Staff Product Researcher

Nelnet Business Services (NBS), a division of Nelnet, Inc., provides payment technology, education services, and learning management solutions to education and faith-based organizations, serving more than 1,300 higher education institutions, 11,500 K-12 schools, 3,500 churches, and millions of individual students, families, and supporters across the globe. Our culture of service enables us to form long-lasting and trusted partnerships, while our focus on creativity and innovative solutions empowers our customer communities to thrive.

 

As a Nelnet company, the perks at NBS go beyond our benefits package. You’re part of a community, invested in you as an individual and united by our mission to create opportunities for people where they live, learn and work.

You are an experienced product and UX researcher who turns questions into evidence and evidence into better products. As the research expert in the room, you diagnose what kind of research a problem actually needs, design the right study, run it, and bring back insight people can act on — as comfortable moderating a focus group as digging through the data for the next signal. This is a founding research seat: beyond doing the work, you’ll define how we do research here — the process, the standards, and a modern AI layer that lets a small team punch far above its weight.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead research end to end — user interviews, usability testing, focus groups, surveys, and mixed-methods studies — owning the plan, recruiting, moderation, analysis, and a clear report covering goals, needs, pain points, and the touchpoints that matter.

• Decide what research is needed — read the problem, choose the right approach for the decision and its risk, and know when a quick feedback pass is enough versus when something warrants a full study.

• Build our AI research capability — create and refine agents that draft plans, synthesize data, and produce reports, and stand up autonomous research wherever a task doesn’t require a human in the loop.

• Set the standard — turn your best work into reusable, high-quality templates (surveys, study plans, test plans, reports) that both people and agents fill out consistently, and define our research process and best practices.

• Mine our own data for signals — as a power user of Pendo and a close reader of call transcripts, support data, and qualitative and quantitative feedback, proactively surface the trends that should shape the roadmap or trigger deeper research.

• Get out into the field — travel to partner schools to spend a few days alongside teachers, staff, administrators, parents, and board members, running interviews, focus groups, and feedback sessions.

• Partner across the company — work with marketing, operations, and sales to understand customers from every angle, and with product strategy and design to translate insight into product, roadmap, and design decisions.

• Own how we collect and keep research data — work with internal teams and data governance to capture, store, and make research data retrievable so anyone can find a past study or its findings later.

• Present — tell the story of what you found to teams and leadership in a way that drives confident decisions.

Salary for this role is: $100,000+ DOE

EDUCATION:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred:

• Master’s or PhD in Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Statistics, Anthropology, or a related field.

EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• 5+ years in an applied research setting (product, UX, or academic).
• Hands-on with the full range of research methods — interviews, usability and moderated/unmoderated testing, contextual inquiry, surveys, and focus groups.
• Experience owning every stage of research: study design, recruiting, moderation, analysis, and reporting.
• Comfort with quantitative data and behavioral analytics, not just qualitative work.
• A strong presenter who can make findings land with both peers and executives.
• Willingness to travel to schools for in-person field research a few times a year.

Preferred:

• Experience using AI to do research — building agents or automating parts of the research process to improve speed, depth, or quality.
• Proficiency with research and product-analytics tools (e.g., Pendo and common user-testing, survey, and research-repository platforms).
• Comfort working with AI tools such as Claude Code.
• Experience in education, EdTech, or another multi-stakeholder domain.

SKILLS: 

• Research judgment — diagnosing what kind of research a decision needs and matching method to the risk at hand.
• Strategic influence — presenting findings so they drive confident decisions with both peers and executives.
• Technical fluency — quantitative data, behavioral analytics, and AI tooling (research agents, Claude Code, Pendo).
• Cross-functional collaboration across product, design, marketing, operations, and sales.
• Building scalable standards — reusable templates and processes that multiply a small team’s output.

Our benefits package includes medical, dental, vision, HSA and FSA, generous earned time off, 401K/student loan repayment, life insurance & AD&D insurance, employee assistance program, employee stock purchase program, tuition reimbursement, performance-based incentive pay, short- and long-term disability, and a robust wellness program. Click here to learn more about our benefits: LINK.

Nelnet is committed to providing a welcoming and respectful workplace where all associates have the opportunity to succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion/creed, national origin, gender, sex, marital status, age, disability, use of a guide dog or service animal, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law. We value the unique contributions of every team member and believe that a positive work environment benefits everyone.  

Qualified individuals with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations in order to apply or compete for positions at Nelnet may request such accommodations by contacting Corporate Recruiting at 402-486-5725 or corporaterecruiting@nelnet.net.

Nelnet is a Drug Free and Tobacco Free Workplace.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring

We may use automated or artificial intelligence enabled tools to assist with the initial review of applications, such as identifying relevant skills or experience. These tools are used to support human review and do not make hiring decisions. A recruiter reviews applications and determines which candidates move forward in the hiring process. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Pre-Use Notice: Automated Tools in Hiring