communicate research findings to product and design stakeholders
- Portfolio of end-to-end research projects showing business or product impact
- Bachelor's or master's degree in human-computer interaction, psychology, or a related field
Tips for Your Senior User Researcher Job Search
Tailor your portfolio to research impact
Hiring managers for senior roles want to see how your research changed a product decision, not just your methodology. For each case study, lead with the business question, then show what shifted because of your findings.
Quantify your research operations contributions
If you've built a participant panel, standardized a research repository, or scaled a team's tooling, call that out explicitly. Senior candidates who show they've made research more efficient across a team stand out from those who only document individual studies.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists senior user researcher openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Match your résumé to the research maturity level
A company building its first research practice needs different skills than one with a mature function. Read job postings for signals like 'establish research' versus 'scale research,' and adjust which experiences you emphasize to reflect what the team actually needs right now.
Prepare a research critique for your portfolio review
Many senior user researcher interviews include a live critique of your own past work. Practice explaining what you'd do differently, which constraints shaped your choices, and how you'd approach a follow-up study with more time or budget.
Negotiate scope and resources, not just salary
At the senior level, your ability to conduct meaningful research depends on participant access, tooling budgets, and cross-functional partnership. When an offer comes, ask directly about research infrastructure and how decisions get made before you finalize anything.
Senior User Researcher Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most senior user researchers?
The most active employers for senior user researchers right now are Exponent, Xometry, and Capital One, and the most openings are in California, New York, and Washington, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of July 2026. Demand is concentrated in tech and healthcare organizations with dedicated product research functions.
How many senior user researcher jobs are remote?
About 70% of senior user researcher openings are fully remote or hybrid as of July 2026, making this one of the more remote-accessible roles in product design. Generative and strategic research work tends to be the most location-flexible, while roles requiring in-person usability lab facilitation or embedded team collaboration are more likely to require on-site presence.
How do you become a senior user researcher?
You typically move into a senior user researcher role by leading end-to-end research projects independently, demonstrating that your findings directly shaped product or business decisions, and mentoring more junior researchers. Building a strong portfolio that shows both methodological range and business impact is essential. Many researchers also develop expertise in research operations or mixed-methods work to differentiate themselves for senior-level consideration.
Can you get hired as a senior user researcher without direct industry experience?
You can make the transition into a new industry as a senior user researcher if your methodological skills are strong and your portfolio shows transferable problem types. Hiring managers care more about your ability to scope ambiguous research questions and influence product decisions than about domain-specific knowledge. Focusing your application on the research challenges in your case studies rather than the industry context helps bridge the gap.
What does the senior user researcher interview process look like?
Most senior user researcher interview processes include an initial recruiter screen, a hiring manager conversation focused on your research philosophy and past impact, and a portfolio presentation where you walk through one or two case studies in depth. Many also include a research challenge or take-home exercise where you scope a study or critique an existing one. Final rounds often involve cross-functional stakeholders from product and design.
Where can I find and apply to senior user researcher jobs?
You can find and apply to senior user researcher jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States in one place. Search for roles that match your experience level, specialization, and preferred location or remote arrangement, then apply directly to each listing that fits.
See All 57 Senior User Researcher Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Senior User Researcher Jobs