User research salary: $206K median
The median advertised User research salary is $206K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $172K to $236K: counted from 311 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $99 an hour or $17,208 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $257K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll User research jobs
$206Kmedian advertised salary
$172K – $236Kmiddle half of roles
$206Kaverage advertised salary
311roles counted
User research salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $232K, 19% more than senior roles ($195K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $195K | $172K–$210K | 98 |
| Lead and above | $232K | $204K–$252K | 92 |
| No level in the title | $196K | $154K–$236K | 120 |
User research salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $215K | 130 |
| 🇺🇸California | $213K | 144 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $208K | 293 |
| 🇺🇸New York, NY | $198K | 59 |
Skills that pay more for User research roles
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $445K | 3 |
| Perplexity | $280K | 3 |
| OpenAI | $280K | 6 |
| Fivetran | $255K | 6 |
| Braze | $254K | 4 |
| EarnIn | $254K | 3 |
| Zip | $240K | 3 |
| Mercor | $240K | 3 |
| Twitch | $232K | 3 |
| Coinbase | $222K | 3 |
| Outset | $222K | 30 |
| Mixpanel | $213K | 3 |
| Anduril Industries | $213K | 9 |
| Ashby | $212K | 4 |
| Goteleport | $210K | 3 |
| Figma | $210K | 3 |
| Harvey | $210K | 7 |
| Samsara | $208K | 14 |
| Apptronik | $206K | 3 |
| Applied | $180K | 3 |
| Gen Digital | $180K | 3 |
| Oscar Health | $172K | 8 |
| Suno | $172K | 3 |
| Oura | $164K | 3 |
| Datasite | $163K | 4 |
Highest-paying open User research roles
All User research jobs- Product Data Scientist - Youth, Families and LearningOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$401K - $510KHybridPythonSQLGenerative AI
- Product ManagerMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$180K - $500KUser researchPRDs
- Software Engineer, LabsAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$320K - $485KPythonReactNode.js
- Staff+ Software Engineer, Claude DesignAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$405K - $485KLead and aboveUser researchUsability testingCustoms compliance
- Product DesignerRamp · 🇺🇸New York, NY (HQ)$188K - $440KHybridLLMFigmaDesign systems
- Head of ResearchAsana · 🇺🇸San Francisco$350K - $425KLead and aboveUser research
- Director of Product ManagementMixpanel · 🇺🇸New York City, US (Hybrid)$312K - $390KHybridLead and aboveFigmaUser researchStatistics
- Staff Product ManagerTwenty · 🇺🇸New York, NY$184K - $389KLead and aboveSecurity clearanceUser researchPRDs
- Product Designer, People Innovation LabsOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$230K - $385KOpenAI APIDesign systemsUser research
- Staff Product Manager, Applied AIApptronik · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California$275K - $350KLead and aboveAIReinforcement learningFine-tuning
- Product EngineerImbue · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$170K - $350KPythonTypeScriptReact
- Enterprise Sales ManagerOutset · 🇺🇸San Francisco$300K - $350KHybridHubSpotUser researchPipeline management
- VP, Head of ProductBrigit · 🇺🇸New York City (Hybrid)$290K - $350KHybridLead and aboveAgileUser researchUsability testing
- Director of Product, Product Led GrowthTemporal · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$209K - $342KRemoteLead and aboveSQLBigQueryAmplitude
- Sr. Staff Qualitative Product Researcher, AdsPinterest · 🇺🇸Seattle, WA, USA; Remote, US$164K - $337KRemoteLead and aboveUser researchUsability testing
- VP of Product Management, Trust & Safety, Match GroupMatch Group · 🇺🇸West Hollywood, California$300K - $335KLead and aboveMachine LearningLLMThreat modeling
- Member of Data Staff (Data Scientist)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$175K - $330KLead and abovePythonSQLLLM
- Product Manager (Builder)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$230K - $330KAgileUser researchData visualization
- Senior Engineering Manager, Messaging ExperienceBraze · 🇺🇸Chicago$189K - $320KSeniorTypeScriptReactRuby
- Senior Engineering Manager, Messaging ExperienceBraze · 🇺🇸Austin$189K - $320KSeniorTypeScriptReactRuby
Questions about User research pay
- What is the average User research salary?
- $206K a year on average and $206K at the median, across 311 open User research postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $172K to $236K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest User research pay?
- Anthropic ($445K), Perplexity ($280K), OpenAI ($280K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is an user research a high-paying job?
- The median User research posting advertises $206K a year, more than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 19% above the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as an user research?
- A tenth of the postings offer $257K a year or more; the highest open User research role advertises up to $510K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the User research salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $206K a year is about $99 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $17,208 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $82 to $113 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for User research roles?
- Postings that ask for HubSpot (+$14K, 31 postings), LLM (+$12K, 48 postings), SQL (+$8K, 35 postings) advertise more than the $206K median of all User research postings with pay.
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for User research roles at companies is $206K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $172K to $236K. Counted from 311 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/user-research/
Free to use with the link.