Freelance User Researcher

At Lighthouse, we’re on a mission to disrupt commercial strategy for the hospitality industry. Our innovative commercial platform takes the complexity out of data, empowering businesses with actionable insights, advanced pricing tools, and cutting-edge business intelligence to unlock their full revenue potential.

Backed by $370 million in series C funding and driven by an unwavering passion for growth, we’ve welcomed five companies into our journey and have surpassed $100 million in ARR in 2024. Our 700+ teammates span 35 countries and represent 34 nationalities.

At Lighthouse, we’re more than just a workplace – we’re a community. Collaborative, fun, and deeply committed, we work hard together to revolutionize the hospitality sector. Are you ready to join us and shine brighter in the industry’s most exciting rocket-ship? 🚀

What you will do

We are looking for a mixed methods freelance Senior User Researcher to temporarily fill in for one of our researchers at Lighthouse, full-time for 1 year. Over the course of 2025 you will be a full-blown member of the User Research team: doing research as well as growing the user-centred culture across the wider organisation. 

As Senior UX Researcher you will collaborate closely with the product trios of one of our three verticals in the Product, Engineering & Design organisation. Within that vertical, the Independent vertical, you will be researching the needs and behaviours of small hoteliers who are not affiliated to a chain or hotel group, to provide strategic input to the product trios and support them in evaluating the solutions they’ve created.  Next to that you will help drive research democratisation efforts by taking ownership over Research OPS projects such as our Research Community and setting up new processes such as rolling research calls or a structural approach to beta testing.

Where you will have impact

• Working closely with the Independent vertical:
  • Plan and execute strategic research initiatives, for example diving into the mobile experience for small hoteliers and inform the higher-level strategy for the  independent vertical.
  • Help the product teams to choose the most effective research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) for their tactical and operational research initiatives while contributing to our research democratisation efforts by coaching and educating product trios and related roles.
  • Dig into quantitative data in tools such as mixpanel or looker to triangulate your insights and be an advocate for working insights informed.
  • Together with the product trios and the Product Analyst choose the right progress and success metrics for new features.
  • Analyze and document your research in our Research Repository, Dovetail, and regularly share your insights with relevant stakeholders throughout the organisation as well as with the Research & Design team in one of our regular meetings. 
• Working on Research OPS initiatives and collaborating with the Research team:
  • You will be responsible for the management of our Research Community, and paying out incentives to customers. You will also get the opportunity to set up a format for continuous customer calls with the panel participants.
  • Further structure, formalise and document our beta process.
  • Collaborate with your User Research team colleagues on other Research OPS initiatives.

About our team

The research team consists of 3 awesome Research Stars and the Research Team Lead. We are part of the Design & Research team that also includes UX design, Brand Design and Design System. We work closely together with these other disciplines and have regular meetings within the larger Design & Research team. Within your vertical you will work closely with the UX Designers that work on that vertical as well as Product Managers, Solution Architects and the Head of Product. 

We are part of the PED (Product, Design and Engineering) department, with whom we meet once a year in person to collaborate, get inspired and plan the year ahead.  While Lighthouse is organized in a hybrid way of working with some people fully remote and others working at one of our offices, the research team works fully remote with members located in 4 different countries. If you are located close to one of our offices  you are welcome to work from there, otherwise you would work remotely.

What's in it for you?

• Flexible working environment: Work from home or at one of our global offices.
• Flexible time off: Autonomy to manage your work-life balance.
• Collaborative team: High-bar, friendly, creative, and passionate colleagues.
• Career development: Workshops, frameworks, tools, training, and processes to realize your full potential.
• Impactful work: Shape products relied on by 85,000+ users worldwide.
• Competitive compensation: Proactively maintained to value your work.
• Referral bonuses: Earn rewards for bringing in new talent.

Who you are

• have 5+ years of relevant experience in user research , ideally in B2B/B2C SaaS or enterprise software.
• have experience and are able to apply a broad range of qualitative and quantitative user research methodologies (interviews, surveys, user testing, usability testing, observations, card sorting,…) to discover opportunities and evaluate solutions.
• are able to collect relevant requirements, set up a research plan , carry out strategic research independently and argue your choices towards stakeholders.
• are proactive, experimental and have an entrepreneurial mindset. 
• can present concrete examples of your user research skills within the context of a feature and/or a product as well as on a foundational level, and can illustrate the resulting impact on the user and business.
• are flexible in your approach to user research, adhering to ‘just enough research’ by matching and adjusting research methodologies to the needs of your projects.
• have experience with research tools (e.g. Maze, Dovetail,Typeform, Mixpanel, Hotjar, Marvin…) to conduct research,  synthesise and triangulate  insights.
• are able to learn from and collaborate with multiple departments. Knowing how to present your insights concisely in the language of your stakeholders and are comfortable presenting to  executive leadership
• uphold and champion ethical and privacy standards while conducting, analysing and documenting user research.
• have good stakeholder management skills, can work independently and  take responsibility and ownership over your work and initiatives.
• like to proactively advocate for user research and have an interest in research operations.
• are fluent in English, both written and spoken. Any other language used within our company network is a plus.

Thank you for considering a career with Lighthouse. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that values equal opportunity for all. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. Our commitment to equality is not just a policy; it's part of our culture.

If you share our passion for innovation and teamwork, we invite you to join us in shaping the future of the hospitality industry. At Lighthouse, our guiding light is to be an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage individuals from all walks of life to apply.

We value the unique perspective and talents that you bring, and we're excited to see how your light can shine within our team. We can't wait to meet you and explore how we can grow and succeed together, illuminating the path towards a brighter future for the industry.