Associate Director of Research Operations

Harvard University • Cambridge, MA

19h • $130,000 - $133,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director of Research Operations will be part of the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University. CEPR and its partners believe all students will learn and thrive when education leaders make decisions using facts and findings, rather than untested assumptions. Learn more at cepr.harvard.edu.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• At least 5 years of progressive experience in research operations, program operations, project management, or a closely related field
• Experience working in or in direct support of quantitative social science research
• Demonstrated success designing and managing operational systems—such as intake workflows, allocation models, or documentation ecosystems—in a research, academic, policy, or similarly complex environment
• Strong systems-thinking skills: comfort identifying process gaps, designing solutions, and building for scale
• Experience with project management platforms and workflow tools; comfort evaluating and adopting new operational platforms
• Candidates must submit a resume and cover letter. Any applicant wishing to be considered for this position must indicate that they meet all the basic requirements in either the cover letter or resume.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree in a relevant field (e.g., social science, public policy, information science, research administration, or related discipline)
• Experience with university-based research processes, including familiarity with sponsored research, IRB administration, and academic PI workflows
• Familiarity with research compliance frameworks (data use agreements, funder requirements, data privacy)
• Experience in resource management or staff allocation
• Familiarity with project management tools such as Asana and no-code or low-code automation tools
• Exceptional organizational skills and judgment about prioritization under competing demands
• Strong communicator with experience coordinating across researchers, PIs, administrative staff, and leadership
• Experience supervising or formally mentoring at least one staff member

Responsibilities

• Allocating research staff across existing projects
• Ensuring that new project proposals have sufficient staffing
• Recruiting and onboarding new staff
• Coordinating with project directors to provide feedback to existing staff
• Identifying training opportunities for research staff
• Managing data use agreements and submissions to the Institutional Review Board
• Developing workflows and systems to ensure that CEPR’s research remains compliant with data use agreements and human subjects’ research protections and is appropriately staffed
• Ensuring that each project is appropriately resourced, coordinating across internal staff and external research partners
• Ensuring that new project proposals are clear in scope and appropriately resourced to meet project timelines
• Building and maintaining a system for allocating staff, managing staff workloads, and project timelines
• Informing hiring and pipeline management decisions
• Partnering with Directors of Research, Project Directors, and PIs to allocate staff, flag when staff are overburdened, and model tradeoffs when priorities conflict
• Leading operational process improvement and ensuring the team remains in compliance with data use agreements and human research subject protections
• Maintaining a compliance calendar and coordinating adherence to requirements including data use agreements, IRB protocols, funder reporting deadlines, and data privacy standards
• Coordinating with Harvard IT on computing needs
• Developing and maintaining standard operating procedures related to data handling, access controls, and use restrictions; serving as a point of escalation for compliance questions and incidents, connecting staff to appropriate institutional or legal resources
• Owning the full staff lifecycle for the analytic team—from recruitment through offboarding
• Coordinating recruitment logistics including job postings, candidate scheduling, and offer communication in partnership with HR and hiring managers; owning onboarding infrastructure including checklists, systems access coordination, introductory materials, and 30/60/90-day frameworks
• Leading offboarding for departing staff—knowledge transfer, systems access revocation, file organization, and continuity planning—and leading project close-out processes including archival, final documentation, and lessons-learned capture
• Maintaining a living library of SOPs, process guides, and onboarding materials; developing and enforcing documentation standards and facilitating team trainings as needed
• Developing and managing early career pipeline opportunities, including internships, pre-doctoral programs, and related initiatives

Benefits

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level