Locations

In this role you can work from Remote, Canada

Overview

We’re looking for a Staff User Researcher to join the GitHub Customer Research team! As a core part of the Design organization, our team works closely with designers, PMs, and data teams to build the tools that support the future of software development.

At the Staff level, you are an elevating force for our research practice. You don't just execute projects; you move the right research forward for the entire product area, influencing the organization to participate in the process and building systems that allow research to happen repeatedly. You have a deep understanding of GitHub’s overall business and future goals, and you use that "big picture" view to prioritize high-impact work without oversight.

Responsibilities

Strategic Research Leadership

• Create research plans in collaboration with product leadership to define customer needs and inform high-level product strategy and user experience direction.
• Proactively identify research needs and high-risk experiences across the organization where customer feedback is critical.
• Act as an organizational 'radar' by proactively identifying research gaps and high-risk experience blind spots that span multiple product areas, translating these into strategic opportunities for org-wide influence and product impact.
• Ability to iterate and pivot in fast-moving spaces like AI agents and collaborative software development
• ability to represent the research organization to the Leadership Team and guide complex debates to consensus
• Lead others in synthesizing and distilling complex qualitative and quantitative data into broad, actionable insights for the business.
• Act as a thought leader for how we distill customer insights across Product and the wider organization
• Lead efforts as a leader to provide effective tools, templates, and question libraries for product makers (PMs and Designers) to conduct their own research.
• Guide debates to reach consensus and influence platform-level decisions regarding data collection and instrumentation
• Drive impact by creating an emotional connection to the customer through storytelling, convincing senior stakeholders to take action on research findings
• Regularly mentor both researchers and product stakeholders in methods, scoping, analysis, and the approach to good research
• Maintain a professional presence by sharing expertise in the wider research community through papers, podcasts, or conferences

Qualifications

• 10+ years experience in user experience research

  • OR Bachelor's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 8+ years experience in user experience research
  • OR Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 6+ years experience in user experience research
  • OR Doctorate in Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors Engineering, Computer Science, Technical Communications, Information Science, Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Behavioral Science, Social Sciences, or related field AND 4+ years experience in user experience
  • OR equivalent experience.

• 4+ years of experience using research methods to impact both high-level product direction and detailed experience design

• 4+ years relevant domain experience within software development sector.

• 4+ years relevant domain experience with developer tools

Preferred Qualifications:

• Relevant domain experience with developer tools
• Strong quantitative research and data analytics skills is preferred
• User research experience with AI (ex: models, agents, governance) is an asset
• Background in influencing platform level decisions on data collection instrumentation
• Builder/creator - you like to create and experiment with tools, processes, and new technologies

GitHub values

• Customer-obsessed
• Ship to learn
• Growth mindset
• Own the outcome
• Better together
• Diverse and inclusive

Manager fundamentals

• Model
• Coach
• Care

Leadership principles

• Create clarity
• Generate energy
• Deliver success

Who We Are

GitHub is the world’s leading AI-powered developer platform with 150 million developers and counting. We’re also home to the biggest open-source community on earth (and 99% of the world’s software has open-source code in its DNA). Many of the apps and programs you use every day are built on GitHub.
Our teams are dreamers, doers, and pioneers, leading the way in AI, driving humanitarian efforts around the globe, and even sending open source to Mars (and beyond!). At GitHub, our goal is to create the space you need to do your best work. We’re remote-first and offer competitive pay, generous learning and growth opportunities, and excellent benefits to support you, wherever you are—because we know that people flourish when they can work on their own terms.
Join us, and let’s change the world, together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

GitHub is made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and lifestyles. We embrace diversity and invite applications from people of all walks of life. We don't discriminate against employees or applicants based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, citizenship, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or any other differences. Also, if you have a disability, please let us know if there's any way we can make the interview process better for you; we're happy to accommodate!