Research Operations and Partnerships Manager- Atlanta

Georgia Department of Revenue•Atlanta, GA

14d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Research Operations and Partnerships Manager serves as the administrative and operational lead for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities’ Office of Research and Academic Publications research portfolio. The manager coordinates research intake, approvals, agreements, data access, Institutional Review Board processes, grant-related activities, project tracking, dissemination, and closeout. Working across DBHDD offices and with external researchers and institutions, the manager maintains portfolio visibility and supports efficient movement of projects through administrative and governance processes. Research and writing support may be provided as workload permits. The position is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with a hybrid schedule requiring 3–5 days per week in the office based on business needs. No travel is required. Compensation is based on education and experience. The position may require evaluations or vaccinations, including drug screening, TB evaluation, and annual influenza vaccination; limited exemptions may be made for documented medical contraindications or religious beliefs. A national and state background check is required as a condition of employment.

Requirements

High school diploma or GED and two years of professional-level experience related to the area of assignment, or two years of experience required at the lower-level Project Manager (Non-IT) 1 classification.
Relevant experience coordinating or administering complex projects, programs, research activities, grants, data-access activities, compliance processes, partnerships, or comparable multi-stakeholder work.
Demonstrated experience managing concurrent workstreams, deadlines, documentation, and dependencies involving internal and external stakeholders, including developing or maintaining project plans, trackers, workflows, or reports.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to establish productive working relationships and communicate research activity and results in support of operational decision-making.
Strong organizational and project-management skills, including the ability to coordinate multiple projects with overlapping deadlines, stakeholders, and dependencies.
Ability to build reliable portfolio-tracking systems, maintain accurate records, and translate complex activity into concise status reporting and decision support.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to build productive relationships across program, administrative, legal, data, technology, and research functions.
Working knowledge of research processes and administrative requirements associated with research design, data access, human-subjects protections, grants, and dissemination.
High attention to detail, sound judgment, and ability to handle sensitive information, identify operational risks or bottlenecks, and escalate issues appropriately.
Proficiency with office, collaboration, reporting, and project-tracking tools, and ability to learn and adopt new research-administration systems and technologies.
Ability to meet any position-specific evaluation, vaccination, licensure, or certification requirements that apply; a national and state background check is required.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience in research administration, sponsored programs, grants administration, or project or portfolio management.
Direct experience with IRB processes, human-subjects protections, research compliance, data-use agreements, memoranda of understanding, or related agreements.
Experience in health, behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, public-sector, or other sensitive data environments.
Experience in government, higher education, health systems, nonprofit research organizations, or similarly complex institutions.
Experience developing standard operating procedures, workflow documentation, templates, trackers, and research-operations infrastructure.
Experience conducting literature reviews or background research and drafting or editing research briefs, reports, or other research-related documents.

Responsibilities

Maintain the master portfolio of RAP-led, internal, and external research projects and pending requests.
Coordinate research intake, completeness review, routing, approvals, status communications, and transitions into applicable governance, IRB, data-access, project-management, dissemination, and closeout workflows.
Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, trackers, and documentation for concurrent initiatives; monitor milestones, deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and reporting requirements; identify stalled activities and decisions requiring escalation; and coordinate follow-up.
Facilitate data-use agreements, data-access requests, memoranda of understanding, amendments, renewals, and related documentation with Legal, data owners, technology and analytics teams, researchers, and external institutions.
Coordinate IRB submissions, determinations, amendments, continuing review, reliance arrangements, documentation, and approval or expiration timelines with the Georgia Department of Public Health IRB, researchers, and relevant DBHDD offices.
Support compliance with applicable human-subjects research requirements.
Help identify funding opportunities aligned with RAP and DBHDD priorities; coordinate proposal timelines, application components, approvals, and submissions; and support post-award milestone tracking, reporting, compliance, and coordination with DBHDD Grants Management.
Maintain authoritative project records on the RAP SharePoint site and prepare routine and ad hoc reports on portfolio status, deadlines, risks, bottlenecks, dependencies, deliverables, publications, and decisions needed.
Develop, document, implement, and continuously improve RAP procedures, templates, intake tools, trackers, governance workflows, project-management systems, and research-administration infrastructure.
Coordinate work among RAP, DBHDD program and administrative offices, data and analytics teams, OPAQI, Legal, Grants Management, OIT, Communications, the IRB, universities, researchers, and other partners; convene or support meetings when coordinated action is required.
As workload permits, assist the Director and other RAP personnel with literature and background research, evidence summaries, and drafting, editing, and formatting research-related documents, briefs, reports, presentations, and supporting tables or figures.