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Principal UX Researcher


Job Location:

Newton, MA - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 145000 - 154000
Posted: 11 September 2026 (5 days ago)
Application Deadline: 9 December 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Primary Purpose

The Principal UX Researcher will support planning strategy and facilitation of UX research as part of an enterprise design team supporting products across multiple products and business suites. This role is focused on driving qualitative research initiatives establishing and managing research repository and collaborating across product teams to support planning and facilitating all types of user research. Role will include discovery research interviews card sorts validation research competitive analysis quantitative surveys usability studies and elevating research analysis and insights into formal product recommendations and user stories. This role requires being inherently curious detail-oriented and self-directed. This role will collaborate directly with UX designers and product owners.

This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days a week onsite at our headquarters in Newton MA.

Bright Horizons is a leading education and care company that helps employees thrive at work and at home by partnering with employers to offer high-quality child care elder care and educational support. Our workplace reflects this commitmentwith collaborative environments meaningful benefits and a culture that supports both career growth and personal well-being. Whether youre caring for children or powering the systems and partnerships that make it all possible at Bright Horizons youre the difference.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

  • User Centered Design: Embracing UX design framework. Cultivating relationship between user objectives needs pain points and product solutions and how UX research informs design decisions and product strategies.
  • Research Planning: Defining designing and executing research efforts. Knowing which methodology to apply for different types of investigations. Drafting screeners and moderator guides counseling product and design partners on best practices and approaches. Recruiting participants across audience segments. Prioritizing research goals priority areas for questioning and moderator guidance.
  • Research Facilitation: Setting up research interviews studies with target audiences in . Facilitating one-on-one interviews field observations and product feedback channels to examine user behaviors and workflows uncover attitudes and pain points needs and barriers. Conduct large-scale foundational study across core audiences and support smaller quick turnaround research initiatives. Manage recorded transcripts and recorded video sessions and asynchronous surveys.
  • Research Analysis: Using various frameworks to produce research analysis and reports. Produce high-quality insights and crafted user stories to inform user requirements. Leverage product analytics customer feedback support trends and surveys to inform recommendations. Deliver recommendations to leadership and product teams and supporting share-outs and research insight transparency across the design team.
  • Strategic Leadership: Develop and maintain a research roadmap aligned to business and product priorities. Establish and evolve UX research with best practices templates standards and processes. Champion research rigor across methodology selection execution and reporting.
  • Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with creative team to understand research needs desired goals and manage planning execution and testing opportunities. Translate business objectives into research questions and strategic learning agendas. Influence product strategy through evidence-based recommendations. Drive adoption of research insights throughout the product development lifecycle.
  • Research Repository: Cultivate and maintain a UX research repository with insights from past and future research efforts available in one place.
  • Research Forum: Establish and lead share outs of design research in collaborative forums inclusive of product UX development and marketing team partners. Facilitate research workshops and readouts.

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Bachelors Degree in UX Design UX Research Human Factors Anthropology Psychology Sociology Cognitive Science HCI or other related degree
    • In lieu of a degree an additional 3 years of experience may be considered
  • 7 years of experience in UX Design
  • 4-5 years of experience in UX Research including planning and facilitating UX research interviews across multiple projects or workstreams

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Previous working experience in UX Design UX Strategy Product Design or Product Marketing
  • Fluid with all aspects of UX design: stakeholder interviews and analysis screener preparation participant recruiting Moderator guide creation research survey preparation research interview facilitation research analysis and Executive Summary preparation
  • Experience working within an enterprise organization or large global brand
  • Experience supporting multiple product or business suites in parallel
  • Experience working with research platforms (GA4 )
  • Experience establishing and maintaining research repository
  • Comfortable incorporating AI into research workflows
  • Comfort planning and strategizing research efforts
  • Comfort facilitating and engaging with research participants
  • Excellent attention to detail organization
  • Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and deadlines
  • Strong communication skills
  • Experience working with agency partners or cross-functional teams is a plus

At this time Bright Horizons will not sponsor an applicant for employment authorization/visa for this position.

Be part of a community where people grow futures are shaped and lives are changed. We offer the rewards opportunities and support you deserve because making a difference goes both ways. Were changing the world of work and family and it starts with you. At Bright Horizons youre the difference.

Compensation:

The annual salary for this position is between $145000-$154000. The pay range listed here is what Bright Horizons in good faith anticipates offering for this job opening. Actual compensation offers within this range will depend on a variety of factors including experience education and training certifications geography and other relevant business or organizational factors.

This position is also eligible for a bonus.

Benefits:

Bright Horizons offers the following benefits for this position subject to applicable eligibility requirements:


Required Experience:

Staff IC


About Company

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Look to us for innovative child care & early education for families, solutions for employers, benefits for employees…all trusted by families and employers for more than 30 years.

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