Head of Market Research | AI-Native Research (Remote US/EU)

ABOUT MAZE Maze is the user research platform that helps companies build the right products faster by making user insights available at the speed of product development. In most companies, research demand far exceeds supply. Time, cost, and lack of access to expertise hold teams back. In today’s AI-powered world, anyone can build a product fast. The real challenge? Deeply understanding user needs and building the right product. That’s where Maze comes in. We believe companies shouldn’t have to choose between building fast and building right. Maze makes research accessible, intuitive, and fast so product teams can put user insights at the center of every decision. Our platform enables researchers, designers, and product managers to quickly recruit participants, run studies autonomously, and surface insights that actually drive product decisions. Our AI capabilities automate the busywork and add depth and direction to the insights themselves. That’s why Maze was recently named the #1 user research platform in UX Tools’ Design Tools Survey https://www.uxtools.co/survey/user-research/user-testing-overview—and why we’re scaling fast across industries like B2B SaaS, e-Commerce, Financial Services, Retail, and Automotive, supporting world class customers such as Uber, Amazon, Atlassian, Anthropic & more. Maze is a Series B company backed by top-tier investors (Felicis, Emergence & Amplify). We operate a global remote workforce driven by our core values https://maze.co/about-us/. ABOUT THE ROLE Maze is launching a Market Research service that blends the scale and speed of our platform with expert led research services, creating an AI-native alternative to traditional market research agencies. As Head of Market Research, you'll be the founding research leader for this new line of business. Reporting to the CEO and partnering closely with the Head of GTM, Research Services, you'll define what great market research looks like for the next generation of insights organizations. You'll own the research vision, methodologies, service delivery, and quality bar while helping shape the future of research alongside Product, Engineering, and GTM. This is a rare opportunity to build a modern market research organization from the ground up. We're looking for someone with deep methodological expertise, a strong point of view on where the industry is headed, and the curiosity to rethink how research can evolve alongside new technologies and changing customer expectations. You'll thrive here if you're equal parts practitioner, builder, and innovator—someone who has spent years earning credibility in market research and is now excited to redefine what the next generation of research can become. WHAT YOU'LL DO RESEARCH STRATEGY & SERVICE DESIGN - Define the long-term vision for Maze's Market Research service and establish what best-in-class research looks like in an AI-native world. - Design and evolve our research methodologies across qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies. - Partner closely with the Head of GTM to shape service offerings, ensuring our commercial strategy is grounded in exceptional research quality. - Evaluate emerging technologies and evolving research practices to continuously improve how research is designed, delivered, and synthesized. BUILD THE RESEARCH FUNCTION - Build and lead the Market Research organization, establishing the operating model, delivery processes, quality standards, and hiring strategy. - Recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of researchers as the business scales. - Create repeatable systems that allow Maze to deliver exceptional research with greater speed, consistency, and efficiency than traditional agencies. - Establish quality assurance frameworks while balancing methodological rigor with the agility our customers expect. RESEARCH DELIVERY & CUSTOMER PARTNERSHIP - Serve as the executive research lead on strategic customer engagements, ensuring every project delivers meaningful business outcomes. - Guide study design, research approaches, analysis, and executive storytelling for our highest-impact customers. - Partner with customers to understand complex business problems and translate them into actionable research strategies. - Continuously improve our delivery model based on customer feedback and market evolution. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP - Partner closely with Product and Engineering to help shape the future of Maze's research capabilities and ensure our platform continues to meet the evolving needs of research teams. - Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success to ensure our research expertise is reflected throughout the customer journey. - Help establish Maze as a trusted authority in the market research industry through customer conversations, industry events, publications, and thought leadership. - Act as the voice of the researcher internally, ensuring product and commercial decisions remain grounded in customer insight and research excellence. WHO YOU ARE EXPERIENCE - Significant experience leading market research teams, research consulting practices, or insights organizations. - Deep expertise across qualitative and quantitative methodologies, research design, sampling, analysis, and insight generation. - Experience building or scaling research organizations, practices, or service offerings. - Strong executive presence with the ability to advise senior leaders and enterprise customers on research strategy. - Experience partnering cross-functionally across commercial, product, and operational teams. SKILLS & STRENGTHS Research visionary You have a clear