Pinterest's MCDC Research Operations team needs a leader to empower world-class researchers, ensuring they have the systems, processes, and partnerships to accelerate insights, scale impact, and maintain rigor and compliance, ultimately enabling researchers to solve Pinterest's most important challenges.
Requirements
- Advanced understanding of research methodologies, participant sourcing, and the end-to-end research lifecycle.
- Demonstrated experience optimizing processes, scaling operations, and managing research vendors or external partners.
- A strong curiosity for leveraging AI, automation, and new technologies to create more scalable, efficient, and intelligent research operations.
- Mastery of project management, documentation frameworks, and research toolsets.
- Hands-on experience evaluating or implementing AI-driven workflows and automation to improve research/operations outcomes.
- Familiarity with innovative research or data platforms.
- Experience leading research operations across both product and brand/marketing/creative research.
Responsibilities
- Own strategies and processes for robust, inclusive participant recruitment and panel management—ensuring high participant quality, operational speed, and a positive experience for both researchers and study participants.
- Define, implement, and continuously optimize research infrastructure and workflows.
- Author clear, scalable documentation and resource libraries to standardize and elevate research ops practices across teams.
- Serve as the accountable partner for external research and recruitment vendors—lead performance management, selection, onboarding, and relationship development to ensure value and compliance.
- Proactively explore and leverage generative AI, automation, and emerging technologies to streamline recruitment workflows, scale operational capacity, and enable data-driven decision-making across Research Ops.
- Analyze metrics, identify process gaps, drive ongoing improvements, and establish best practices in project planning, resource allocation, and risk management, building for both current and future state needs.
- Champion programs and practices that foster diverse, representative participant panels, and inclusive research experiences aligned with Pinterest’s mission and user base.
Other
- Build, coach, and manage a high-performing research operations team (program managers, recruiters, coordinators).
- Set vision, goals, and create a culture of operational excellence, collaboration, and accountability.
- Partner closely with product and brand research, legal, finance, and MCDC business operations.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills: adept at influencing, aligning, and collaborating cross-functionally with product, brand, legal, vendors, and leadership.
- Exceptional communication: skilled at articulating complex strategies, guiding teams, reporting to leadership, and driving clarity throughout the organization.
- High integrity and rigor: organized, detail-oriented, and skilled at building systems that scale and stand the test of time.
- This position is not eligible for relocation assistance.
- This role will need to be in the office for in-person collaboration up to 1-2 times per year and therefore can be situated anywhere in the country.
