Principal, Change Management & Incentive Design

About the teamZillow’s mission is to give people the power to unlock life’s next chapter. Product development is central to that mission—and the Transformation Team is how Zillow evolves how products are built.
The Transformation team sits within Product Development Operations and focuses on Zillow’s product development operating model. We’re reimagining & remodeling the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) into one that learns quickly, is AI-native, and connects innovation to day-to-day practice.
The work will be challenging, occasionally uncomfortable, and highly visible—but foundational to how Zillow builds products in the future.

About the role

Zillow Group is in a multi-year transformation—rethinking how teams discover, learn, iterate, build, and deliver customer value. This role will shape not just what changes at Zillow Group, but why people choose to change. By aligning incentives, behaviors, and ways of working, this role plays a foundational part in making AI-native product development real, durable, and trusted across the organization. This role changes systems, not just through slides and storytelling. 

This role is the first hire at Zillow Group dedicated specifically to enterprise change management, embedded within the Transformation team. You will help build Zillow’s foundational change capability while directly supporting teams through this evolution.

This is not a communications-only change role, and it is not a traditional project manager position. You will design, lead, and execute change that materially alters how product, engineering, design, and other product development teams operate—by shaping incentives, behaviors, workflows, and decision-making systems.

You will partner deeply with product and technology leaders, transformation partners, and frontline teams to ensure AI-native practices are not just introduced, but adopted, reinforced, and sustained over time, even as goals and methods continue to evolve.

This role will influence how AI transformation is experienced across Zillow Group—shaping trust, momentum, and belief in how we build products going forward. The work is visible, complex, and occasionally uncomfortable—but foundational to Zillow’s future.

You Will Get To

• Lead enterprise-scale change strategies grounded in behavioral mechanics and incentive design - how people make decisions, prioritize work, and respond to incentives

• Diagnose and redesign incentives (metrics, goals, rewards, governance) that reinforce legacy behaviors

• Partner with senior product, engineering, and design leaders to evolve operating models, workflows, and decision systems

• Translate AI-native transformation goals into durable behavioral and operating expectations

• Influence without authority at the executive and senior-leader level; push back when incentives or norms undermine outcomes

• Build scalable, lightweight frameworks that enable adoption—not bureaucracy

• Define and track meaningful indicators of behavior change, adoption, and impact, using them as feedback loops to continuously adjust change strategy

• Establish how enterprise change management operates at Zillow Group going forward

• Design and run change experiments (pilots, staged rollouts, controlled tests) to learn what interventions drive sustainable behavior change

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $178,300.00 - $284,700.00 annually. This base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations. In Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont the standard base pay range for this role is $169,300.00 - $270,500.00 annually. The base pay range is specific to these locations and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location. Employees in this role will not be paid below the salary threshold for exempt employees in the state where they reside.

Who you are

• 10+ years leading complex change initiatives in mid-to-large organizations

• Proven experience aligning incentives, metrics, and operating mechanisms and behavior change at scale

• Background in product, technology, or transformation environments

• Comfort operating in ambiguity where goals and methods evolve, using experimentation and iterative learning to refine goals and methods over time

• Strong grounding in organizational change and behavioral science, and systems thinking, with the ability to translate theory into testable, real-world interventions

• Fluency in modern product development practices (Agile, discovery, experimentation), and the ability to apply these methods to organizational and behavioral change

• Builder mindset; energized by creating new capability from the ground up through rapid prototyping, piloting, and iteration

• Credibility with senior leaders; comfort challenging entrenched norms

• Pragmatic, systems-oriented thinker who challenges entrenched norms when needed

• Builder mindset with a track record of creating new capability from scratch

• Believes change is best achieved through learning-by-doing, using experimentation, feedback loops, and incremental scaling rather than one-time transformations

How success will be measured in the first 12–18 months, success may look like:

• Product development teams consistently exhibiting AI-native behaviors validated through reduced need for central oversight

• Incentives and metrics evolving to actively reinforce experimentation, learning velocity, and speed

• Faster cycles from idea → experiment → insight, with learnings informing subsequent decisions

• Clear reduction in misalignment between stated transformation goals and day-to-day behavior, measured through observed choices and outcomes

• Leaders are making different decisions because incentive signals, capabilities, and ways of working have changed

• A repeatable, evidence-based approach to aligning strategy, incentives, and behavior that scales across Zillow Group

Get to know us

At Zillow, we’re reimagining how people move—through the real estate market and through their careers. As the most-visited real estate platform in the U.S., we help customers navigate buying, selling, financing and renting with greater ease and confidence. Whether you're working in tech, sales, operations, or design, you’ll be part of a company that's reshaping an industry and helping more people make home a reality.

Zillow is honored to be recognized among the best workplaces in the country. Zillow was named one of FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For® in 2025, and included on the PEOPLE Companies That Care® 2025 list, reflecting our commitment to creating an innovative, inclusive, and engaging culture where employees are empowered to grow.

No matter where you sit in the organization, your work will help drive innovation, support our customers, and move the industry—and your career—forward, together.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.