[Hiring] Lead Researcher, Brand Performance & Cultural Insights @PrizePicks

Role Description

We are hiring a Lead Researcher to own how we measure, contextualize, and improve PrizePicks’ brand performance and cultural position, end to end. You will complement brand measurement with qualitative insight into the consumer mindset (fan, social, cultural) that surfaces shifts in fan behavior, the category, and the competitive set before they show up in performance data.

You will operate as a high-impact individual contributor, working hands-on across every step from problem framing through executive-ready recommendation. You will partner directly with leaders and operators across the business, from SVP to IC, and you will own the stakeholder relationship and the recommendation.

What you’ll do:

• Connect customer, brand, competitive, and cultural signals to PrizePicks’ business performance and decisions, driving major changes in what the company builds, how it shows up in market, how it invests, and where it should stop.
• Own PrizePicks’ brand performance measurement end to end. Design and run the studies, synthesize the read, write and ship the recommendation, and follow the changes through until they land in product, brand, or growth decisions.
• Own the cultural intelligence program end to end. Surveys, social and cultural listening, online communities, and qualitative work that surface shifts in fan behavior, gaming, sports, and adjacent subcultures before they show up in performance data.
• Run quant and qual end to end, hands on. Design, program, field, and QA studies across brand tracking, segmentation, sizing, and concept and message testing in Qualtrics or comparable.
• Synthesize outputs that move business performance. Define what is happening, why it matters, what leadership and operators should do next, and what to stop doing.
• Create strong, compelling project briefs that frame business problems as research solutions. Ask the questions stakeholders don’t know to ask.
• Partner directly with leaders and operators across Product, Design, Brand & Marketing, Retention & Lifecycle, Strategy, and Analytics. Recommend what to accelerate, deprioritize, or stop.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in market research or consumer insights where you can point to specific decisions that changed, dollars that moved, or directions that shifted because of work you owned end to end.
• Equal command of quant and qual, hands-on.
• Experience designing and running brand performance trackers that diagnose funnel conversion.
• Working fluency with qualitative platforms (ListenLabs, dscout, Suzy), statistical tools (R or Python), and BI tools (Tableau, Looker, Power BI).
• Experience using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in research work.
• Ability to move findings from data to business implications quickly.
• Comfortable interacting with and challenging stakeholders at any level.
• Highly collaborative, building alignment with stakeholders.
• Relentlessly curious about customer and fan behavior.

Requirements

• Experience in daily fantasy, gaming, sports, sports media, or adjacent fan-driven consumer categories.
• A clear point of view on what good brand performance and cultural research looks like.
• Experience building or scaling research operations: processes, templates, trackers, dashboards, or self-serve tools.
• Ability to design studies, program surveys, moderate communities, run analyses, and write recommendations.

Benefits

• Company-subsidized medical, dental, & vision plans
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Annual bonus
• Flexible PTO to encourage a healthy work/life balance (2 weeks STRONGLY encouraged!)
• Generous paid leave programs, including 16-week paid parental leave and disability benefits
• Workplace flexibility and modern work schedules focused on getting the job done, not hours clocked
• Company-wide in-person events and team outings
• Lifestyle enhancement program
• Company equipment provided (Windows & Mac options)
• Annual performance reviews with opportunities for growth and career development