THE COMPANY

PAX Labs is an award-winning consumer technology brand with a mission to establish cannabis as a force for good. Our products set a high bar for quality and, together with the PAX App, offer unique features such as safety locking, adjustable temperature and draw control. As millions of consumers try cannabis for the first time or return to it after a long hiatus, PAX believes that quality, transparency and predictability are the keys to safe, responsible use by adults. 

Headquartered in San Francisco, PAX is backed by leading technology investors including Tiger Global and Tao Invest (Pritzker family fund). We are an exceptional team with hardware and software backgrounds in consumer technology, healthcare, and biotech, and are growing rapidly to deliver on our mission. Our internal culture values diversity, integrity, having an impact, and passion for the larger movement that PAX is a part of.

Check us out: LinkedIn | The Muse | Key Values

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Research & Testing Lead plays a key role in PAX delivering high-quality products and services to market, via successful Beta field tests. Reporting into the Director of Product Design, you’ll strive to become the resident expert on WHY consumers purchase the devices/pods/products used for cannabis, HOW these products are used, and WHAT the opportunities are for PAX. You’ll help uncover insights that will enable defining our product line-up (including the Pax Labs App), creating brand new products, and ultimately ensuring new and future consumers have an incredible experience.

You are a strong leader who has strategic and operational vision, is passionate about driving the best-in-class product experiences, and can see around corners. You have a keen product sense, a strong understanding of technology, exceptional program management skills, and people management experience. The ideal candidate should thrive in delivering complex programs with multiple stakeholders in a fast pace environment. Day-to-day, you’ll build and lead a team of Testing & Research Coordinators to design and execute testing and research programs for PAX’s hardware, firmware, and software, work to coalesce findings, and communicate with software and hardware teams, product management, and other key stakeholders. 

You will work across PAX to define and drive our testing and research efforts, to provide valuable and actionable insights. In order to do this you will bring a deep understanding of testing and research methods and best practices, along with a nimble, creative and pragmatic approach, and can evaluate and communicate testing and research findings to all key stakeholders. You will grow and lead a team of researchers and coordinators, champion a human-centered design culture, and enable the team to design delightful and impactful experiences that solve real needs and help improve people’s lives.

In this role you will: 

• Define and execute testing and research opportunities throughout the company, running the Beta Testing Program alongside designing and conducting quantitative studies, such as structuring and analyzing surveys to evaluate the impact of product changes and gather insights at scale.
• Coach and develop a team of researchers and coordinators, helping them develop skills, tools, and processes to successfully deliver multiple projects in a high-velocity environment.
• Align research goals and timelines with key internal decisions and deadlines in a rapidly growing company and provide ongoing synthesis and communication of research findings in order to inform the product roadmap and features.
• Work with product and technical teams, anticipate bottlenecks, provide escalation management, anticipate and make trade-offs, and balance business needs versus constraints. 
• Strategically plan beta program improvements, educate teams about testing and research best practices, and develop mechanisms to ensure our testing and research cohorts have the best experience possible.
• Develop the vision and roadmap for the team, define strategic opportunities to achieve scale, and at the same time be able to roll up your sleeves, dive deep and get the job done.
• Create and manage beta testing programs and user research from the ground up for new products and features.

You must: 

• Have strong expertise in understanding the strengths and shortcomings of different research methods
• Have strong communication skills, and the ability to hold discussions with engineering, reliability, hardware and firmware quality, marketing, legal and product teams.
• Ability to define key research questions and objectives, identify appropriate methods, execute studies, and synthesize findings
• Be a strategic thinker, very organized with attention to detail, and a collaborative team player.
• Be able to thrive and succeed in an entrepreneurial environment, and not be hindered by ambiguity or competing priorities.
• Have an understanding of hardware product life-cycle, firmware dependencies and both iOS and Android mobile apps.
• Have the ability to design and conduct qualitative studies, including field observations and interviews, remote and in-person usability studies for existing and future products

Basic Qualifications:

• 10+ years of relevant research experience in a commercial organization
• 5+ years of experience operating, managing, and delivering results in a consumer-facing product or program management role
• 5+ years of experience hiring, developing, and leading user research teams
• Experience working with digital and physical products
• Experience organizing and conducting field studies
• Experience leading large, cross-functional and cross-team projects
• Experience working cross-functionally with engineering, design, and project management counterparts to deliver products/services
• Experience interacting with customers verbally and digitally
• Experience with data analytics, reporting results and identifying trends

Preferred Qualifications

• Mastery of a wide variety of qualitative research methods such as: usability, 1:1 interviews, concept testing, ethnographic-style fieldwork, group discussions, card sorting, workshops, remote studies, etc.
• Mastery with designing surveys and synthesizing quantitative data
• A proven track record of working well with product managers, designers, analytics, engineers, and other partners
• Advanced degree in research, social sciences, HCI or related field is preferred, but not required
• Experience managing and delivering product quality or testing
• Experience engaging and influencing senior executives
• Experience defining product roadmaps and requirements
• Experience using Centercode platform desired but not mandatory
• Experience using JIRA to manage bug and feature tracking

PAX LABS PERKS & BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation, equity & bi-annual performance reviews
• Fully funded comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401K plan
• Generous PTO policy 
• Paid Parental Leave
• Monthly wellness reimbursement
• Cell Phone reimbursement
• Employee Purchase Program for discounted PAX devices
• Weekly catered lunch, endless snacks and beverages
• Dog Friendly HQ in the Mission District of San Francisco
• Employee Assistance Program including access to online legal support

Don't let the confidence gap get in the way of applying! We'd love to hear from you.