Organizations everywhere struggle under the crushing costs and complexities of “solutions” that promise to simplify their lives. To create a better experience for their customers and employees. To help them grow. Software is a choice that can make or break a business. Create better or worse experiences. Propel or throttle growth. Business software has become a blocker instead of ways to get work done.

There’s another option. Freshworks. With a fresh vision for how the world works.

At Freshworks, we build uncomplicated service software that delivers exceptional customer and employee experiences. Our enterprise-grade solutions are powerful, yet easy to use, and quick to deliver results. Our people-first approach to AI eliminates friction, making employees more effective and organizations more productive. Over 72,000 companies, including Bridgestone, New Balance, Nucor, S&P Global, and Sony Music, trust Freshworks’ customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) software to fuel customer loyalty and service efficiency. And, over 4,500 Freshworks employees make this possible, all around the world.

Fresh vision. Real impact. Come build it with us.

Job Description

We’re looking for a strategic and hands-on Senior Director, User Research to elevate how we understand and design for our customers across our global product suite. This role is critical to formalizing and scaling our research practice, which today operates on a part-time, embedded basis across product and design teams.

As the first dedicated research leader at Freshworks, you’ll partner with product managers, designers, and engineers to shape both upstream (exploratory) and downstream (evaluative) research that drives product innovation, usability, and customer-centric decision-making.

What You’ll Own

Research Strategy & Vision: Define and evangelize a unified vision for user research at Freshworks—building the case for its value across product teams.
Team Building: Scale a world-class user research practice from the ground up, including hiring, mentoring, and creating repeatable frameworks for success.
Cross-Functional Collaboration:
- Partner closely with PMs, Designers, and Engineers to embed research early and often in the product development lifecycle.
- Partner with our VOC team to establish and track CSAT and usability metrics, which we can report out on.
- Partner with PMM, Sales, Pricing and CSM organizations to evaluate research needs, and conduct research as appropriate (Value proposition testing, Continuous feedback loops with At risk customers, Shared personas and customer journeys).
Upstream Research: Conduct and support foundational research to identify user needs, pain points, and market opportunities.
Downstream Research: Guide usability testing, concept validation, and product refinement through rapid and rigorous methodologies.
Research Operations:
- Streamline the tools, processes, and systems to scale research impact across recruitment, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
Customer Empathy Culture: Champion a culture of curiosity, empathy, and evidence-based decision making across the org.

Qualifications

10+ years of experience in user research, with at least 5 years in a leadership or senior management role within a product-led company
Strong expertise across a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, with a proven track record of showcasing value of the research function.
Proven experience collaborating with cross-functional teams in a fast-paced, product-driven environment
A track record of using research to drive strategic decisions at the portfolio or platform level
Experience building or scaling research functions from the ground up
Ability to communicate insights clearly and influence stakeholders at all levels
Bonus: Experience working with global or SaaS products in the B2B or CX/IT/CRM space

Additional Information

The annual base salary range for this position is $257,000 — $338,000 USD

Compensation is based on a variety of factors including but not limited to location, experience, job-related skills, and level. Bonus/equity may be available.

Please note this is a hybrid role that requires an in-office presence 3 days / week (Tue-Thur)

Freshworks offers multiple options for dental, medical, vision, disability and life insurances. Equity + ESPP, flexible PTO, flexible spending, commuter benefits and wellness benefits are also offered. Freshworks also offers adoption and parental leave benefits.

At Freshworks, we are creating a global workplace that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. We are committed to providing equal opportunity for all and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer work environment that advances the goals of our employees, communities and the business.

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