Senior User Researcher

About the Company:

Octave is a modern behavioral health practice creating a new standard for care delivery that’s both high-quality and accessible. With in-person and virtual clinics in multiple states, the company offers evidence-based individual, couples, and family therapy, while pioneering relationships with payers to make care more affordable through insurance. By raising the bar on how care is delivered and how providers are supported, we are building a sustainable system that values equity, affordability, and effectiveness.

About the Role: 

As the Senior User Researcher at Octave, you will lead research efforts that uncover the needs, behaviors, and challenges of users navigating the behavioral healthcare space. Collaborating with cross-functional teams—including Product, Design, Data, Marketing, and Clinical teams—you will ensure that user insights drive the development of impactful digital products, services, strategies, and interventions. This role requires a proactive and strategic thinker who can identify opportunities to discover and generate new insights,  apply those insights, advocate for the voice of the user, and guide the organization in making mental healthcare more accessible and effective.

Your work will contribute to known key initiatives such as customer journey mapping for both patients and therapists, collaborating on a cross-functional Insights Hub, and supporting our Design Discovery & Experimentation Pipeline. With a passion for creating meaningful user experiences, you will play a pivotal role in advancing Octave’s mission to improve mental healthcare for everyone.

Responsibilities Include: 

• Research Leadership and Execution
• Plan and conduct complex user research studies using a variety of methods, including contextual inquiries, usability testing, customer journey mapping, interviews, surveys, and field observations.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights that guide product and design strategies.
• Identify opportunities to leverage user insights to improve the experience for patients and therapists, aligning outcomes with business objectives.
• Develop compelling research deliverables such as user personas, journey maps, and detailed reports to communicate findings and recommendations effectively.
• “Manage up” by helping to foster a research-centric business mindset, enabling executive leadership to leverage deeper insights to guide decision-making.
• Lead research project tracking and the discovery process, coordinating cross-functional efforts to disseminate research findings and integrate them into broader strategies.
• Serve as a key communicator of research insights, ensuring alignment across teams and fostering a user-centered approach.
• Stay informed about industry trends, best practices, and regulatory considerations in behavioral healthcare to keep research relevant and impactful.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Collaborate with Data and Marketing teams to co-develop an Insights Hub, refining user personas and improving decision-making through integrating research, consumer insights, and data analysis.
• Partner with Design and Product teams to ensure research findings are embedded throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Contribute to the Design Discovery & Experimentation Pipeline by providing user insights to enhance testing and iteration efforts.
• Work with our clinical leadership to incorporate the perspectives of therapists into user research initiatives, ensuring solutions address the needs of all stakeholders, clients and therapists alike.
• Advocacy and Mentorship
• Advocate for user-centered design across Octave, building empathy and understanding for users among stakeholders.
• Present findings to cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and sometimes the whole company, with the goal of keeping research top-of-mind for everyone.
• Mentor others when opportune ( junior researchers, designers, partners, etc), fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 5+ years of professional experience in user research, with a strong portfolio of impactful research initiatives.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Deep understanding of the healthcare landscape, including patient needs and therapist workflows.
• Proficiency in a wide range of research methodologies, including interviews, focus groups, surveys, usability testing (and related tooling), and ethnographic studies.
• Strong analytical and communication skills, with the ability to translate findings into strategic recommendations and compelling narratives.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including Product, Design, Data, Marketing, and Clinical teams.
• Familiarity with tools such as Notion, Google Workspace (e.g. Docs, Sheets, Slides), Figma, Userresearch.com/UseBerry, Miro/FigJam, and data visualization platforms like Tableau or Mixpanel.
• A demonstrable proactive leadership mindset, with the ability to identify opportunities to apply research insights to improve user experiences.
• Comfort assisting with design-related activities, such as creating wireframes, prototypes, or participating in critiques when needed.

Octave's Company Values:

The below values drive our day-to-day operations.

• We’re human beings first. We operate with empathy and kindness – with our clients, with our collaborators, and with ourselves.
• People deserve better than status quo. We’re willing to tackle the intractable problems, no matter how big, because someone should. We ask big questions, we craft big solutions, and we challenge ourselves and others to make it happen.
• No bystanders. No stars. No tourists. Each person has been selected to be here, and with that comes a responsibility to bring your expertise, share your ideas, and help make this company better.
• Partnership paves the path ahead. We don’t operate in a silo, internally or externally. To transform the system, we believe in working with others to create something bigger, better, and stronger.
• Quality is crucial at scale. Quality is core to our business, and we refuse to sacrifice it as we grow.
• Progress is a process. In the pursuit of progress, we iterate, reflect, learn, adjust – and always leave things better than we found them.
• There are people behind every data point. We recognize that numbers tell only one part of the story, and we also do the work to understand impacts at the individual level.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer. 
• Must be able to frequently communicate with others through virtual meeting applications such as Zoom and Google Meet. 
• Must be able to observe and communicate information on company provided laptop. 
• Move up to 10 pounds on occasion.
• Must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

Compensation:

Octave is committed to pay equity. To maintain our commitment to pay equity, Octave will follow Pay Transparency regulations on all open job postings. Current Pay Transparency laws require companies to include a position's salary or hourly wage range (not including bonuses or equity-based compensation) in any internal or external job posting. This requirement extends to job postings published by a third party at an employer's request.

Octave will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with Octave’s legal duty to furnish information.

Starting pay for qualified applicants will depend on a combination of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. The expected salary range for this role is set forth below and this range may be modified in the future.

The salary range is for zone 1 (all states not in zone 2 or zone 3) is $132,100 - $142,600.

The salary range for zone 2 (CO, HI, MD, RI) is $145, 300 - $156,900.

The salary range for zone 3 (AK, CA, CT, MA, NJ, NY, WA) is $152,00 - $164,000.

All zones are eligible for equity in the form of stock options, plus target bonus incentives based on performance.

Additionally, this position is eligible for the following benefits: company sponsored life insurance, disability and AD&D plans. Voluntary benefits such as 401k retirement, medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, dependent care and commuter/parking options are also available. Octave offers generous Paid Time Off as well as paid parental leave benefits.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

To apply please share your portfolio showcasing breadth and depth of experience. Please attach or supply a link to your hosted portfolio.

Application Instructions:

Please complete the following application. Please note that the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Information questions below are used for the purposes of EEOC reporting and are optional to complete. Octave is unable to change these questions and we acknowledge that many of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Information questions are not inclusive or affirming of all aspects of cultural identity. Octave is committed to an inclusive workplace environment, and this information will not inform how we approach hiring or employment.