Principal, 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.
• Mentorship: Mentor and elevate best practices for design research across the Horizon 3 team and broader Twilio UX community.
• Customer Advocacy: Represent the voice of the customer in every conversation. Inspire teams to build solutions that surprise and delight customers.

Qualifications

Required:

• 7+ 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.