Hire a UX researcher who actually fits your environment
Embedded full-time, fractional, contract, or permanent hire — we find the right researcher for your team, product context, and operating model. Not just someone with the right title on their CV.
Four ways to bring research capability in
The right structure depends on how much research you need, how integrated you want the researcher to be, and whether you're building for the short or long term.
Embedded staffing
A researcher joins your team the way an internal hire would — attending standups, working in your tools, participating in product conversations, forming relationships with design and PM. Generally structured hourly through a staffing engagement.
Best for teams that need a researcher who is genuinely integrated, not just a vendor delivering reports on the side.
Read the hiring guideFractional research
A defined portion of a researcher's capacity reserved for you — a specific number of hours or days per week or month. Effective when your research needs are real but don't warrant a full-time engagement. Clear expectations, fixed availability.
Not all researchers fit fractional well. We match accordingly — someone with the independence and communication skills to work across multiple contexts without dropping the ball.
Fractional detailsContract / project engagement
A researcher brought in for a defined period or project — a product launch, discovery phase, a research backlog to clear, or coverage while you search for a permanent hire. Contract engagements are often the fastest way to get research capability moving.
Learn about project-based researchDirect hire recruiting
You need a permanent UX researcher on your team. We recruit directly into your organization — applying the same access and judgment we use for contract placements, and making introductions to researchers we'd actually stand behind.
Structured as a contingency engagement. We work to find someone we'd genuinely recommend, not to fill a role as fast as possible.
Read the hiring guideEngagement model comparison
| Model | Integration | Duration | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Embedded staffing | Full — works within your team | Ongoing; typical review at 3–6 months | Teams that need a researcher as part of the product process |
| Fractional | Defined availability; integrated but part-time | Ongoing; defined hours per week or month | Meaningful research needs that don't require full-time capacity |
| Contract / project | Variable; can be deeply embedded or project-based | Defined period or project scope | Specific research phases, launch support, or coverage |
| Direct hire | Permanent team member | Indefinite — this is a hire | Organizations ready to build a research function permanently |
How we think about who we place
Research portfolios are often thin — the work is confidential, the outputs are inside decks, and the insight is in the conversations that drove decisions. We evaluate researchers differently from a resume-to-requirement match.
What matters: the environments they've worked in, the problems they've owned, how they reason about research decisions, their methodological depth, how they operate under ambiguity, and whether they instill genuine confidence in the people they work with.
What we evaluate in researchers
The kinds of researchers we work with
The right researcher depends on your product, your team, and what "doing research well" means in your specific context. We match accordingly.
Senior generalists
Qualitative and quantitative range. Can take ownership of a research program, run studies end-to-end, synthesize and communicate findings, and operate independently without a lot of hand-holding. The default for embedded engagements.
Qualitative specialists
Deep interviewing, facilitation, ethnographic, and generative research skills. Strong at uncovering mental models, behavior, and motivations. Valuable when the primary need is deep understanding rather than measurement.
Quantitative researchers
Survey design, statistical analysis, experimental design, behavioral data analysis. Valuable when you need measurement at scale, segmentation research, or validation of qualitative findings.
Mixed-methods researchers
Comfortable with the full spectrum. Know when to go qual, when to go quant, and how to triangulate between them. Increasingly important as research functions mature.
Domain-specialized researchers
Experience in specific regulated or complex industries — healthcare, financial services, gaming, enterprise software — where domain knowledge and compliance awareness genuinely matters for research quality.
ResearchOps practitioners
Specialists in research infrastructure, process, and operations. When the need is building the function rather than doing individual studies. See our ResearchOps page for more.
What happens if things aren't working
A placement should work. If something isn't right — a mismatch in working style, a shift in project scope, an expectation gap — we want to know early, not after months of friction.
We stay in contact throughout engagements. We try to get context before problems become big ones, and we'll work to correct what can be corrected. If a replacement is the right call, we'll handle it. Most search relationships have a notice period that gives everyone reasonable runway.
We don't make guarantees we can't keep. What we do commit to is staying involved and being honest about what's happening.
Guides on hiring UX researchers
The hiring guide covers what to look for, how to evaluate candidates, interview questions that reveal research quality, and how to choose between engagement models.