Rocket Travel is looking for our first UX Research Lead to join our growing design team. 

In this role, you will be the lead for the UX research initiatives of our design team. You’ll execute common qualitative research methodologies and share out results, while also guiding and advising UX designers in their own research activities. You’ll lead our research strategy and roadmap and collaborate with product owners and other teams across our organization, across our B2B2C partners, and across the other Booking Holdings companies.

This role reports into our Director of Design.

Rocket Travel is a place where you:

  • Work with a group of intrinsically motivated people with a track record for building successful new businesses from scratch.
  • Embody curiosity, community, and accountability. We live and build products by these values every day. 
  • Own decisions and take action that can be implemented in a matter of days (or hours).
  • Get inspired and encouraged to vacation faster, with an annual vacation stipend.
  • Receive a competitive compensation package, including bonus, 401k with match, flexible vacation time, maternity and paternity benefits, health, and dental insurance.
    • Total Compensation is based on experience - Salary: $125k - $145k + Bonus: 15%
  • Can have a flexible work schedule. We have an amazing office in the Chicago West Loop. We have a hybrid team and a flexible work environment.
  • Remote work - with a small amount of travel (10-15% to Rocket headquarters in Chicago and for onsite customer and partner research).
  • Share your passion for travel with equally adventurous teammates. 
  • Work within the largest online travel company in the world. Rocket Travel creates B2C and B2B2C travel products and is part of Booking Holdings (BKNG). We have many worldwide partners and a diversified business. Despite the world’s current situation, Booking Holdings has been rated the healthiest company in travel, and Rocket itself is already seeing travel demand surpass pre-pandemic levels.

As a Lead UX Researcher at Rocket Travel, you will: 

  • Lead UX research strategy & research roadmap.
      • Organize our research artifacts & documentation, so that it is transparent and accessible both for the design team and across the company.
      • Partner with Product to ensure discovery research and validation assessments happen at the right cadence.
      • Own a research roadmap so that is in sync with Product initiatives and delivers innovation insights for all of Rocket.
  • Execute high impact research that reveals honest customer experiences and identifies opportunities with our partners.
      • Carry out qualitative research methodologies to understand the honest state of business with our end users and partner companies (user interviews, observation sessions, surveys, contextual / in-field analysis, etc.)
      • Partner with data science and analytics to understand customer and product problems quantitatively
      • Compile and maintain competitive and marketplace assessments, so we remain in the know on up-to-date B2B travel 
  • Educate Rocket Travel with our customers’ voices & marketplace needs
      • Publish research summaries, customer journey maps, user personas, customer videos or usering testing videos – and share with all of Rocket and our engineering and product team members.
      • Involve product owners, engineers, and other department members in our customer interviews and observation sessions.
  • Guide UX designers in their research endeavors.
      • Help designers determine the appropriate methodology for carrying out research or user testing, and review work and sync as it progresses.
      • Own our remote (and any in-person) user testing platform we use - with the Director of Design, be the main decision maker on which platform we use.
      • Involve designers in qualitative research activities - in customer and partner interviews and surveys, etc.
  • Prosthelytize research as a discipline and design thinking practices.
    • Lead collaborative design & research workshops – for stakeholder and team alignment early on, and also to help define problem statements.
    • Regularly present research findings in Rocket and departmental meetings.
    • Teach design thinking / user-centered design tactics to other Rocket departments.
    • Work very closely with our Partnerships team to understand their business development and client management needs.

About you:

  • Passionate that collecting the evidence of users, customers, partners, and the marketplace is the way to produce digital products, and you share this passion to inspire people across the company to act and believe this way.
  • Previous experience leading a UX research practice. Ideally, you have at least 5 years of overall UX research experience.
  • Previous experience working cross-functionally with engineers, product owners, and other stakeholders in an agile environment.
  • Agility, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to make research happen and track down true end users and the relevant internal customers and external partners (you don’t make excuses of blockers or lack of access to users – you figure out how to gather evidence).
  • Previous experience carrying out remote usability and validation testing and also remote and in-person / onsite observation sessions.
  • Efficient ability to summarize research and to eloquently share the pertinent insights of the research.
  • Comfortable with about 10-15% travel to Rocket headquarters in Chicago and to conduct onsite research with partners and customers on occasion.
  • It’s a plus if you have experience in travel, B2B, and working with partner companies.

About Rocket Travel:

We make travel more rewarding than anyone else 

Rocket Travel awards customers for booking travel through our products, allowing people to earn or use loyalty benefits from their favorite loyalty programs.

Our journey

We began in 2013 with the goal of making travel even more rewarding. This started with our bespoke Rocketmiles website, earning travelers their favorite airline loyalty miles for hotel bookings and, every year since, we’ve advanced our goal.

We now partner with over 60 loyalty programs travelers can choose from, we build unique partner-branded travel sites, we offer the ability to earn and redeem loyalty rewards, we sit within Booking Holdings—the most experienced Group of travel companies in the world—and we continually grow the number of ways that people can book travel through us, from stays to cars and more.



Travel constantly evolves, opening additional opportunities to create rewarding experiences, and we intend to be at the forefront of building and innovating on those for travelers worldwide.

A diverse and global team

Our teammates work across the globe, in person and remotely. We have offices in Chicago, NYC, Bangkok, Bogota, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Cebu. No matter where people work, our main team-building goal is to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. We do that with a Diversity & Inclusion Committee, setting DEI hiring goals, investing in employee retention, and conducting regular team training that fosters collaboration and morale.

All of these efforts help ensure that we’re promoting a supportive workplace, where people are motivated to grow professionally and build rewarding travel experiences together. 

Note on general employment requirements

Candidates should be authorized to accept employment in the US from any employer, should be willing to start within three weeks of accepting an offer, and should be able to work the same daily working hours as our Chicago office.

A final word

If the idea of working within an environment that promotes accountability, curiosity, and community to build reward travel products sounds motivating to you, we would love to hear from you—even if you’re unable to meet 100% of the job requirements. We never expect people to have all of the answers, as long as they’re willing and able to learn and grow with us.

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