perspective on where market research is heading and enjoy building new capabilities, services, and ways of working that help customers make better decisions. Future-focused You have a point of view on where market research is heading and are excited by how new technologies—including AI—can improve the way research is designed, delivered, and consumed. You're curious, adaptable, and eager to help shape what's next for the industry. Builder You thrive in zero-to-one environments. You're comfortable creating structure from ambiguity, building teams, and establishing entirely new ways of working. Methodology expert You're respected for your research expertise and know when to challenge conventional approaches. You balance methodological rigor with practical business outcomes. Executive partner You communicate complex research clearly, influence senior stakeholders, and build trusted relationships across customers, executives, and cross-functional teams. BONUS - Experience modernizing research organizations through new technologies, automation, or innovative research practices. - Experience launching a new research practice, consultancy, or service line. - Public speaking, publishing, or thought leadership within the market research industry. - Experience working across both agency and client-side research organizations. - Experience partnering closely with Product and Engineering teams to build research technology. INCLUSIVITY AND PAY At Maze, we are dedicated to building an equitable, inclusive, and authentic workspace. Unique and diverse perspectives are welcomed, and continuous growth is encouraged. We believe that people are more than their resumes, so if your past experience looks different than the criteria listed, we'd still love to hear from you. We appreciate and celebrate non-traditional life routes and encourage you to apply should you connect with a job description or the Maze culture.  Maze values transparency and it enables us to approach compensation equitably across the world. We are informed by data and regularly check our salary ranges (either United States or Rest of World) against other venture backed companies. Additionally, we are proud of our holistic and generous benefits offerings, included in every compensation package. Your salary is dependent upon many factors, including years of experience, expertise, etc. During your first interview, you can expect to have an open conversation with your recruiter regarding your compensation expectations. WHY MAZE IS UNIQUE - Early-stage startup: You will join an early-stage startup with less than 150 team members. This means you'll have the unique opportunity to directly impact success and help shape the future of Maze. - Market disruption: We believe that the way companies build products is fundamentally broken and the user research market is ripe for disruption. For too long, companies have been forced to choose between rapid development without user insights or investing months into research before bringing products to market. But there's finally a groundswell building around a path forward that eliminates this compromise - and Maze is leading the charge. - Product-market Fit: Maze is used by 100,000+ brands across 4,000 companies, from SMB to enterprises, and in the last fiscal year, we saw 6.5M questions answered, supporting 25K decisions BENEFITS - Health insurance with international coverage, vision, and dental: 100% of the team member premium paid - For some locations, coverage options vary, please see our benefits pages https://mazedesign.notion.site/Benefits-Full-Time-Team-Member-fac6236ca0d6452dbc659a1947d89317 for more information - Free access to proper mental health care, unlimited virtual therapy sessions (with a human) and 24/7 access to resources - Life and Disability Insurance, 100% of the team member premium paid - Flexible time off - Meaningful equity - Company retreats, fully paid for by Maze - New MacBook (laptop), paid for by Maze - Paid Family leave: 16 weeks for birth or adoptive parents - $500/month to be used for dependent health insurance coverage - If you don't have dependents to add to your plan, you will still get access to this money to be used at your discretion to get the benefits that matter to you with our flexible a-maze-ing benefits - gym memberships, co-working spaces, food, travel, whatever! - $1,500 remote work setup fund to ensure you can set up a productive work space - Flexible work schedule where you manage your own working hours - Monthly Bonus.ly http://Bonus.ly points that are awarded to others to recognize teamwork, dedication and helpfulness - points can be cashed out for gift cards and more - Virtual social engagements randomly throughout the year - SWAG, we have some really cool swag - Open, transparent culture that includes virtual: coffee chats, bi-weekly all-hands meetings, and more Check out all of our a-maze-ing benefits here https://mazedesign.notion.site/Benefits-fac6236ca0d6452dbc659a1947d89317.  OUTREACH NOTICE We understand you might be excited about the job you’re applying for, we are excited you are interested! However, please refrain from reaching out to our current team members on LinkedIn for referrals. Our policy is that referrals can only be provided by team members who personally know the candidate. With the high volume of interest in our roles, contacting our team members who are not involved in recruitment can be overwhelming. Additionally, please avoid submitting support tickets regarding your application, as our support team is not involved in the hiring process. Rest assured, our recruitment team is diligently reviewing all applications and will reach out directly if there is a match.