Research Lead, Audience Insights, News Product

The New York Times•New York, NY

9d•$110,000 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The New York Times is seeking a Research Lead with a passion for reader-centric insights to drive product development. This individual contributor role will lead end-to-end research projects to inform short and long-term strategy for News Product, focusing on reader and subscriber relationships, mission connection, and community engagement. The research will influence app experiences, content preferences, commenting, and community features. The role involves close collaboration with Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Data teams to guide decision-making and strategy. The Audience Insights team, a centralized group of researchers, utilizes product, human-centered design, innovation, market, and UX research, drawing from social science principles. This is a hybrid role based in New York City.

Requirements

8+ years of research and insights experience.
Experience conducting research in community spaces or about moderation; or, evaluating user-facing experiences across app and web platforms.
Experience moderating qualitative research and facilitating brainstorms and workshops with cross-functional partners.
Mastery of a range of research methods. These methods include design thinking techniques such as participatory design, in-person and remote interviews, ethnographies, co-creation, and user-initiated feedback tools. Additionally, surveys, card-sorting, and usability studies are also part of this range.
Experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research and selecting the right approach based on the problem to be solved.
Experience summarizing complex findings into compelling narratives and visualize insights for diverse audiences.

Nice To Haves

Experience with community spaces or commenting.
Experience working on native apps or working in publishing or the content space.

Responsibilities

Lead a human-centered design approach for Products teams, inspiring colleagues to build innovative product features grounded in user needs to drive team and company goals.
Test prototypes and run alpha and beta programs with the design and product teams.
Evaluate impact on trust and relationships with our products and brands.
Complement research with behavioral data, proprietary and industry research, and A/B testing results to provide a holistic view of our users.
Collaborate with other researchers in the News Product space to create a comprehensive set of insights about the news reader.
Be a resource and partner to researchers across Marketing, Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic and Games to identify opportunities to collaborate and avoid duplicative product work.
Manage external research vendors to support moderation, fieldwork, and analysis, ensuring high-quality and efficient project execution.
Contribute to the collaborative culture of Audience Insights and the News Product Mission; help The New York Times understand, and build empathy for, our audiences.
Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.