Head of R&D Operations

Asana•San Francisco, CA

2d•$269,000 - $316,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We’re hiring a Head of R&D Operations for a highly strategic role reporting directly to our Chief Product Officer (CPO). In this role, you will be the chief architect of our internal R&D systems, designing an efficient environment where our teams can focus on innovation rather than navigating ambiguity. You will treat our internal processes and operating rhythms as a high-value product which is the operational foundation of our growing R&D organization. This role is based in our San Francisco office with an office-centric hybrid schedule. The standard in-office days are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Most Asanas have the option to work from home on Wednesdays. Working from home on Fridays depends on the type of work you do and the teams with which you partner. If you're interviewing for this role, your recruiter will share more about the in-office requirements.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in Product Operations, Technical Program Management, or Strategy & Operations within a high-growth B2B SaaS environment.
Proven track record of managing diverse teams of managers and individual contributors, with a talent for mentoring and developing high-performing operations professionals.
You've built and scaled new processes or incubations before and operate with urgency, resourcefulness, and creativity, pushing through ambiguity.
You understand the interconnectedness of R&D and Go-To-Market functions. You have strong experience owning and driving New Product Introduction (NPI) frameworks, agile planning cycles, and operationalizing cross-functional product launches.
You are deeply curious about emerging technologies and eager to leverage AI and automation to elevate internal workflows and developer productivity.

Responsibilities

Lead and mentor our domain-specific Engineering TPMs. You will guide the team in driving complex engineering initiatives, framework migrations, and championing our internal adoption of AI development tooling.
Treat the Product Development Lifecycle as a product. You will optimize our core tooling—leveraging Asana and emerging AI tools—to accelerate PM workflows, elevate the PM experience, and enable PMs to maximize their velocity.
Establish and oversee scalable systems for qualitative market feedback, guiding the teams that manage Voice of Customer, design partners, and Beta programs to ensure product teams build outcome-driven solutions.
Oversee the New Product Introduction (NPI) program and other cross-organizational efforts. You will establish clear launch frameworks and readiness criteria from early development through post-launch, ensuring that R&D execution seamlessly translates into operational reality across all Go-To-Market teams.