About Better.com:

We’re one of the fastest growing homeownership companies in America. Why? Because we’re making homeownership simpler, faster — and most importantly, more accessible for all Americans.

By combining smarter technology with a desire to not just change one piece of the journey but the entire makeup of what it’s like to buy and own a home in this country, we’re building things that don’t exist yet. 

Better.com by the numbers: 

• We fund $600 million in home loans per month
• Nearly $5 billion in loans funded since our inception in 2016
• 2 years running, we’re one of Crain’s “Best Places to work”
• We’re #11 on Fortune’s Best Places to Work in NYC
• And #964 on Inc.’s 2019 “5000 Fastest-Growing Companies” 
• We’ve secured over $254 million from our investors to date 
• ...and counting

We continue to outpace the industry at every turn. We’ve recently joined forces in partnership with Ally Bank. Plus, our backers have helped build some of the most transformative tech and finance companies in history. Kleiner Perkins, Goldman Sachs, IA Ventures, American Express, Citigroup, Activant Capital, and others have all invested in our vision of redefining the entire homebuying journey.

The Role: Director of User Research

The Director of Research here at Better will lead all user research within product design and develop new capabilities. You will identify and set product strategy,  create complex UX ecosystems and build a team that pushes past the boundaries of what currently exists. You will work closely with other leaders in the company while creating a customer-centric and insight mindset for the business to make informed decisions and creating the best products that meet our design standards. 

What you bring: 

• 8+ years experience in user research, 3+ years experience managing research teams.
• BA/BS degree in Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Experimental Psychology, other related fields, or equivalent practical experience.
• Comfortable presenting to groups, working cross-functionally to build relationships, and crafting compelling stories from data.
• Deep understanding of different qualitative and quantitative research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase.
• A sincere passion for well-crafted user experiences that are beautiful and usable.

What you’ll do:

• Build and lead a team of researchers to identify new opportunities, help design and implement new products while keeping Better’s customers at the center.
• Establish the UX research vision and best practices for our products, and partner with senior leadership to advocate for solutions that support both end-user goals and long-term product visions and business strategies.
• Build Better’s research toolkit including interviews, surveys, usability testing, concept studies, participatory design, ethnographic observations, etc.
• Mentor colleagues, encouraging them to take appropriate risks, and providing constructive support, feedback, and critique.
• Conduct end-to-end research, utilizing a wide variety of methodologies to help us gain confidence in our understanding of our users (current and future), their needs and the opportunity this uncovers for our products.
• Work closely with product, design, and marketing teams to define the most important research questions, lead research, and come out with a clear POV on the most important insights.
• Help establish a consumer-centric culture and how to drive insights into our daily work. Not only will you need to drive the research capability, but how we as a team integrate research into our daily activities by teaching research curricula, so teams can learn the right way to conduct their own studies and gain insights about their customers, when appropriate.
• Help build a strong consumer-centric and design culture within Better.
• Advance our ability to effectively communicate research insights in ways that make them easily accessible and actionable by various stakeholders, such as through visual information design.
• Recruit, develop and retain world-class talent.

Things we value: 

• Curiosity. Why? How? Repeat.
• Nerdiness. Financial news and trends are fascinating. Seriously.   
• Relentlessness. No one here gives up. We try. We fail. We try again.
• Passion. If you don’t get excited about homeownership, mortgages, and real estate, it simply won’t work.
• Smarts: book and street. We have to use all the tools at our disposal to build Better.
• Empathy and Compassion. You understand that people's biggest dreams are in your hands.
• Communication. Can you ask for help or put your hand up when you don’t understand?
• Building. Doing. Making. Yes, we have to do a lot of thinking and talking to figure this stuff out, but you can’t wait to leave the conversation and build it.