DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States to bring classroom dreams to life.

About the UX Research Team

UX Research sits on the Product Team, doing important mission-driven work to help address educational inequity in US public schools. Our research informs the digital products that are used by tens of thousands of teachers, donors, partners, and others, helping to create useful and usable experiences across our ecosystem. 

DonorsChoose is entering a significant phase of growth, and as complexity increases, we're working to scale up operations, enhance our product offerings, and possibly expand into new markets. As such, we are growing our research practice in order to support these initiatives. The UX Research Operations Specialist will join our team of 4 product managers, 3 product designers, and 2 UX researchers to improve the on-site experience for our teachers, donors, and partners, directly impacting the educational outcomes for students across the US.

Read How We Do Product and learn about our Product Principles on our team’s blog. You can also read about how we’ve structured the research team in the past. 

About the Role

The UX Research Operations Specialist at DonorsChoose coordinates the logistics that drive user research initiatives and plays a pivotal role in establishing cross-team efficiencies that make research more effective. Your responsibilities encompass all operational facets of research, ranging from participant recruitment to ensuring rigorous data privacy protocols and effective knowledge management. DonorsChoose relies on UX research to shape strategic direction and drive decision-making, making your role instrumental in the development of our product solutions.

We’re looking for a mission-driven self-starter who is enthusiastic about implementing lean processes and eager to execute on the day-to-day operations that support our research practice. Our ideal candidate has a bias for action, favors learning over perfection, and knows their way around a spreadsheet. If this describes you, we want to hear from you!

In this role you will: 

• Own the participant recruitment lifecycle
  You’ll find the best participants for a study, harnessing existing processes and designing novel approaches to solve our toughest recruiting challenges. You’ll work with UX researchers and other stakeholders to establish recruiting criteria, draft screeners, source and schedule participants, prepare participants for studies, oversee incentives, manage consent forms, and track participation in our business analytics tool. 
• Coordinate research logistics
  You’ll support ongoing research by setting up studies in Qualtrics, UserTesting, and other research tools. You’ll maintain study documents, book spaces for research sessions, and track progress on a Trello board. You’ll deliver a seamless experience for project stakeholders so they know how to watch live sessions and recordings, and you’ll process findings into our research library for future reference.
• Create and maintain efficient processes
  Our team is expanding to include a second full-time researcher. We’ll look to you to identify and implement operational efficiencies that keep the research team performing at a high-level. Examples of work could include: optimizing recruiting methods to increase response rates and lower operational lift, redesigning how we track research participation, cataloging research findings according to a structured taxonomy, or standardizing research plan templates. You’ll have agency to identify opportunities and implement solutions.
• Scale impact through special projects
  You’ll identify, scope, and execute special projects that improve the quality of our work. Past examples have included:
  • • Building a dashboard in our business analytics tool to validate representativeness in survey samples
    • Constructing a research library in Trello that houses past reports
    • Implementing a system to track the demographic diversity of research participants,regularly presenting trends and recommendations to senior team members

This role may be perfect for you if:

• You have experience in operations, research operations or recruiting, project management, program management or similar roles.
• You have a passion for education, equity, or social good
• You’re excited to implement processes and execute the day-to-day operations that support our research practice
• You are at ease in a customer-facing role — you’re not afraid to pick up the phone to  cold call a potential participant
• You are efficient in your work with an operational ethos toward continually improving systems and processes
• You have a growth mindset — you’re excited to build internal and external networks from which to learn, and invest in your own knowledge so that you can improve and increase your impact
• You embrace flexibility — you take shifting priorities in stride and pivot when needed
• You are tech savvy and quickly learn new tools and systems. Proficiency at Google Sheets and/or Excel is a must. (Bonus points if you’ve used analytics tools like Looker, or research software like Qualtrics or UserTesting.)
• Conversational Spanish proficiency is not required, but is a plus

Compensation & Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

• The hiring salary range for this role is  - $58,000-$64,000
• We have a hiring salary range of $64,000-$70,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application. 

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization.

DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. 

DonorsChoose Core Values

EQUITY
Combating systemic inequity is crucial to a brighter future for all. This reality fuels our ambitions and drives us to persevere.

INGENUITY
Complex problems require innovative solutions. We dream big, get creative, roll up our sleeves, and take action. We believe the best products can change the world.

HUMANITY 
People are the heart of our team and the communities we serve. Our compassion informs our goals and how we work together to achieve them. 

INTEGRITY
We strive to do right. We’re up-front about the facts. We boldly learn and grow from mistakes.

LEARNING
Education is the beating heart of our organization, inside and out. We’re curious. We listen. We know we don’t know everything. 

GRATITUDE
We begin and end with thanks. We take joy in our mission, our communities, and each other.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Josh Rosenberg, Lead User Experience Researcher II,

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.