User Research Lead

ABOUT ABRIDGE Abridge was founded in 2018 with the mission of powering deeper understanding in healthcare. Our AI-powered platform was purpose-built for medical conversations, improving clinical documentation efficiencies while enabling clinicians to focus on what matters most—their patients. Our enterprise-grade technology transforms patient-clinician conversations into structured clinical notes in real-time, with deep EMR integrations. Powered by Linked Evidence and our purpose-built, auditable AI, we are the only company that maps AI-generated summaries to ground truth, helping providers quickly trust and verify the output. As pioneers in generative AI for healthcare, we are setting the industry standards for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems. We are a growing team of practicing MDs, AI scientists, PhDs, creatives, technologists, and engineers working together to empower people and make care make more sense. We have offices located in the Mission District in San Francisco, the SoHo neighborhood of New York, and East Liberty in Pittsburgh. THE ROLE As the Head of Research at Abridge, you will define how we understand and build for the people at the center of healthcare — shaping how clinicians and patients experience our product every day. Healthcare doesn’t just need better tools — it needs tools that fit seamlessly into complex, high-stakes workflows. As we reimagine the future of healthcare with AI, deeply understanding our users isn’t optional — it’s foundational. In this role, you’ll operate as a hands-on research leader — driving the evolution of our research practice and managing a small team, while staying embedded in the work itself. You’ll partner with product and design leadership to shape the research roadmap and influence product direction, while also leading and executing high-impact studies. You’ll play a pivotal role in uncovering insights and translating them into clear, actionable direction for product, design, and engineering. At the same time, you’ll help bring structure and alignment to a small but growing research team, ensuring our work is focused, connected, and consistently raising the bar. You’ll play a pivotal role in uncovering these insights and translating them into clear, actionable direction for product, design, and engineering. From early-stage exploration to post-launch learning, you’ll ensure that every decision is grounded in a deep understanding of clinicians, patients, and care teams. This role is for a researcher who enjoys leading through influence, shaping strategy, and staying deeply hands-on — someone who can elevate both the impact of research and how it’s practiced across the organization.     WHAT YOU’LL DO - Shape Product Strategy with Leadership: Partner with product and design leadership to align on priorities and guide product strategy, ensuring research informs high-level decision-making. - Lead a High-Impact Research Team: Manage and mentor a small team of researchers by providing strategic guidance and setting clear priorities. - Prioritize the Research Roadmap: Ensure the research team is focused on the highest-impact opportunities and aligning efforts with business goals and user needs. - Drive End-to-End Research: Lead research across the product lifecycle; Identify the right methods for each question and execute with rigor. - Translate Complexity into Insight: Synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable insights. - Influence Product and Design Direction: Partner closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to shape roadmaps, inform decisions, and prioritize opportunities. - Build Empathy and Alignment Across Teams: Communicate findings in compelling and accessible ways. Create shared understanding through storytelling, artifacts, and rituals that keep users top of mind. - Elevate the Practice of Research: Set a high bar for quality, rigor, and impact. Mentor others, introduce new methods, and continuously improve how research contributes to the organization. - Bring the Voice of the Clinician into Every Decision: Develop a deep understanding of clinicians, patients, and care teams. Surface insights that reflect real-world workflows, constraints, and needs — ensuring the product aligns with how healthcare actually works.     WHAT YOU’LL BRING - 8–10+ years of experience in user research, with a strong track record of influencing product direction in complex domains. - Demonstrated leadership or management experience guiding research practice, initiatives and mentoring peers, while influencing product direction in complex, fast-paced environments. - Experience conducting end-to-end research incorporating qualitative and quantitative methods and product analytics - A portfolio or body of work that demonstrates how your research has shaped product decisions and outcomes. - Strong ability to turn ambiguo