Staff Design Researcher Job at Intuit in San Francisco

Overview

Join our mission. Intuit is a global technology platform that helps our customers and communities overcome their most important financial challenges. We help give over 50 million consumers, small businesses, and self-employed customers around the world the opportunity to prosper.

Accountants are the backbone of the QuickBooks ecosystem. They are the expert partners who scale small businesses and ensure financial integrity globally. We are looking for a Staff Design Researcher to lead the holistic research strategy for the Accountant Segment. You will look across the entire QuickBooks platform to understand how accountants manage their firms, collaborate with clients, and grow their practices. You will champion the "ProAdvisor" community, ensuring Intuit’s multi-product strategy aligns with professional workflows.

Responsibilities

As a Staff Design Researcher for the Accountant segment, you are a strategic architect with autonomy to ensure our product teams (Tax, Books, Payroll, Capital) form a cohesive, expert-grade experience for accounting professionals.

Strategic Leadership & Influence

• The Accountant Strategy Lead: Identify high-level, cross-product opportunity areas and friction points in how accountants move data and manage client relationships.
• Bridge the Ecosystem: Partner with senior leaders across QuickBooks business units to ensure a unified Accountant First mental model and move from Product Thinking to Ecosystem Thinking.
• Champion the Say-Do Gap: Advocate for professional needs in product roadmaps using deep customer empathy to influence executive-level strategy.

Research Execution & Rigor

• Generative Firm Research: Lead comprehensive studies on the Future of the Accounting Firm, including AI, automation, and advisory services.
• Holistic Journey Mapping: Create and maintain the master Accountant Journey, identifying critical moments from firm setup to seasonal tax filing.
• Triangulated Insights: Partner with Data Science and Market Research to blend behavioral big data with qualitative insights for a 360-degree view of accountant health and sentiment.

Scaling the Craft & Mentorship

• Expertise Center of Excellence: Act as the Sensei for teams building for accountants, providing frameworks and personas for designers and PMs to understand the professional user.
• Mentorship: Provide high-level mentorship to researchers across the organization to elevate research standards.

Qualifications

We are looking for a systems-thinker who can navigate the technical complexity of accounting while maintaining a relentless focus on human-centered design.

Experience & Education

• 7+ years of experience leading strategic user research for complex B2B ecosystems or professional service platforms.
• Systems Thinking Mastery: Proven ability to research multi-sided marketplaces or complex software ecosystems where one user (the accountant) manages many others.
• Portfolio of Strategy: A track record of research that shifted product direction or informed a new business model.

Methodological Rigor & Proficiency

• Holistic Toolkit: Mastery of service blueprinting, longitudinal studies, and diary studies to capture the seasonality of an accountant’s life.
• Expert Fluency: Ability to speak with CPAs and Firm Owners about practice management and workflow automation.
• Data Integration: Proficiency with Product Intelligence tools to assess where professional users thrive or struggle across the suite.

Strategic & Soft Skills

• Executive Presence: Strong storytelling and presentation skills; comfortable challenging senior leadership and presenting to executives.
• Navigating Ambiguity: Ability to thrive in a horizontal role influencing teams you do not directly manage.
• The Accountant Mindset: Appreciation for precision, efficiency, and the trusted-advisor relationship between accountants and their clients.

Intuit provides a competitive compensation package with pay-for-performance rewards. This position may be eligible for a cash bonus, equity rewards, and benefits in accordance with applicable plans. Pay ranges are based on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location.