Workplace Research Manager

Salesforce•Chicago, IL

3d•$117,400 - $193,700•Hybrid

About The Position

The Workplace Research Manager is an individual-contributor role on Salesforce’s Real Estate and Workplace Services (REWS) Workplace Innovation team. The role generates insights to help REWS evolve employee and customer experiences across its global office portfolio. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Workplace Research, the manager serves as a research partner and consultant to Workplace Innovation teams, including Pilots and Space Insights, and other REWS stakeholders. The manager owns the mixed-methods employee research workstream for workplace pilots, from baseline research through in-flight and post-pilot evaluation, and collaborates on exploratory research for emerging innovation initiatives. The role combines qualitative and quantitative evidence to turn employee needs, behaviors, sentiment, and spatial data into actionable recommendations. It also uses AI tools and automated workflows to accelerate research synthesis and reporting. The role is based in San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; or Atlanta, Georgia. It follows an Office Flexible arrangement requiring three days per week in the office, with periodic domestic or international travel for on-site discovery or pilot fieldwork.

Requirements

At least 4 years of applied research experience focused on human-environment interactions, workplace strategy, environmental psychology, physical workplace experience, applied behavioral science, corporate real estate, or a related field, with a strong mixed-methods research foundation.
Demonstrated experience designing and conducting mixed-methods studies to evaluate physical spaces, furniture, and workplace layouts.
Experience assessing the impact of workplace changes on employee sentiment and behavior across pre- and post-occupancy phases.
Hands-on experience conducting qualitative fieldwork using varied research methods to understand employee needs.
Strong quantitative data literacy and ability to interpret and contextualize spatial metrics and numerical data alongside employee sentiment and qualitative feedback.
Ability to translate ambiguous business or workplace challenges into focused, agile research plans.
Ability to manage multiple concurrent project timelines with flexibility and synthesize disparate inputs into clear presentations for multidisciplinary partners.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of questionnaire design best practices and hands-on experience designing and fielding employee feedback and pilot evaluation surveys.
Experience using inferential statistics, such as significance testing, correlation, or regression, to analyze employee sentiment and survey datasets.
Deep understanding of corporate real estate fundamentals.
Experience in the technology sector or a similarly fast-paced, matrixed enterprise environment.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with the Pilots and Space Insights teams across the pilot lifecycle, from initial discovery and defining success metrics through final readouts and recommendations.
Own the mixed-methods employee research workstream for pilots, designing, conducting, and delivering baseline, in-flight, and post-pilot insights to evaluate physical layouts, furniture concepts, workplace programs, and technology.
Conduct on-site qualitative fieldwork, including in-depth interviews, discovery workshops, intercept interviews, guided walk-and-talks, and ethnographic research, to uncover employee needs and understand behaviors, adoption, and friction.
Partner with the Space Insights team to integrate spatial telemetry, such as occupancy patterns and room utilization metrics, with employee research findings and survey sentiment to develop recommendations.
Identify and integrate AI tools and automated workflows across the research lifecycle to accelerate qualitative synthesis and reporting.
Stay current on workplace trends to inform research roadmaps.
Translate research findings into clear presentations and actionable recommendations for multidisciplinary stakeholders.