Lead Researcher, Product Research & Insights, AppExchange

Salesforce is seeking a Lead Researcher for its AppExchange UX team. This role involves shaping the next generation of the world’s leading business solution marketplace by understanding user workflows and motivations. The researcher will define research problems, build plans, and use quantitative and qualitative methods to produce actionable insights. They will influence product strategy, develop experiences that empower businesses, and contribute to the ethics of AI technologies. The role requires strong communication, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and mentorship of junior members.

Must Have

• Develop a user research agenda for your areas and shape prioritization.
• Work on fast-paced projects, requiring attention to detail and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Develop and implement user research studies using appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Lead analyses that triangulate telemetry and qualitative data, developing mixed methods approaches.
• Influence decision-making through effective presentation of findings and customer-centered narratives.
• Develop and share expertise related to how people create, share, lead, and apply data visualizations, dashboards, machine learning models, and advanced analytics.
• Be a strategic partner with leadership and executives to shape long-term vision.
• Build and shape user research team's tools and practices to scale impact.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Find and attract user research talent.
• Masters or PhD in a research- or business-focused discipline or human behavior field.
• 9+ years’ experience conducting user research plus a strong portfolio of shipping software products.
• Deep knowledge of standard processes for UX design principles and user research methodologies.
• Excels at communicating research insights as compelling narratives and generating persuasive reports.
• Consistent track record influencing product direction and strategy with actionable insights.
• Demonstrated success in a collaborative environment and working with multidisciplinary agile teams.
• Demonstrated ability to plan, design, implement, and communicate strategic and tactical research engagements.
• Proven ability to be a strong advocate for the user and persuade others on fast-moving projects.
• Ability to work across a globally dispersed team.

Good to Have

• Experience working in enterprise software, analytics, databases, AI, or cloud services.
• Hands-on experience with SAAS B2B marketplaces.
• Experience using one or more Salesforce products.

Perks & Benefits

• Time off programs
• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Mental health support
• Paid parental leave
• Life and disability insurance
• 401(k)
• Employee stock purchasing program

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

The User Experience team at Salesforce leads efforts to make fast, easy, and appealing business solutions possible for every user across a holistic suite of products. We are responsible for continuously evolving how our products are built, designed, and used across organizations and within workflows. We anticipate changes in work, technology, and society in order to innovate and build new experiences for new business users and at scale.We are hiring a Lead Researcher to join our AppExchange UX team. AppExchange is the world’s largest B2B marketplace, powering the Salesforce ecosystem with thousands of apps, components, data solutions, and consulting services. We’re redefining how customers discover, evaluate, and adopt technology to extend Salesforce. We recently launched AgentExchange, your stop for prebuilt AI solutions and tooling.We’re a tight-knit team working at the intersection of marketplace design, enterprise scale, and AI-powered innovation. We value systems thinking, thoughtful storytelling, collaboration and drive. Our research is foundational in shaping experiences that help organizations make smarter and more data-informed decisions. Our work heavily invests in the ethics and responsibilities that must accompany these technologies. We also shape the platform that delivers insights, and actions within workflows, provides detailed and collaborative experiences, and supports an ecosystem that inspires the Partner and Salesforce Customer communities across the globe.

Who you are...

You are a premier research leader that will use your knowledge and technical prowess in helping Salesforce understand its current and future users. You are excellent at communicating insights to both leadership and feature teams to help drive strategy and create experiences that customers need and love. You are also able to deliver uncomfortable truths about the product or strategy when that is required. You help teams develop emotional intelligence and see the world through the customer’s eyes. You have a highly developed curiosity to learn about others that makes you an especially good researcher and collaborator. In close partnership with the product development team, you will use your research expertise and business insight to define research problems and build research plans that address their most pressing questions about our customers, products, and business.

What you’ll be doing…

Do you want to shape the next generation of the world’s leading business solution marketplace? Are you passionate about helping customers solve business problems while creating new business opportunities for an entire ecosystem of partners? Are you excited about a company that builds software to augment human intelligence? As a Lead User Researcher for AppExchange, you will be a central driver in developing experiences that empower business to sell, share and adopt business solutions. You will also join a stellar user research team with opportunities for professional growth, mentorship, and collaboration.You will develop a deep knowledge of user workflows and motivations. Your research might uncover the best ways to help business users act on data in their workflows, or the barriers to self-service analytics in organizations. Your insights will advise our strategy for delivering powerful and integrated user experiences across all Salesforce marketplaces.

Some job responsibilities include…

• Develop a user research agenda for your areas and shape the prioritization of research within those areas.
• Work on fast-paced projects, requiring attention to detail, working within constrained timelines, and collaboration with cross-functional teams (user researchers, product managers, UX designers, engineers, technical writers, etc.) throughout the planning and development life cycle.
• Develop and implement user research studies using appropriate quantitative and qualitative methods to produce tactical, strategic, actionable, and durable insights that inform design and development.
• Lead analyses that triangulate telemetry and qualitative data, developing mixed methods approaches to understanding our users.
• Influence decision-making through effective presentation of findings, including the creation of customer-centered narratives to frame problems and highlight the business value of potential solutions.
• Develop and share expertise related to how people create, share, lead, and apply data visualizations, dashboards, machine learning models, and advanced analytics within organizations.
• Be a strategic partner with your leadership team and key executives across the business to help shape long-term vision by identifying and advocating for opportunities to delight and better serve our customers through new features, strategic directions, and user experience improvements.
• Build and shape our user research team's tools and practices to scale our impact and create durable insights across the organization.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Find and attract user research talent.

Minimum Requirements

• Masters or PhD in a research- or business-focused discipline or in a field emphasizing human behavior (e.g., Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Business, Research Methodology, Experimental Design, Design Research, Information Science)
• 9+ years’ experience conducting user research plus a strong portfolio of shipping software products.
• Curious about technology and can dive into complex or unfamiliar topics.
• Deep knowledge of standard processes for UX design principles and both qualitative and quantitative user research methodologies.
• Excels at communicating research insights as compelling narratives to a variety of audiences, and generating persuasive written and multimedia reports.
• Consistent track record influencing product direction and strategy with actionable insights.
• Demonstrated success in a collaborative environment and have experience working with multidisciplinary or cross-functional agile teams (e.g. design, product management, engineering).
• Demonstrated ability to plan, design, implement, and communicate both strategic and tactical research engagements with minimal oversight, structure and lead internal and external workshops, and analyze the outcomes to provide insight for customers.
• Proven ability to be a strong advocate for the user and persuade others on fast-moving projects with varying degrees of ambiguity.
• Ability to work across a globally dispersed team.

Preferred Requirements

• Experience working in enterprise software, analytics, databases, AI, or cloud services is a plus.
• Hands-on experience with SAAS B2B marketplaces.
• Experience using one or more Salesforce products is desirable.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

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Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Salesforce will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

For Washington-based roles, the base salary hiring range for this position is $184,000 to $253,000.

For California-based roles, the base salary hiring range for this position is $200,800 to $276,100.