Staff Researcher, Product Research & Insights -Slack

Salesforce•Chicago, IL

2d•$172,500 - $285,800

About The Position

Salesforce is hiring a Staff Researcher for Slack to investigate how people and teams adopt, collaborate with, and delegate work to AI agents, and how agents are changing workplace collaboration. The role examines effects on shared context, coordination, communication, trust, and accountability, identifying where agents add value and where they create friction or risk. As a staff-level individual contributor, the researcher will independently shape and execute a research agenda focused primarily on Slack’s ecosystem. The work combines foundational research into emerging work practices with evaluation of product experiences, translating evidence into recommendations that inform product strategy and development. The researcher will also mentor colleagues and improve how the team conducts and applies research. Salesforce welcomes candidates with a range of professional and educational backgrounds who can demonstrate the required research scope, judgment, and impact. Applicants are asked to include portfolios. Applications will be accepted until 01/31/2027.

Requirements

At least 8 years of user or product research experience, or equivalent demonstrated experience delivering research at comparable scope and impact.
Demonstrated ability to independently lead ambiguous research across multiple product teams.
Expertise in multiple research approaches, with strong qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis skills and sound judgment about methodological trade-offs.
Experience translating research into product strategy, roadmap priorities, or consequential product decisions in a fast-moving product organization.
Strong synthesis, storytelling, and communication skills, including partnering with senior stakeholders and creating frameworks that help teams understand and act on evidence.
Strong cross-functional collaboration and mentoring skills.
Working fluency in AI assistants and agents and curiosity about their effects on workplace behavior; ML engineering expertise is not required.
Applicants are asked to include portfolios.

Nice To Haves

Research experience with AI assistants, agents, automation, or human–AI interaction, including delegation, oversight, trust, explainability, or recovery from errors.
Experience studying workplace collaboration, enterprise SaaS, knowledge workers, or multi-person and organizational workflows.
Experience with longitudinal studies, diary studies, contextual inquiry, or field research on how emerging tools become part of everyday work.
Experience partnering with Data Science to connect observed behaviors and customer needs with usage data and product evaluation.
Experience researching enterprise adoption, administrator needs, governance, or adoption barriers for emerging technologies.

Responsibilities

Lead research scoping, prioritization, and roadmapping across multiple teams focused on AI agents and workplace collaboration.
Study real-world workflows, including how people discover, adopt, delegate to, supervise, and collaborate with agents and how those behaviors affect team coordination, shared understanding, trust, and accountability.
Design and conduct rigorous foundational and evaluative research using qualitative and quantitative methods, balancing depth, speed, and methodological limitations.
Partner with Product, Design, Engineering, Data Science, and other insights functions to connect customer evidence to product decisions and triangulate findings across studies, behavioral data, and customer feedback.
Develop compelling narratives and reusable frameworks that synthesize research, identify product opportunities, and clarify the user and business consequences of decisions.
Influence senior stakeholders with evidence-based recommendations and help teams distinguish emerging signals from assumptions and prioritize important uncertainties.
Mentor colleagues and work with Research Operations to improve research practices, tools, documentation, and efficient delivery of high-quality work.