Director, Research Operations

College Board • Remote - Virginia, VA

5d • $80,000 - $130,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Director, Research Operations provides function-wide operational leadership to support the evolution of College Board's Research Team. This role establishes prioritization mechanisms, builds a coherent cross-team operating model, and establishes and maintains an actionable evidence base that includes both internal and external research evidence. The Director reports to the Vice President, Research and partners closely with Executive Directors, who serve as the technical leaders for research, to ensure work is delivered effectively and sustainably while creating space for forward-looking technical leadership and expertise. The scope of this role is focused on building sustainable operational infrastructure and team capacity, rather than owning research projects.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in research operations leadership, organizational enablement, or related roles in complex, technical, or analytics-driven environments and experience working closely with a senior executive.
• Bachelor’s degree
• Experience working closely with research teams or in research-adjacent environments, with a strong understanding of how research is designed, implemented, and communicated for greatest impact. This experience may include operations or organizational leadership, but deep familiarity with education research is preferred over general program and portfolio management.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement scalable operating models, processes, and systems that support both effective delivery and long-term capability building.
• Experience operating across multiple products or portfolios simultaneously and navigating competing priorities in matrixed organizations.
• Strong stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to partner effectively with deep technical experts while providing operational clarity and alignment.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and a track record of effectively and succinctly communicating about evidence.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and a high degree of intellectual curiosity.
• Familiarity with education research topics across K12 and postsecondary.
• Authorization to work in the United States

Nice To Haves

• Ability to travel approximately 4 times per year (typically ~1.5 days per trip) to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate the Research Portfolio (50%): Build and maintain infrastructure to track and manage progress toward goals that gives the Vice President and Executive Directors real-time visibility to help drive decisions and course-corrections to stay on track to achieve outcomes.
• Refine and maintain the cross-team internal operating infrastructure, including portfolio tracking, cross-team communications, publication management, data/vendor/budget administration, reporting tools, and transparency tools.
• Reinforce clear accountability, role clarity, timing expectations, and execution ownership across the research portfolio.
• Assess risks, tradeoffs, and sequencing across the portfolio and recommend prioritization calls to the Vice President and Executive Directors.
• Organize workstreams, process and analyze data, synthesize literature, and provide transparency to internal partners, translating information into clear implications and recommendations for internal partners.
• Coordinate internal communications to support internal understanding of research evidence (e.g., quarterly meeting pre-reads with internal clients, quarterly newsletter) and manage the publications and dissemination processes (e.g., coordinating editorial, webpage, presentation materials).
• Create and Maintain an Actionable, Dynamic Evidence Repository (30%): Monitor external research publications related to College Board’s research portfolio, synthesize evidence and its application to CB stakeholders, and combine with insights from CB Research to assess implications/flag strategic relevance.
• Maintain a research repository combining external and internal evidence that is dynamic, accessible, and actionable for the organization.
• Coordinate with CB programs and the Engagement and Reach team to ensure that evidence is utilized by decision-makers.
• Manage Cross-Team Functions (20%): Own and drive the Research team’s operating functions and identify opportunities to standardize and simplify operational processes, tools, and workflows to drive efficiency; and scale it into a durable operating model that can scale with future team growth, including documenting and training team members to follow the processes.
• Oversee the Research team’s common data resources, data license procedures, vendor management needs, and budget management processes.
• Build and maintain relationships within the team’s Executive Directors to support cross-functional team initiatives.

Benefits

• A meaningful career
• A supportive team
• A comprehensive package designed to help you thrive
• Fair and competitive compensation grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market
• Open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it’s like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process.

What This Job Offers

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