Principal UX Researcher

Our Mission Healthcare should work for patients, but it doesn’t. In their time of need, they call down outdated insurance directories. Then wait on hold. Then wait weeks for the privilege of a visit. Then wait in a room solely designed for waiting. Then wait for a surprise bill. In any other consumer industry, the companies delivering such a poor customer experience would not survive. But in healthcare, patients lack market power. Which means they are expected to accept the unacceptable. Zocdoc’s mission is to give power to the patient. To do that, we’ve built the leading healthcare marketplace that makes it easy to find and book in-person or virtual care in all 50 states, across 200+ specialties and +12k insurance plans. By giving patients the ability to see and choose, we give them power. In doing so, we can make healthcare work like every other consumer sector, where businesses compete for customers, not the other way around. In time, this will drive quality up and prices down. We’re 18 years old and the leader in our space, but we are still just getting started. If you like solving important, complex problems alongside deeply thoughtful, driven, and collaborative teammates, read on. Your Impact on our Mission Healthcare is complicated: people are anxious about their health, insurance coverage is obscure, and there’s uncertainty in finding the right type of care. Meanwhile, providers face thin margins, growing competition, and operational workflows that drown their staff in administrative burden. As a Principal UX Researcher, you'll immerse yourself deeply in understanding these problems, and own the research strategy for one of Zocdoc's two core user groups: the patients searching for care, or the practices delivering it. You'll report to the Director of Research and partner with Product, Design, Brand, Marketing, and Data Science leadership to proactively shape product strategy. You'll set the bar for high quality strategic quantitative and qualitative research that cuts across product teams and shapes the product roadmap. You'll identify unanswered research questions and unvalidated assumptions across the company, develop a clear POV on user needs, and use research insights to drive business objectives. Your work will span three connected areas: Define who we're building for, and what they're trying to get done. You'll use a mixed-methods toolset to map the jobs, needs, and mindsets of our users, helping product, marketing, and sales teams see which needs matter most and how they differ meaningfully across groups. Shape high-ambiguity problem spaces with qualitative and quantitative evidence. You'll lead research for zero-to-one opportunities where there's little precedent and limited data. You'll help teams define the problem, test the assumptions underneath a proposed solution, evaluate concepts at scale, and decide what is worth building before a roadmap hardens around an answer. Measure the user experience. Help prod