Job Description:

Principal Product Researcher

About Dow Jones Design & Research

Our Design & Research org brings together world-class designers and researchers with a unified purpose: to connect people to the news and information that matters most. We're the strategic force that transforms deep user understanding into exceptional product experiences across our entire portfolio—from The Wall Street Journal to Factiva. Our integrated approach ensures that research insights directly shape design decisions, while design explorations reveal new research opportunities. Together, we're building coherent, accessible experiences that honor our 135-year legacy while pushing us boldly into the future. We're a globally distributed team spearheading a digital transformation at Dow Jones, newly staffed by industry leaders from Google, LinkedIn, The New York Times, and more. Through our combined expertise in design craft and research rigor, we ensure that millions of users can depend on our platforms for truth in a world full of noise.

About the Role

We're seeking a Principal Product Researcher to strategically lead and scale our research function across the B2B Dow Jones portfolio. This expert will establish research as a primary strategic partner, directly influencing investment decisions and driving roadmap planning.

At the Principal level, you will utilize mixed-methods expertise to lead high-visibility, longitudinal programs, identify paradigm shifts in user behavior, and synthesize insights that reshape organizational thinking. You will mentor the next generation of research leaders and create programs that open new markets and establish best practices adopted organization-wide. At the core of your role, you will be tasked with building the necessary infrastructure for scalable research quality, rigor, and speed, leveraging strong operational and program management capabilities.

Your impact will be measured through your ability to influence tech partners across the organization, communicate transformative insights to executive leadership, and build external visibility for Dow Jones's research excellence. This demands someone who can navigate complex stakeholder landscapes, drive decision-making, and define the measurable frameworks and metrics necessary to evaluate product performance and accelerate strategic investment.

The Principal Product Researcher will report to the VP, Product Research within the Design & Research organization.

You Will

• Navigate B2B Product Complexity: Leverage deep experience in B2B environments to manage multi-layered stakeholder needs, addressing the unique challenges of designing for both the "buyer" and the "end-user" in high-stakes industries.
• Drive Strategic Impact: Shape research strategy for entire portfolios, translating insights into clear business outcomes to influence C-level executives and accelerate decisions on investment and portfolio planning.
• Pioneer Best-in-Class Methods: Serve as a mixed-methods expert, pioneering research methods that become organizational standards and ensuring the selection of the most rigorous methodology to answer key strategic and product questions.
• Build Institutional Knowledge: Establish a programmatic, systems-based approach to UXR that ensures learning builds cumulatively and develops lasting institutional knowledge across the organization.
• Champion Research Transformation: Lead organizational and transformational change by evolving the research function's influence, scaling insights-led processes, and integrating strategic research into the broader product development lifecycle.
• Architect Product Ecosystems: Apply a service and systems design mindset to map complex user journeys and internal product workflows, ensuring that individual features contribute to a cohesive, holistic service experience.
• Apply Systems Thinking: Utilize a service and systems design mindset to architect end-to-end processes, optimizing our product ecosystem to improve efficiency and holistic service delivery.
• Align Teams and Vision: Synthesize insights to reshape organizational thinking, creating conceptual frameworks that connect micro-level user behavior to macro-level industry trends and long-term product vision.

You Have

• 10+ years of product research experience with significant time in B2B setting strategy for complex, multi-product organizations.
• Proven track record of organizational impact including research that influenced portfolio planning, investment decisions, and enterprise strategy.
• Deep technical and methodological expertise spanning qualitative, quantitative including product baselining and benchmarking, and generative/discovery research methods.
• Strong Fluency in UX Metrics and Analytics, with a proven ability to partner with Data Science teams to develop and deploy sound, strategic UX product performance metrics.
• Excellence in research innovation with a history of pioneering methods adopted as organizational standards and solving unprecedented challenges.
• Executive presence and influence with ability to communicate to C-level executives, shape organizational thinking, and stand firm on critical user advocacy.
• Strong talent development experience, including mentoring senior researchers, scaling research organizations, and creating leadership programs.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Psychology, HCI, CogSci, Anthropology, or related field (advanced degree highly preferred).

Nice to Have

• Experience in financial or professional services at enterprise scale
• Track record of research-driven business transformation
• External thought leadership through publications and/or speaking engagements
• Experience with research ethics and governance at scale
• Background in AI/ML research applications
• Teaching experience related to user-experience research
• Research expertise in global or international markets
• Patents or innovations in research methods or product development

Our Benefits

• Comprehensive Healthcare Plans
• Paid Time Off
• Retirement Plans
• Comprehensive Insurance Plans
• Lifestyle programs & Wellness Resources
• Education Benefits
• Family Care Benefits & Caregiving Support
• Commuter Transit Program
• Subscription Discounts
• Employee Referral Program

Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other protected characteristic. We strongly encourage applications from all qualified individuals, including women, people with disabilities, and those from underrepresented groups.

Reasonable Accommodation

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application and/or interview process. If you need assistance or accommodation in completing your application or participating in an interview due to a disability, email us at [email protected]. Please put "Reasonable Accommodation" in the subject line and provide a brief description of the type of assistance you need. This inbox will not be monitored for application status updates.

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Business Area:

Dow Jones - Technology

Job Category:

Software Product Engineering

Union Status:

Non-Union role