UX Research Lead

We’re hiring a UX Research Lead to take over and lead the UX Research function at ZOE. This role is fully remote and is open to candidates located in the UK or Europe. This is a player–coach, single-person team to start: you’ll personally run our most important strategic research while also establishing the bar for research craft and operations, while enabling PMs and Designers to run high-quality day-to-day research themselves across Product, Design, and Engineering.

Being a one-person function comes with some challenges and opportunities: defining the ways of working, educating peers on your craft, setting up expectations, and managing multiple streams of work simultaneously. All that is to support ZOE’s mission and improve the health of millions.

You will:

• Own our end-to-end UX research practice (from strategy to execution and communication of insights)
• Enable PMs and Designers to run high-quality day-to-day research themselves
• Manage and coordinate external UXR contractors
• Shape our research roadmap and operations as we scale, and eventually help hire and mentor an internal research team

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead research strategy & roadmap
• Lead end-to-end design, planning, and execution of user research studies independently with minimal support.
• Partner with Product, Design, Science, and Data to define a research roadmap that ladders up to company and product strategy
• Identify the most important member problems and opportunity spaces, prioritising where deep, strategic research will unlock step-changes in experience and outcomes
• Champion a member-first, evidence-led culture, making sure we’re solving real problems for real people, not just shipping features

Hands-on research (IC work):

• Plan and run end-to-end studies across the product lifecycle: generative discovery, jobs-to-be-done, concept exploration, evaluative (usability testing, concept/comms testing, preference tests), and longitudinal/diary-style where needed
• Use mixed methods appropriately (qual, quant, and scrappy data) to answer questions with the right level of rigour and speed
• Turn research into clear, actionable insights and compelling narratives that drive decisions, not just decks
• Collaborate closely with Product Design and Content Design to translate insights into flows, copy, and experiences that feel simple, human, and joyful

Enable the organisation (research enablement & ops):

• Handle most ‘requests’ for research from the team with a clear scope
• Create lightweight toolkits (guides, templates, checklists) so that PMs and Designers can confidently run usability tests, interviews, and surveys
• Provide coaching and feedback on team-run research to raise the bar over time without becoming a bottleneck
• Establish research operations foundations: participant recruitment, incentives, panels, tools, consent & ethics, documentation, and tagging/knowledge management
• Work with Data and Science to triangulate insights from behavioural data and experiments.

Partner management & future team-building:

• Coordinate and quality-assure work from UXR contractors and vendors (briefs, scopes, timelines, delivery, impact)
• Decide when to do research yourself vs. empower others vs. bring in external help, balancing impact, cost, and speed
• Help define the longer-term org shape for UX Research at ZOE and, when the time is right, support hiring, onboarding, and mentoring additional UX Researchers

What you’ll bring to the table:

• You might be a tenured UX Researcher in a product organisation today, ready to own the function for the first time, or already leading research in a small team and eager for broader scope.
• You have 6+ years of hands-on UX research experience in product-led organisations (B2C or health/fitness/behaviour-change experience is a plus, not a must)
• You’ve worked in or closely with cross-functional squads (Product, Design, Data Science) shipping digital products at scale
• You have experience as the first or one of few researchers, setting up practices, and/or leading projects across multiple product areas
• You are well-versed in a variety of mixed research methods.
• You’re fluent in core qual methods (in-depth interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, usability testing, JTBD Research, concept testing) and comfortable with surveys and quantitative research (survey design, simple analysis, working with data science partners)
• Are able to analyse large sets of quantitative data (like survey data) and collaborate with data teams to turn this into meaningful user insights
• You know how to right-size the method to the question – when to run a deep study vs. when a quick test or scrappy signal is enough
• You’re excellent at synthesis and storytelling: connecting dots, simplifying complexity, and making insights memorable and actionable for busy teams
• You’re comfortable working solo while influencing senior stakeholders – facilitating workshops, presenting to leadership, and diplomatically challenging assumptions
• You enjoy coaching designers and PMs to become better at research, not just doing the work yourself
• You can prioritise ruthlessly, balancing strategic bets with fast-paced tactical support
• You’re highly organised and structured – from notes and repositories to plans and comms – making it easy for others to find, understand, and reuse research.
• You are proactive and take the initiative in identifying opportunities and potential challenges.
• You thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, and can balance rigour with pragmatism
• You care deeply about ethics, inclusivity, and representing diverse member perspectives in our research
• You communicate clearly, write well, and prefer simple, direct language over research jargon

Ready to thrive? We want to hear from you. The experience, skills, and attributes we’ve outlined are what we believe will help someone truly thrive in this role. However, we understand that talent comes in many forms. If you are genuinely excited about ZOE's mission and this opportunity, please don’t hesitate to apply—even if you don’t meet every single requirement listed. We fundamentally value potential and commitment above all else. We are dedicated to fostering growth and providing opportunities for you to learn and develop alongside us.