Sr Director, UX Research

The Gap•Folsom, CA

About The Position

As a senior leader within our Experience Design organization, you will shape the future of Gap Inc.’s customer and product experiences through scale, impact, and innovation. As one of the world’s leading multi-brand retailers, we have the reach and responsibility to set the standard for modern, connected, and intelligent digital experiences. The Sr. Director, UX Research will build and lead the research practice that ensures Gap Inc.’s experience decisions are grounded in evidence, not opinion. You will own the research strategy, methodology, and operations that connect customer insights to product and design decisions across all three journeys: Customer, Product, and Enterprise. In this role, you will transform how research works at Gap Inc. You will move research upstream into discovery, embedding it in the product operating model so that teams get data-driven answers before decisions calcify. You will define when and how research is conducted, who participates, and how insights flow into design and product decisions. You will lead the development of an AI-augmented research pipeline that dramatically compresses the research cycle (from days and weeks to hours). Where traditional studies take weeks, you will build the methodology and tooling to deliver synthesized findings in hours to a limited number of days, using AI to accelerate screener creation, protocol development, moderation at scale, and synthesis. You will do this while maintaining methodological rigor and the irreplaceable role of real human research participants. This role is central to the Experience Design organization’s mission to shift from opinion-driven to insight-driven decision-making. The Sr. Director, UX Research ensures that Gap Inc. understands its customers deeply, acts on that understanding quickly, and measures whether the experience delivered matches the experience intended.

Requirements

Extensive experience leading UX research organizations at enterprise scale, with direct accountability for research strategy and operations across multiple product lines or business units.
Deep expertise across the full research methodology spectrum: generative and evaluative, qualitative and quantitative, moderated and unmoderated, behavioral and attitudinal. You select the right method for the decision, not the method you prefer.
Proven ability to embed research into product operating models. You have built the processes, relationships, and governance that move research from an afterthought to a strategic input.
Forward-looking perspective on AI-augmented research. You understand how AI can accelerate research operations while maintaining the irreplaceable value of real human participants and rigorous methodology.
Experience managing hybrid or managed service research teams. You know how to maintain quality and methodological standards while scaling through external partners.
Strong ability to translate research insights into executive narratives. You connect customer evidence to business decisions and make research indispensable to leadership.
Fluency in research operations at scale: panel management, tooling ecosystems, consent and privacy requirements, and research governance.
A practice builder who develops researchers, establishes competency frameworks, and creates a research culture grounded in rigor, speed, and influence. You know what great research looks like, and you elevate the craft, culture, and capability of everyone around you to achieve it.

Nice To Haves

Experience in retail, e-commerce, or multi-brand consumer environments is strongly preferred.
Understanding of omnichannel customer behavior, loyalty program dynamics, and brand-differentiated research approaches.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the UX Research practice across Gap Inc., establishing research strategy, standards, and methodology that serve Customer Journey, Product Journey, and Enterprise Journey teams.
Move research upstream in the product lifecycle. Partner with Product Management to embed research in discovery and quarterly planning, ensuring insights shape requirements before solutions are committed.
Design and implement an AI-augmented research pipeline that compresses cycle times from weeks to hours/limited number of days. Leverage AI for screener generation, protocol development, moderation at scale, and rapid synthesis, while maintaining the methodological integrity of human-centered research.
Manage a hybrid research team of Gap FTE researchers and managed service partners. Set quality standards, govern methodology, and ensure research capability scales with organizational demand.
Establish the connective tissue between research insights and design and product decisions. Build the systems that make research findable, reusable, and actionable across teams and brands.
Partner with the broader UX leadership team to ensure research informs the full design lifecycle: from strategic direction-setting through detailed usability validation and post-launch measurement.
Own research operations: tooling strategy and vendor relationships, participant panel management, research governance, and insight repositories. Ensure the practice runs efficiently at enterprise scale.
Champion data-driven decision-making across the organization. Translate research findings into narratives that influence executives, product leaders, and brand stakeholders.
Define research quality standards and competency frameworks. Develop researchers at all levels, building a practice that attracts and grows top talent.
Measure and communicate research impact. Connect research activities to decision quality, reduced rework, conversion improvements, and customer satisfaction outcomes.