Whoop
Sr. Research Manager, Design Research
Boston, MA · Senior · Full-time
Sponsorship not specified$120k-$160kDetected 5 days ago
UX ResearchHardware DesignResearchLeadershipCommunicationMentoring
About the role
- As a people-first leader, you will balance strategic direction, team development, and hands-on contribution-ensuring research rigor and impact across the hardware development lifecycle.
- Interested in the role, but don't meet every qualification?
- WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility.
Responsibilities
- Provide strategic leadership across design research, ensuring alignment with hardware, product, and organizational priorities.
- Partner closely with Program Management and team members to intake research needs, assess tradeoffs, and guide prioritization and research direction.
- Manage, coach, and develop a team of senior researchers, fostering strong research craft, clear communication, and professional growth.
- Own relationships with external research vendors, including scoping projects, defining success criteria, and ensuring high-quality execution.
- Communicate research insights clearly and credibly to cross-functional partners and leadership, positioning research as a critical input to decision-making.
- WHOOP empowers members to perform at a higher level through a deeper understanding of their bodies, behaviors, and daily lives.
- WHOOP is hiring a Senior Research Manager, Design Research to lead and scale critical research efforts across WHOOP Labs.
- This role will oversee Design Research, shaping how early-stage insights inform product innovation.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as human factors, design research, user experience research, design anthropology, psychology, or a related discipline.
- 2+ years of people management experience, including coaching, feedback, and performance development.
- Experience working within or alongside hardware development lifecycles (not software-only).
- Experience managing or partnering with external research vendors, including project scoping and execution.
- Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate complex insights to executive audiences.
- 5+ years of experience conducting user research for physical products, ideally within hardware, health, or consumer product environments.
- Strong mixed-methods research background, with demonstrated application of qualitative and quantitative approaches to real-world products.
- Ability to manage multiple workstreams, navigate ambiguity, and influence without direct authority across cross-functional teams.
- Strong commitment to embracing and leveraging AI tools in day-to-day tasks, ensuring AI-assisted work aligns with the same high-quality standards as personal contributions.
- Interested in the role, but don't meet every qualification? We encourage you to still apply! At WHOOP, we believe there is much more to a candidate than what is written on paper, and we value character as much as experience. As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive environment, we encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply.
- WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
- The WHOOP compensation philosophy is designed to attract, motivate, and retain exceptional talent by offering competitive base salaries, meaningful equity, and consistent pay practices that reflect our mission and core values.
- At WHOOP, we view total compensation as the combination of base salary, equity, and benefits, with equity serving as a key differentiator that aligns our employees with the long-term success of the company and allows every member of our corporate team to own part of WHOOP and share in the company's long-term growth and success.
- The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $120,000 - $160,000. Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within each range, individual pay is based on factors such as job-related skills, experience, performance, and relevant education or training.
Compensation
- The WHOOP compensation philosophy is designed to attract, motivate, and retain exceptional talent by offering competitive base salaries, meaningful equity, and consistent pay practices that reflect our mission and core values.
Company info
- At WHOOP, we're on a mission to unlock human performance and healthspan.
This listing is sourced directly from Whoop's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.