Staff UX Researcher

About the Role

You'll work across some of our most strategically important domains as our first researcher focused on pricing and marketplace dynamics. Pricing is one of the most powerful levers for driving guest demand and conversion, and it’s one of the most complex: because Turo is a peer-to-peer marketplace, hosts set their own prices. This means research spans guest value perception, host pricing behavior, competitive positioning, and booking funnel merchandising—a problem space many quantitative researchers never get to work in.

Responsibilities

• Lead quantitative research across pricing and marketplace domains, including guest willingness-to-pay, price elasticity, value perception, and host pricing behavior and decision-making.
• Partner with product management, design, data, marketing, and strategy on research that informs product roadmaps, product development, and growth strategies.
• Shape product roadmap decisions by bringing quantitative evidence to bear on prioritization, sequencing, and strategic bets, and by de-risking investments before they are made.
• Design and execute large-scale studies: surveys, conjoint analyses, experiments, A/B tests, and behavioral data analyses.
• Partner with Data Engineering and Analytics to establish pipelines, instrumentation, and logging infrastructure that supports research at scale.
• Translate complex quantitative findings into compelling narratives that drive alignment across product, design, business, and leadership audiences.
• Leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate research velocity and help establish team standards for when and how to trust AI-generated outputs.
• Mentor other researchers on quantitative methods, experimental design, and statistical rigor, and contribute to team playbooks and infrastructure.
• Flex into qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, usability studies, or mixed-methods triangulation) when the question calls for it.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional research experience, with at least 4 years of quantitative UX research on consumer software across multiple surfaces (Desktop, Mobile Web, iOS, Android).
• A strong portfolio of quantitative studies that demonstrably shaped product strategy and roadmap decisions—not just informed them.
• Deep expertise in experimental design, survey methodology, statistical analysis, and behavioral data analysis.
• Proficiency in R, Python, and/or SQL; experience analyzing large datasets and surfacing actionable patterns.
• Experience with pricing research methods (conjoint, van Westendorp, willingness-to-pay, elasticity modeling) is a core skill for this role, not a bonus.
• Experience conducting research on a two-sided marketplace, platform, or peer-to-peer product.
• Experience partnering with Data Engineering or Analytics teams on instrumentation, logging, or pipeline work.
• Demonstrated fluency with AI-assisted research tools and a considered point of view on their appropriate use.
• Exceptional storytelling skills, able to translate quantitative complexity into narratives that land with PMs, data scientists, and executive audiences alike.
• Strong stakeholder management, including the ability to push back with confidence and redirect scope when priorities demand it.
• A primary identity as a quantitative researcher, with comfort flexing into qualitative methods when the question calls for it.
• Bachelor’s degree required in a relevant field. Bonus if you have a Masters or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Data Science, Statistics, Behavioral Economics, or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in transportation, travel, mobility, or marketplace/growth-focused product teams.
• Familiarity with causal inference methods (diff-in-diff, regression discontinuity, propensity score matching).
• A history of mentoring other researchers on quantitative methods.

Why Turo for Researchers

Research at Turo isn’t a support function—it’s a strategic one. Embedded within the product and design organization, research plays a core role in identifying and de-risking opportunities that will define our next chapter, from pricing and marketplace dynamics to new revenue growth opportunities. The team has earned a strong external reputation, with members speaking at The Learners Research Week, Sprig, and EPIC, and our guest segmentation work recently nominated as a finalist for the 2026 ESOMAR Outstanding Contribution Award.

About the Team

This is one of the highest-leverage quantitative research roles in the marketplace space right now. Key highlights:

• Greenfield scope: You’ll co-create the quantitative research roadmap, not inherit one.
• Pricing research at marketplace scale: A rare and technically rich problem space spanning guest behavior, host decision-making, and competitive dynamics.
• Strategic seat at the table: Turo’s CEO is a strong advocate for research, and researchers are regularly invited into cross-functional leadership groups.
• Close-knit team: A high-performing, collaborative team with a strong reputation across the organization.
• AI on your terms: No mandated tools; the team defines its own practice.

Pay

For this role, the target base salary range in San Francisco is $212,000–$265,000 annually. This role is also eligible for equity and benefits.

Schedule

This role is in-office on a hybrid schedule—employees are expected to work in the office 3 days per week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays).

Benefits

• Competitive salary, equity, benefits, and perks for all full-time employees.
• Employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance (country-specific).
• Retirement employer match.
• Learning & Development stipend to invest in your professional development.
• Turo host matching program.
• Turo travel credit.
• Cell phone and internet stipend.
• Paid time off to relax and recharge.
• Paid holidays, volunteer time off, and parental leave.
• For those in the office full-time or hybrid: in-office lunch, office snacks, and fun activities.