Research Operations Manager

DoorDash USA•Sunnyvale, CA

10h•$208,800 - $307,000

About The Position

DoorDash is seeking a Research Operations Manager to provide the operational backbone for its research team and advance customer obsession. The role owns the systems, tools, vendors, and AI-powered processes that bring the voices of Dashers, merchants, and customers to the people building DoorDash products. It sits at the intersection of research, operations, and technology and includes responsibility for experimentation and continuous improvement. The manager leads research vendor relationships and procurement, owns budget tracking and forecasting, and directs participant recruiting strategy and execution. The role also partners with research, engineering, and design teams to evaluate, build, maintain, and scale AI-based research tools, and champions experimentation through lightweight processes, retrospectives, and shared learning. The position designs and maintains research operations infrastructure, including repositories, documentation standards, onboarding materials, team rituals, and tooling. It anticipates operational bottlenecks and partners across brands and regions to extend infrastructure globally while adapting to local legal and market requirements.

Requirements

At least 7 years of experience in research operations, UX operations, or a closely related role.
Experience managing contractors or full-time employees, including setting priorities, providing feedback, supporting development, and ensuring delivery.
Demonstrated experience managing research vendors and procurement processes.
Experience owning and forecasting operational or project budgets.
Experience with research repositories and recruiting platforms, such as UserTesting or Qualtrics.
Familiarity with prompt engineering or working with large language models in a research or operations context.
Systems-thinking ability to identify inefficiencies and address them at both strategic and detailed levels.
Strong communication skills and the ability to influence without authority and build trust across research, product, and engineering teams.
High degree of self-direction, including proactively identifying and quickly addressing problems.

Responsibilities

Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of research vendors, including sourcing, evaluation, contract negotiation, onboarding, performance reviews, service-level agreements, and ongoing accountability.
Own the research team budget by tracking spend, forecasting needs, managing purchase orders, allocating resources, reporting on investments, and identifying opportunities to optimize spending.
Lead participant recruiting strategy and execution across studies using panels, recruiting vendors, and internal databases.
Develop participant screeners, coordinate scheduling, manage incentives and compliance, and improve recruiting systems and processes.
Partner with research, engineering, and design teams to evaluate, build, maintain, and scale AI-based research tools and workflows.
Champion experimentation by establishing supportive conditions and lightweight processes, running retrospectives, documenting and sharing learnings, and building institutional knowledge.
Design and maintain research operations infrastructure, including repositories, documentation standards, onboarding materials, team rituals, and the tooling stack.
Identify operational bottlenecks and build solutions proactively as the team and its ambitions grow.
Partner across brands and regions to extend research operations infrastructure globally, adapting it to local legal and market requirements.
Manage contractors or full-time employees by setting priorities, providing feedback, supporting development, and ensuring delivery.