Staff Design Researcher

Responsibilities

• Define & Lead Research: Lead end-to-end qualitative and quantitative design research across early-stage, exploratory projects; rigorously uncover customer needs, pain points, and emerging trends.
• Strategy & Opportunity Framing: Provide thought leadership and frameworks that connect research findings to business and product strategy; help teams prioritize opportunities and guide decision-making.
• Synthesize Insights and communicate effectively: Distill complex data into clear, actionable narratives and frameworks for senior executives, product managers, and engineers.
• Drive Experimentation: Collaborate with Product and Design to rapidly test new hypotheses via concepts, prototypes, and MVPs.
• Customer Advocacy: Represent the voice of the customer in every conversation. Inspire teams to build solutions that surprise and delight customers.

Qualifications

Required:

• 5+ years of experience in design research, user research, or a related field—preferably with time spent in innovation or new product development environments.
• Proven track record of leading ambiguous, zero-to-one research programs in fast-paced, high-growth tech companies.
• Mastery of a wide array of research methods, from ethnography and contextual inquiry to co-creation workshops and rapid concept validation.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative data, and ability to easily switch between big-picture thinking and tactical execution.
• Exceptional communication, storytelling, and influence skills—executive presence a must.
• Passion for working on highly cross-functional teams and an entrepreneurial, “builder” mentality.
• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in HCI, Design, Psychology, Anthropology, or a related discipline.

Desired:

• Experience working with AI/ML technology and customer engagement platforms.
• Experience working in trust, security, or fraud prevention.
• Experience guiding innovation in a multi-sided platform environment.
• Portfolio or case studies illustrating your impact on breakthrough product or business opportunities.

Compensation

The estimated pay ranges for this role are as follows:

• Based in Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont or Washington D.C.: $141520-$176900.
• Based in New York, New Jersey, Washington State, or California (outside of the San Francisco Bay area): $149840-$187300.
• Based in the San Francisco Bay area, California: $166400-$208000.

This role may be eligible to participate in Twilio’s equity plan and corporate bonus plan. All roles are generally eligible for the following benefits: health care insurance, 401(k) retirement account, paid sick time, paid personal time off, paid parental leave.