Staff Design Researcher

Overview

Join our mission

Intuit is a global technology platform that helps our customers and communities overcome their most important financial challenges. We help give over 50 million consumers, small businesses, and self-employed customers around the world the opportunity to prosper.

Overview

Accountants are the backbone of the QuickBooks ecosystem. They aren't just users; they are the expert partners who scale small businesses and ensure financial integrity globally.

We are looking for a Staff Design Researcher to lead the holistic research strategy for the Accountant Segment . In this role, you won't be siloed into a single product like Payroll or Payments. Instead, you will look across the entire QuickBooks platform to understand how accountants manage their entire firm, collaborate with clients, and grow their practices. You will be the champion for the "ProAdvisor" community, ensuring that Intuit's multi-product strategy aligns with the professional workflows of the modern accountant.

Responsibilities: How you will lead

As a Staff Design Researcher for the Accountant segment, you are a strategic architect. You will operate with high autonomy to ensure that our various product teams (Tax, Books, Payroll, Capital) form a cohesive, "expert-grade" experience for the accounting professional.

Strategic Leadership & Influence

• The Accountant Strategy Lead: Identify high-level, cross-product opportunity areas. You will look at the "spaces between the products" to find friction points in how accountants move data and manage client relationships.

• Bridge the Ecosystem: Partner with senior leaders across various QuickBooks business units to ensure a unified "Accountant First" mental model. You will help move the organization from "Product Thinking" to "Ecosystem Thinking."

• Champion the "Say-Do" Gap: Advocate with courage when product roadmaps drift away from the professional needs of the accountant. You will use deep customer empathy to influence executive-level strategy.

Research Execution & Rigor

• Generative Firm Research: Lead comprehensive studies on the "Future of the Accounting Firm," looking at how AI, automation, and advisory services are changing the profession.

• Holistic Journey Mapping: Create and maintain the master "Accountant Journey," identifying the most critical moments of truth across the entire Intuit lifecycle-from firm setup to seasonal tax filing.

• Triangulated Insights: Partner with Data Science and Market Research to blend behavioral "big data" with "thick" qualitative insights, providing a 360-degree view of accountant health and sentiment.

Scaling the Craft & Mentorship

• Expertise Center of Excellence: Act as the "Sensei" for any team at Intuit looking to build for accountants. You will provide the frameworks and personas that help other designers and PMs understand the professional user.

• Mentorship: Provide high-level mentorship to researchers across the organization, elevating the standard for how we conduct "Expert-to-Expert" research.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities: How you will lead

As a Staff Design Researcher for the Accountant segment, you are a strategic architect. You will operate with high autonomy to ensure that our various product teams (Tax, Books, Payroll, Capital) form a cohesive, "expert-grade" experience for the accounting professional.

Strategic Leadership & Influence

• The Accountant Strategy Lead: Identify high-level, cross-product opportunity areas. You will look at the "spaces between the products" to find friction points in how accountants move data and manage client relationships.

• Bridge the Ecosystem: Partner with senior leaders across various QuickBooks business units to ensure a unified "Accountant First" mental model. You will help move the organization from "Product Thinking" to "Ecosystem Thinking."

• Champion the "Say-Do" Gap: Advocate with courage when product roadmaps drift away from the professional needs of the accountant. You will use deep customer empathy to influence executive-level strategy.

Research Execution & Rigor

• Generative Firm Research: Lead comprehensive studies on the "Future of the Accounting Firm," looking at how AI, automation, and advisory services are changing the profession.

• Holistic Journey Mapping: Create and maintain the master "Accountant Journey," identifying the most critical moments of truth across the entire Intuit lifecycle-from firm setup to seasonal tax filing.

• Triangulated Insights: Partner with Data Science and Market Research to blend behavioral "big data" with "thick" qualitative insights, providing a 360-degree view of accountant health and sentiment.

Scaling the Craft & Mentorship

• Expertise Center of Excellence: Act as the "Sensei" for any team at Intuit looking to build for accountants. You will provide the frameworks and personas that help other designers and PMs understand the professional user.

• Mentorship: Provide high-level mentorship to researchers across the organization, elevating the standard for how we conduct "Expert-to-Expert" research.

Qualifications

Qualifications: What you'll bring

We are looking for a systems-thinker who can navigate the technical complexity of accounting while maintaining a relentless focus on human-centered design.

Experience & Education

• 7+ years of experience leading strategic user research for complex B2B ecosystems or professional service platforms.

• Systems Thinking Mastery: Proven ability to research multi-sided marketplaces or complex software ecosystems where one user (the accountant) manages many others (their clients).

• Portfolio of Strategy: A track record of research that didn't just "fix a button," but actually shifted product direction or informed a new business model.

Methodological Rigor & Proficiency

• Holistic Toolkit: Mastery of service blueprinting, longitudinal studies, and diary studies to capture the "seasonality" of an accountant's life.

• Expert Fluency: The ability to speak confidently with CPAs and Firm Owners about practice management, workflow automation, and the shifting landscape of professional services.

• Data Integration: High fluency in using "Product Intelligence" tools to see where professional users are thriving or struggling across the suite.

Strategic & Soft Skills

• Executive Presence: Strong storytelling and presentation skills; comfortable challenging senior leadership and presenting to executive stakeholders.

• Navigating Ambiguity: The ability to thrive in a "horizontal" role that requires influencing teams you don't directly manage.

• The "Accountant Mindset": A deep appreciation for precision, efficiency, and the "trusted advisor" relationship that accountants hold with their clients.

Intuit provides a competitive compensation package with a strong pay for performance rewards approach. This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards and benefits, in accordance with our applicable plans and programs (see more about our compensation and benefits at [1] Intuit®: Careers | Benefits). Pay offered is based on factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and work location. To drive ongoing fair pay for employees, Intuit conducts regular comparisons across categories of ethnicity and gender. The expected base pay range for this position is:

Bay Area California $188,500- 255,000

References

Visible links

1. Mountain View $188500 - $255000

EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability. Intuit will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with requirements of local law.