Director, Research

As part of Rush Street Interactive’s mission to create phenomenal player experiences, the Director of Research builds and leads a company-wide research function that transforms external intelligence and player understanding into clear, actionable direction for the business. 

The Director designs and conducts research across the player journey, benchmarks competitors across experience, content, and market position, and connects behavioral insights to business performance. The role applies this evidence across Marketing, CRM, Product, Commercial, Player Journey, and UX to support informed decision-making. 

The scope extends beyond player behavior to the broader competitive landscape, including market share, vendor and content exclusivity, competitive positioning, and emerging market trends. The Director works hands-on with research tools, manages external agency and vendor partners, and owns the research operating model, including intake, prioritization, and insight sharing, enabling one research function to effectively support multiple initiatives across the organization. 

This role complements Customer Support and Design System research by incorporating these perspectives into a shared research framework and evidence base used across the business. 

What You'll Do:

• Lead and manage a structured, ongoing player, market, and competitive research program across RSI’s regulated markets. 
• Own and maintain a competitive and market scorecard covering market share, feature and promotional parity, vendor and content exclusivity, competitive positioning, and player experience across the journey from registration and KYC through onboarding, login, and retention. 
• Lead, develop, and manage the Research team, setting clear priorities and performance expectations, coaching team members, supporting professional development, and ensuring the team has the capabilities and capacity to meet research needs across the organization. 
• Partner with Marketing to conduct brand perception, positioning, campaign, and creative research to inform messaging and channel decisions. 
• Partner with Product to validate roadmap decisions and feature prioritization using player and market evidence. 
• Partner with Commercial to inform pricing, promotional, vendor, and content decisions, including analysis of exclusivity opportunities and their potential market impact. 
• Design and conduct qualitative and quantitative research, including user testing, focus groups, moderated interviews, player surveys, and other appropriate research methodologies. 
• Identify player motivations, behaviors, needs, and friction points and translate findings into actionable recommendations. 
• Facilitate structured feedback and research readout sessions with Product, Marketing, Commercial, and other stakeholders to translate insights into business actions. 
• Serve as a research partner across Marketing, CRM, Product, Commercial, UX, Data/Analytics, Customer Support, and Design System teams to establish a shared evidence base and reduce duplicative research efforts. 
• Establish and manage a centralized intake process through which teams can submit research requests with clearly defined business questions, audiences, and timelines. 
• Develop and maintain a transparent research prioritization framework based on factors such as business impact, urgency, effort, and the number of initiatives supported or unblocked. 
• Maintain a shared, searchable repository of research findings, competitive intelligence, and market information that enables teams to access and reuse existing insights. 
• Establish recurring research and insight readouts, at minimum monthly, connecting new findings to active Product, Marketing, Commercial, and other business decisions. 
• Manage and brief external research agencies, data providers, and other specialized vendors. 
• Monitor vendor and content exclusivity within the competitive landscape and provide relevant intelligence to support RSI vendor and commercial decisions. 
• Partner with Analytics and Data Science to integrate qualitative research findings with behavioral, operational, and performance data. 
• Communicate research findings through reports, presentations, working sessions, and other appropriate formats that enable stakeholders to understand insights and take action. 
• Monitor emerging trends in gaming, fintech, digital experiences, and relevant adjacent industries and incorporate applicable findings into RSI research and business recommendations. 
• Adapt research approaches to reflect regional and cultural nuances across U.S. and international markets, particularly Latin America. 
• Establish a trusted, company-wide source of player, market, and competitive intelligence that supports evidence-based decision-making. 
• Connect research outcomes to measurable business performance, including acquisition, conversion, retention, and player value. 

What You'll Bring:

• 8+ years of experience in player research, market research, consumer insights, user research, competitive intelligence, or a related research discipline, ideally within gaming, fintech, digital consumer products, or a comparable environment. 
• Demonstrated expertise in player, market, consumer insights, or related research within gaming, fintech, digital consumer products, or similarly complex environments. 
• Proven ability to design, conduct, analyze, and apply qualitative and quantitative research to business decisions. 
• Expertise in competitive analysis, market share tracking, benchmarking, and market intelligence. 
• Demonstrated experience translating research into actionable recommendations for Marketing, Product, CRM, and Commercial stakeholders. 
• Experience partnering with cross-functional teams and senior leaders to influence campaign, product roadmap, customer experience, and monetization decisions. 
• Experience managing external research agencies, vendors, and data partners. 
• Knowledge of approaches for evaluating vendor and content exclusivity and related market opportunities. 
• Hands-on experience with research platforms and tools such as UserTesting, Maze, Optimal Workshop, UserZoom, or comparable solutions. 
• Experience developing and managing intake and prioritization processes for research, analytics, or similar requests involving multiple stakeholders. 
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to synthesize complex qualitative and quantitative information into clear recommendations. 
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with Design leadership and Design System teams. 
• Familiarity with Figma libraries, design tokens, and pattern documentation is preferred; creative direction remains the responsibility of Design. 
• Strong analytical thinking and curiosity regarding player behavior, market dynamics, and the connection between research insights and business outcomes. 
• Ability to manage multiple research initiatives and stakeholder needs concurrently. 
• Fluent in English. 
• Spanish or Portuguese proficiency is preferred. 
• Ability to travel occasionally, both domestically and internationally. #LI-REMOTE #LI-PROMOTE