Staff Researcher, Agentic Commerce

Etsy•New York, NY

3d•$165,000 - $215,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for a Staff Researcher, Agentic Commerce to help define the next generation of intelligent, autonomous shopping and selling experiences. As a Staff Researcher, you will operate at the intersection of AI agents, marketplaces, and human-centered design, understanding the seam between agent-assisted experiences, and how people collaborate with, and trust agentic systems in commerce. You’ll partner closely with product, design, engineering, and analytics to uncover insights that advise both near-term product decisions and long-term investments. This is a high-impact individual contributor role with influence across the group and research team. You will set research direction in an emerging space, mentor others, and ensure that customer understanding meaningfully informs how agentic systems are built and deployed.

Requirements

Deep expertise and creativity in UX research methods, with a track record of leading sophisticated, ambiguous problem spaces
POV on human-agent interaction - trust, clarity, and what it means to delegate decisions to an intelligent system across multi-turn experiences
Understands how consumer trust and adoption of AI are evolving — and brings those external signals into research planning and recommendations
Comfortable operating at multiple altitudes — from hands-on execution to shaping org-level direction
Developed a research roadmap, not just a study plan — you can sequence areas of inquiry and explain the prioritization to partners
Skilled communicator who can influence senior collaborators and communicate research as decisions, not just findings
Passion for exploring the future of commerce and reimagining how humans and intelligent systems collaborate

Responsibilities

Set the research agenda: Define and lead a portfolio of foundational and evaluative research passionate about agentic interactions, trust, and automation in commerce
Compose product and business direction: Translate insights into clear strategic recommendations that influence roadmaps and UX patterns
Investigate human-agent interaction: Conduct studies with buyers and sellers interacting with AI agents — and the experiential moments that follow
Data triangulation: Draw from behavioral data, consumer trends, and primary research — designing creative approaches to arrive at a clear point of view
Drive cross-functional alignment: Partner with Product, Design, Engineering, and partner teams to ensure user needs are central to decision-making
Connect findings across research: Work with researchers in adjacent spaces to build a coherent picture of how AI is shaping the customer experience across the platform
Mentor and elevate craft: Support other researchers and give to a culture of high-quality, forward-thinking research