Senior Product Researcher

Hi, we're DuckDuckGo, the online protection company and remote-first team of 300+ on a mission to raise the standard of trust online. Founded in 2008 and profitable since 2014, annual revenue now exceeds $100m USD and millions use our browser on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, our search engine, and the DuckDuckGo subscription. Our culture of trust, inclusivity, and empowered project management underpins everything we do, where each team member takes full ownership of their projects, from scoping and execution to postmortem. If you're seeking end-to-end ownership of your work — you've come to the right place!

We’re looking for a Senior Product Researcher to help shape our all-in-one privacy solution and join our mission to show the world that protecting your privacy online can be simple.

Your Team and Role

This is a unique opportunity to have a voice in high-impact product decisions and lead projects that scale across millions of users. Working closely with cross-functional teams, including engineers, product managers, and designers, you’ll seek out UX improvements that directly impact user retention, growth, and long-term sentiment. You’ll work with vague problems like What do Android users expect from their browser’s bookmark function? and Why don’t some people notice the search box on our homepage?

You’ll also question whether problems are well founded, and use mixed methods research to ensure that our insights are aligned with success metrics and synthesized into clear, decision-ready recommendations tied to key product and business metrics. This includes helping teams make progress when evidence is incomplete, results are mixed, or tradeoffs are required, without overstating confidence or slowing momentum. You’ll be accountable not just for generating insights, but for helping teams make, and stand behind, high-quality product decisions informed by research.

As a Senior Product Researcher, you’ll help us raise the bar for our products by understanding our users, their challenges, and how to connect our business goals with a delightful user experience through qualitative and quantitative research.

What You Will Bring to DuckDuckGo

• 6+ years of experience in research-related roles, including 2+ years in senior-level research-related positions at significant global consumer brands.

• You proactively coordinate with product owners and leverage insights to effectively guide strategic product and research roadmaps.

• Ability to generate both short and long-term research plans to understand critical user and product challenges.

• Strong judgment in modern research workflows, including knowing when automation or AI-assisted tools can accelerate work and when human interpretation, tradeoff-making, and context-setting are essential.

• Ability to self-manage projects of varying complexity.

• Hands-on qualitative research expertise, namely executing diary studies, IDIs, usability testing, and focus groups from start to finish.

• Ability to run and analyze mid-to high-complexity quantitative research, including survey questionnaires.

• Strong ability to frame ambiguous problems into clear, testable research questions and decision boundaries that guide prioritization.

• Proven ability to lead, influence, and align cross-functional peers autonomously as the representative for the Research discipline.

• Adept at combining quantitative data with qualitative insights to create well-rounded user stories that inform high-impact product recommendations.

• Expert in combining user data and user stories into well-rounded insights - distilling them into a set of concrete recommendations with clear owners, timing, and expected impact on key metrics.

• Ability to present concise written findings that busy partners can absorb in minutes and use to make confident product decisions.

• As an outcome of your research, you recommend opportunities for us to pursue further, as well as the success criteria we’ll use to evaluate our progress.

• High confidence with fielding pointed questions about your research findings from cross-functional stakeholders, including correcting misinterpretations and pushing back when conclusions are not supported by evidence.

• Eagerness to learn about competitor insights and ambiguous problems. You’re motivated to help identify which opportunity to pursue next.

• Ability to define research hypotheses and success metrics that ground and align cross-functional stakeholders.

Compensation

$178,500 USD annually and stock options. Compensation is identical within professional levels, regardless of geographic location or team. Compensation for each professional level is transparent across the organization.

Eligibility for company-sponsored health benefits is limited to team members based in the United States. This program does not extend to team members located in other countries, such as Canada or the UK.

Our Team Member Support Guide explains how we prioritize your wellbeing including paid parental leave, office setup, and co-working allowances.

Hiring Process

Hiring works best when it's a two-way street. Learn how we help you get to know DuckDuckGo and envision your future role here. Find out more about how we hire.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

DuckDuckGo provides equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws.

We want to ensure that our hiring process is accessible. If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process because of a medical condition or disability, please send an email to [email protected] to let us know the nature of your request.

Please note that:

• You’ll be required to attend meetings on camera via video conferencing

• Expect to travel at least two times a year: once for our all-hands meetup and again for a team retreat (each around 4-5 days). While extenuating circumstances may impact attendance, everyone is strongly encouraged to attend.

• While we offer a flexible work arrangement with no core hours, expect an average full-time commitment of 40 hours per week.

• A successful candidate must pass a background check as a condition of joining the team.

• By applying for this role, you confirm that all information submitted is accurate and complete. You further acknowledge that providing false or fraudulent information during the application process is cause for denial of an offer, revocation of any existing offer, or other adverse action, up to and including termination after the start of your commencement of work.

Disclosure Statement: Use of AI in Hiring Process

As part of our commitment to enhancing our recruitment process, we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to assist in reviewing and summarizing job applications and test projects, including those tools integrated into our recruitment vendor platforms. We use AI to flag potentially fraudulent applications, analyze and summarize applicants’ experience, interviews, and project performance, and help streamline our selection process.

Key Principles:

• Data Privacy: All information provided in your application will be handled in accordance with our Recruiting Privacy Policy. We ensure that your personal information is protected and used solely for recruitment purposes.

• Human Oversight and Accountability: The AI technology is designed to support our hiring team by providing insights and summaries of applications and evaluations of test projects against scoring rubrics. All final evaluations and hiring decisions, however, will be made by our hiring team, who will consider the AI's input alongside other factors.

• Transparency: We believe in transparency regarding our hiring practices. If you have any questions about how AI is used in our recruitment process, please feel free to reach out to us.

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to the use of AI technology in our review process. If you would like to request an alternative selection process, please contact us as at [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in joining DuckDuckGo!

#LI-DNI