Staff Product Researcher

About Niche

Niche is the leader in school search. Our mission is to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search tools, we help millions of people find the right school for them. We also help thousands of schools recruit more best-fit students, by highlighting what makes them great and making it easier to visit and apply.

Niche is all about finding where you belong, and that mission inspires how we operate every day. We want Niche to be a place where people truly enjoy working and can thrive professionally.

About The Role

Every year, millions of families start the school search process. Students wade through a sea of information and decisions to make, and unfortunately access to help hasn’t changed much in decades: it’s not super clear what your options are, and you might not feel confident that a school is right for you, or think you’ll be able to afford it.

Niche is on a mission to make researching and enrolling in schools easy, transparent, and free. Students need support choosing a school and paying for their education, schools want to find students who will thrive on their campus, and families need help supporting their students every step of the way. Niche helps ensure that it’s not just students in-the-know who get enrolled and can afford to attend.

As a Staff Product Researcher, you’ll have the opportunity to shape the research culture at a mission-driven company and inform the creation of products that make a real difference. You will investigate user needs and behaviors at both strategic and tactical levels, uncovering patterns, motivations, and opportunities. You will collaborate closely with product managers, designers, engineers, analysts and other researchers to drive meaningful, user-centered product decisions. Come play a crucial role in growing our UX Research practice, developing processes, guidelines, and coaching our Product organization on best practices, ensuring our decision making is grounded in evidence while balancing rigor and speed.

You will be part of a vibrant, rigorous and thoughtful Product Design and Research team, while addressing real problems that affect the earning potential of millions of people. We continuously gather research questions, choose the best methods to generate the data we need, and make meaning of our findings together. We are in the early stages of an exciting business transformation, with the opportunity for you to truly make an impact.

What You Will Do

• Identify and prioritize high-impact research opportunities, ensuring alignment with business goals and user needs
• Apply appropriate qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify and evaluate product experiences
• Synthesize and frame user needs to guide product strategy and innovation
• Lead multiple projects independently in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Drive your own research roadmap, with input from designers, product managers, engineers, and other researchers
• Act as a strategic thought partner for senior/executive leadership, supporting better decision-making with evidence and research insights
• Manage the participant lifecycle with support from other researchers, and help inform resourcing decisions around research coordination
• Define or create templates, guidance, and best practices for UX Research at Niche
• Coach our Product Designers on how to test their own solutions, mentor other researchers on their research practice and communicating findings
• Help build and maintain areas where research results are stored, coded and tagged
• Bonus if you can travel for in-person research, collaboration sessions, and team building events 4-6 times per year

During the First Month:

• Learn about Niche by meeting with various team members to learn more about our company through our Onboarding meetings
• Meet and get familiar with different teams and functions within the Product Development Organization (PDO), understand the current research landscape and user experience priorities
• Understand the company mission and vision, business model, workflows and ways of working across the PDO
• Review existing research repository, methodologies, and tools currently in use; conduct initial assessment of current UX research practices

Within 3 Months:

• Understand our student and family user journeys across web and mobile platforms and how research insights translate to business value
• Lead your first significant research project from planning to presentation, establishing your research roadmap
• Begin implementing improved research processes, templates, and guidelines; start coaching Product Designers on user testing and evaluation techniques
• Develop relationships with research participants and take over building/maintaining lists for recruiting

Within 6 Months:

• Successfully manage multiple concurrent research projects while maintaining quality
• Help the UXR team build and launch our first research repository with proper coding, tagging, and accessibility for self-serve access across the org
• Begin shaping AI-first product experiences through targeted research on LLM-powered interactions and demonstrate measurable impact on product decisions
• Lead strategic research that influences broader product strategy and innovation direction; mentor team members on research best practices

Within 12 Months:

• Establish yourself as a go-to research authority with teams proactively seeking your guidance on user-centered decisions and scaling research operations across the PDO
• Drive significant product improvements and new feature development based on user insights; contribute to responsible AI development practices through research-backed recommendations
• Build robust research culture across the PDO with measurable adoption of best practices and influence executive-level strategic decisions through compelling research synthesis
• Develop and execute research that directly supports Niche's mission of making school search more accessible and equitable for millions of families

What We Are Looking For

• 6+ years experience in user research and/or market research
• Experience shaping AI-first products, including but not limited to LLM-powered interactions
• Expertise in mixed methods, with fluency in qualitative techniques (e.g. interviews, usability) and quantitative approaches (e.g. surveys with large sample sizes, behavioral analysis)
• Proven track record thriving in a high-growth, collaborative environment exploring ambiguous opportunity areas
• Strong systems thinker, adept at re-thinking processes, understanding the value of findings to decision making, and finding a path forward
• An ownership mindset, able to act as a strategic operator, not just a researcher
• Strong communication skills, able to adapt the format and delivery of findings to the audience
• Proactively and thoughtfully experimenting with AI tools in research workflows
• Bonus if you have experience evaluating probabilistic experiences, or experience “showing ideas” and building stimuli through rapid prototyping
• Bonus if you have a background or degree in Anthropology

Compensation 

Our national target base salary range is $155,000-$183,000, plus participation in our Annual Bonus and Stock Option Program. Base compensation will be commensurate with experience and skills.

At Niche, our Total Rewards Philosophy is centered around creating a workplace environment that attracts, motivates, and retains top talent by providing a comprehensive and competitive rewards package.  This philosophy is built on the principles of performance-based compensation, best-in-class benefits and work-life balance, and employee well-being.

Interview Process

Candidate experience is a top priority for our talent and hiring teams.  We believe in providing a transparent, authentic and comprehensive interview process where you have the opportunity to learn about us while we get to know you and your experience.  The interview process is outlined here:

• Phone Screen with Talent Acquisition Partner - 30 Minutes

• Video Interview with Hiring Manager - 45 Minutes

• Research Case Study Presentation - 30 Minutes

• Peer Researcher Review - 30 Minutes

Why Niche?

• We are a fully flexible workforce empowering our employees to choose to work remotely, in our Pittsburgh office or whatever combination suits you
• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation in a fast-growing company
• Best-in-class 100% paid employee health plan, including vision and dental and supplemental coverage
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Stipend that allows you to build your work from home office in a style and function that suits your personal preferences
• Parental leave for all employees (12 weeks fully paid) in addition to short term disability for birthing parents
• Meaningful 401(k) with employer match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users
• You will join a team that cares about you, our mission, our work - and celebrates our wins together!

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.  

We are currently hiring in states where we currently have employees: AZ, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MO, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, DC, WV.

Candidates only.  No recruiters or agencies, please. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

All interviews are being held remotely. If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.