Research Lead, News Product
thenewyorktimes
New York, NY · New York · United States
Posted Jul 24, 2026
- Other
- Remote
- Research and Insight
thenewyorktimes
New York, NY · New York · United States
Posted Jul 24, 2026
The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for.
Mission Overview & Responsibilities:
We are looking for a Research Lead with a passion for ensuring that reader-centric insights are at the heart of product development. This is an individual contributor role. You will lead a variety of end-to-end research projects that drive short and long-term strategy for the News Product. These projects focus on driving deep relationships with our readers and subscribers, helping readers connect to our mission and each other. Your research will inform app experiences, content preferences, commenting, and community. You will be a key cross functional partner with Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Data, guiding decision-making and informing the teams' strategies.
The mission of the New York Times Audience Insights team is to help The Times grow by understanding our audience. The Audience Insights team is centralized team of researchers working with teams across The New York Times. We use product, human-centered design, innovation, market and UX research, and draw from principles in the social sciences (Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology and Behavioral Economics).
This is a hybrid role based in New York City, New York.
Responsibilities:
Lead a human-centered design approach for Products teams, inspiring colleagues to build innovative product features grounded in user needs to drive team and company goals.
Test prototypes and run alpha and beta programs with the design and product teams
Evaluate impact on trust and relationships with our products and brands
Complement research with behavioral data, proprietary and industry research, and A/B testing results to provide a holistic view of our users.
Collaborate with other researchers in the News Product space to create a comprehensive set of insights about the news reader
Be a resource and partner to researchers across Marketing, Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic and Games to identify opportunities to collaborate and avoid duplicative product work.
Manage external research vendors to support moderation, fieldwork, and analysis, ensuring high-quality and efficient project execution.
Contribute to the collaborative culture of Audience Insights and the News Product Mission; help The New York Times understand, and build empathy for, our audiences.
Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.
You will report to the Managing Director, News Products.
Basic Qualifications:
8+ years of research and insights experience.
Experience conducting research in community spaces or about moderation; or, evaluating user-facing experiences across app and web platforms
Experience moderating qualitative research and facilitating brainstorms and workshops with cross-functional partners.
Mastery of a range of research methods. These methods include design thinking techniques such as participatory design, in-person and remote interviews, ethnographies, co-creation, and user-initiated feedback tools. Additionally, surveys, card-sorting, and usability studies are also part of this range.
Experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research and selecting the right approach based on the problem to be solved.
Experience summarizing complex findings into compelling narratives and visualize insights for diverse audiences.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with community spaces or commenting.
Experience working on native apps or working in publishing or the content space.
#LI-Hybrid
REQ-020425
Additional Compensation and Benefits
For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.
For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.
Candidate Use of GenAI Tools:
We’re excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.
If you’re an engineering candidate, we’ll let you know what specific GenAI tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.
The New York Times Company is committed to being the world’s best source of independent, reliable and quality journalism. To do so, we embrace a diverse workforce that has a broad range of backgrounds and experiences across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.
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