Staff Researcher

GitHub, Inc.

7d•Remote

About The Position

GitHub is the world’s leading platform for agentic software development — powered by Copilot to build, scale, and deliver secure software. Over 180 million developers, including more than 90% of the Fortune 100 companies, use GitHub to collaborate, and more than 77,000 organisations have adopted GitHub Copilot. 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.

Requirements

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 experience in research methods impacting both product direction and detailed experience design.
4+ years domain experience within software development sector.
4+ years relevant domain experience with developer tools

Nice To Haves

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

Responsibilities

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