Design Research Manager

ezCater is the world’s largest online marketplace for catering – a $60+ billion market in the U.S. We make it superbly easy for business people to find and order great food for meetings and events, and we help our catering partners grow their business. We’re backed by $320 million in venture funding and in early 2019 were valued at $1.25 billion. Our mission is to power the world’s catering, and we’ll make it happen – even more surely if you come help us.

The Design Research Manager at ezCater will be responsible for leading qualitative and quantitative research efforts of user experience / human-computer interaction with ezCater’s two-sided marketplace, with the ultimate goal of helping the Company better understand its users on both the customer and catering client sides. Design Research Manager will report to our Design Director. 

What you’ll do:

• Lead all phases of research and usability testing, including: planning, recruiting, moderating, and analysis.
  
• Work with teams and leadership, identifies large opportunities, business risks, or emerging customer behavior, and prioritize initiatives accordingly.
  
• Work directly with the other User Researchers and Designers, Product Managers, Marketers, and Engineers to plan and conduct research efforts and act on the results.
  
• Collect data through interviews, surveys, and direct observation of user interaction with the ezCater suite of products.
  
• Collect and synthesize insights from product analytics, customer support and sales.
  
• Assess the Company’s interface for ease of use.
  
• Analyze the results of research and draw conclusions.
  
• Efficiently communicate findings to the team in a fast-paced, agile environment by preparing reports and presentations.
  
• Advocate for end-users in collaboration with other professionals, including engineers, designers, managers, and customers.
  
• Oversee multiple projects on mission-critical work.
  
• Manage two individuals and help to lead the research function within the broader design team.
  
• Prioritize and balance workloads for direct reports
  
• Oversee work done by direct reports.
  
• Provide direct, actionable feedback to more junior designers to help them improve skills, learn new approaches and improve quality of work over time.
  
• Conduct quarterly progress check-ins and regular reviews with direct reports.

You have:

• A Master’s Degree in HCI, Cognitive Science, Experimental Psychology, or a related field.
  
• 2+ years of experience as a User Researcher or in a similar position conducting user research for software products as part of an in-house product team.
  
• A strong portfolio demonstrating past projects, research findings, and the ability to produce actionable insights
  
• Experience with a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including, but not limited to: survey design, interviews, ethnography, concept evaluation, observation, card sorts, and participatory design.
  
• Experience planning and moderating usability tests, both in-person and remotely, and a thorough understanding of when to apply each method. 
  
• An eagerness and willingness to give and receive feedback, because we all love learning from each other

What you’ll get from us: 

Most importantly, you’ll get sane working hours and a huge amount of flexibility around work/life balance. Have people in your life – of any age – who always, often, or sometimes need your help? We make room for that. Have a bad thing or a good thing happen to you? We make room for that, too.

Oh, and here’s what else you’ll get: Market salary, stock options you’ll help make worth a lot, the usual holidays, all-you-can-eat vacation, 401K, health/dental/FSA, long-term disability insurance, subsidized T-passes, a great office in the heart of Boston, a tremendous amount of responsibility and autonomy, wicked awesome co-workers, cupcakes (and many more goodies), and knowing that you helped get this rocket ship to the moon.

ezCater is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace humans of every background, appearance, race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, and disability status. At the same time, we do not employ jerks, even brilliant ones.