UX Researcher (Mixed Methods)

About Tailscale Tailscale is making safe connection effortless by delivering software that makes it easy to securely interconnect people and their devices, no matter where they are. From hobbyists to multinational corporations, teams of every size use Tailscale each day to protect their networks, share access to internal tools, and more. We're building a future for the Internet that's easy, sensible, and safe, like it used to be. Founded in 2019 and fully distributed, we're backed by Accel, CRV, Insight, Heavybit, and Uncork Capital. About the Role This role is a hybrid of UX research and research operations: you'll conduct research, primarily usability and quality-validation testing, and you'll maintain the social and technical systems that make research at Tailscale repeatable and scalable. You'll report to the design manager and work closely with the current UX researcher, who will remain the team's strategic research lead. Day to day, you'll also work with product designers, product managers, and engineers across the organization. Initially, you will be focused on handling a backlog of studies, with a heavy focus on one large ongoing project. Over time, you will grow towards owning the research direction for one or more product areas with increasing autonomy. You'll have significant autonomy on what to prioritize, with support and partnership from the staff researcher and design leadership. Initially your work will be more reactive, and dependent on teams that are currently shifting their planning and delivery rhythms, and reorganizing and re-scoping work. You will have more autonomy with operations work, which runs on a longer rhythm and has several initiatives where you can drive impact on your own. Both require flexibility as the organization evolves. Key Responsibilities Research Run and scale usability research. Your core research responsibility is usability and quality-validation testing. You will evaluate shipped features, validate design assumptions, and expand the team's testing capacity. • Own the full study lifecycle, from recruiting and scoping through analysis, communicating results, and identifying and collaborating on opportunities. • Over time, grow from testing what others identify toward owning the research direction for one or more product areas. Stakeholder enablement. Product teams are increasingly expected to understand what their users are experiencing and what problems need attention. You'll support this transition. • Coach designers and PMs through study design, reviewing whether their approach will produce a clear signal, and helping them interpret results and decide on next steps. • Build reusable enablement assets, such as templates, reference guides, research skills and workflows, so that your support scales. Research operations Maintain research infrastructure. As more people run studies and work with research data, the underlying systems need to hold up. • Maintain and improve the research library: standardizing how studies are documented, keeping tags and project organization healthy, ensuring past research is findable and useful. • Manage and maintain the research tool stack, which includes the tools we use, templates and guides, and other resources that enable non-stakeholders to engage with or do some limited research themselves. • Work with staff and other researchers to review continuous feedback and ensure issues and friction points get tracked by the relevant EPD pods. Manage logistics. Running research at a small team means doing the logistical work yourself. In collaboration with the staff researcher, you will: • Manage the participant panel — maintaining list quality, handling invitations, cleaning up between projects. Process study compensation, file receipts, and track budget utilization for studies you run. • Handle vendor renewals and procurement coordination, working with legal, finance, and the senior researcher to keep contracts current and paperwork moving. What We Are Looking For • 5+ years of experience in UX research or a related applied research field • Strong usability testing skills across both qualitative and experimental approaches • Proficiency with survey design and the ability to learn and deploy higher-precision quantitative methods as needed • Solid grounding in structured and semi-structured qualitative interviewing • Mixed-methods fluency — can move between qualitative and quantitative approaches and knows when each is appropriate • Clear, effective communicator who can tailor research findings for different audiences and advocate for insights in cross-functional settings • Experience independently managing research logistics — recruiting, scheduling, compensation, and study operations • Experience working in developer tooling, enterprise, security, or networking You Might Be a Good Fit If • You can synthesize user feedback into underlying problems, identify which ones matter, and articulate why. • You can move from what you've learned to a clear recommendation, and you're comfortable putting forward a point of view rather than only presenting findings. • You see the connections between research operations and research practice, and you enjoy building the infrastructure that makes research more effective. • You think about what research the organization needs, not just what's next on the study plan. • You can ramp up quickly to a technical domain you don't already know. • You're comfortable coaching others through research and building tools that help the team's research quality scale beyond what one person can cover. • You've worked at a scale where wearing multiple hats felt like the job, not a limitation, and you're comfortable in an environment where the product surface and assumptions are still shifting. Nice to Have • You have built your own tooling. • You have built or scaled research operations. As a company, we strive to maintain fair and equitable compensation practices within our team across all roles and all levels. Tailscale's compensation package includes base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits. The salary range displayed on each job posting represents the target range for a new hire's base salary. Individual offers may vary based on experience and skill set. US Pay Range $146,000—$183,000 USD Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic! What We Offer • An inclusive, flexible environment where you can be your authentic self. We recognize the impact of diverse voices and backgrounds on the growth of our people, product, and company. And that flexibility in how and when you work empowers our team to integrate work and life. • A competitive total compensation package. This includes a base salary, an equity incentive plan and variable commission (for quota-based roles). • Comprehensive group benefits with no waiting period. Take advantage of coverage for health, vision, dental, and more for you and your family! • Remote first company—most of our teams work fully remotely. Enjoy a change of scenery wherever you can get wifi, participate in virtual and in-person social events, and leverage our corporate co-working program to visit WeWork (or other similar spaces near you). Some roles require in-office collaboration depending on team needs, which will be clearly noted in the job description. • Employer-funded retirement contributions. Tailscale will match your retirement contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to a maximum annual employer contribution equal to 0.75% of your eligible compensation. • Connect with other Tailscalars IRL. Attend our annual company retreat, participate in team off-sites, and collaborate in person with teammates across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. We support intentional in-person connection through team travel and distributed collaboration. • Support for your personal and professional development. Grow your career thoughtfully with $1500 USD annually for professional development, or take advantage of mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities. • Paid time off and a healthy work-life integration. Our flexible, paid time off program supports you for any situation life throws your way, whether moving homes or travelling the world! • A build-your-own home office setup. You choose your own company-owned laptop (Mac or PC), receive a monthly home internet reimbursement, and $500 USD to customize your workstation to make it your own. • Paid parental leave program. We care about your life outside of work and encourage new parents to take advantage of parental leave top-ups (20 weeks for birthing parents, 16 weeks for non-birthing parents). Tailscale is committed to providing an accessible and inclusive hiring process. If you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process or related to any aspect of this role, please contact your recruiter. Our hiring process uses AI-assisted tools to help screen and assess candidates. All hiring decisions are made by people. Please be aware that legitimate emails from Tailscale's talent team will only originate from @tailscale.com, @greenhouse.io, and @interviews.modernloop.io email addresses. For more information about protecting yourself from impersonators and scams, please visit https://tailscale.com/scam-awareness.