Thumbtack needs to design, scale, and continuously improve the systems that power high-quality, impactful user and market research, and the culture that sustains the people who do it. This role will own the operational backbone of the Research team, ensuring researchers can focus on insight generation while maintaining consistency, quality, and shared learning across the company.
Requirements
- Proven ability to build, scale, and maintain research systems, repositories, and operational processes in a fast-moving tech environment.
- Deep understanding of participant operations, research logistics, compliance, and ethical best practices.
- Skilled at diagnosing and solving complex operational and technical problems, including evaluating and implementing new tools or workflows.
- Experience managing budgets, contracts, and vendor relationships with accuracy and accountability.
Responsibilities
- Design, scale, and govern the systems and tools that support high-quality, efficient user and market research.
- Maintain and evolve our research repository as a reliable, searchable, well-structured source of insights.
- Lead participant operations, including recruiting, incentives, and vendor management, ensuring ethical, smooth, and privacy-aligned execution.
- Partner with Engineering, Data, Legal, and IT to maintain integrated, compliant, and secure data and tooling environments.
- Drive operational excellence through budget oversight, contracts, procurement, and frameworks that clarify roles and reduce friction.
- Provide hands-on operational support for studies when needed, coordinating logistics and anticipating risks or dependencies.
- Track and report research activities to improve visibility, efficiency, and strategic planning across the team.
Other
- 5+ years in program management, operations, or research enablement roles; 3+ years dedicated to Research Operations.
- Strong project management and coordination abilities, with a track record of aligning diverse stakeholders.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to build trust across teams and facilitate effective collaboration.
- Demonstrated passion for nurturing team culture, supporting learning, and fostering connection in distributed environments; operates with precision, ownership, and continuous improvement.
- Support research culture and growth through onboarding, L&D, team events, knowledge-sharing, and initiatives that foster belonging and collaboration.
