As a Senior Lead User Researcher, you will lead research systems, governance, and strategy at the enterprise level. You will operate with mastery across all research competencies and serve as an organizational authority in research methodology. You will architect enterprise insight frameworks, unify research practices across portfolios, and lead high complexity initiatives with major business impact. You will design AI supported research workflows, partner with Research Ops to scale operations, and influence SVP level decisions through evidence driven insights. You will mentor senior researchers and guide long-term capability development across CAI.
Position Responsibilities:
- Architect enterprise-level research systems, including taxonomies, sampling frameworks, and insight lifecycle management.
- Lead multi‑portfolio research programs that inform strategic product investments with evidence-based insights.
- Identify enterprise-wide user problems, patterns, and opportunities across ecosystems.
- Set standards for research quality, ethics, privacy, and governance.
- Develop AI-native research tools, evaluation methods, and automation pipelines.
- Partner with Research Operations on governance, research frameworks, panel strategy, vendor selection, and tooling decisions.
- Lead alignment conversations across product, design, analytics, and engineering.
- Develop internal research curriculum and train research practitioners.
- Review and approve methodologies for high-risk or high-visibility initiatives.
- Build longitudinal insight systems that reveal trends across quarters and years.
- Oversee insight repository architecture, metadata, and organizational discoverability.
- Shape the culture of research excellence across CAI and the mechanisms to measure research quality across the enterprise.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in and 8 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 6years’ experience; a Ph.D. and 3 years’ experience in a related field; or 12 years’ experience in a related field
- Mastery across all core user research methods and advanced techniques
- Demonstrated success shaping research strategy for large enterprises
- Expertise in multi-source synthesis, longitudinal studies, and enterprise frameworks
- Excellent communication and persuasion skills at executive levels
- Deep understanding of CAI’s product ecosystems, customer journeys, and industry
- Experience mentoring and developing Lead and Senior-level researchers
- Strong business literacy and ability to connect insights to P&L outcomes
- Proven ability to manage complex cross-functional alignment
- Expert-level understanding of privacy, compliance, and ethical research constraints
- Highly skilled in behavioral analytics, experimentation, and complex modeling
- Use of general purpose LLM tools to analyze and synthesize user behavior, identify patterns, and prioritize opportunities
- Use AI to accelerate discovery, experimentation, development, and recommend improvements throughout the product design process
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree strongly preferred
- 10+ years applied research experience
Additional Information:
- Significant travel may be required to lead executive workshops and ecosystem research
Drug Testing:
To be employed in this role, you'll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $148,500.00 - $247,500.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.
EOE, including disability/vets
