Zillow | Senior Research Operations Program Manager

Senior Research Operations Program Manager

The Research Operations team sits within a multidisciplinary team of researchers, Zillow Research & Insights (ZRI), which includes Customer and Partner Insights Strategists, UX Researchers, Behavioral Scientists, and Population Scientists. We all play a significant role within the greater product and marketing organizations. ZRI sits within Zillow Experience Design (ZxD), a fast-paced, collaborative, and driven product design team.
We build useful, usable, and innovative experiences for Zillow customers. These experiences live across web, mobile, and internal software platforms and we are deeply focused on ensuring quality across every touchpoint
Our team cares deeply about solving problems for real people – customers, co-workers, and everyone else. We seek to make everything a little better than we found it. We’re a tight-knit, fun-loving, and upbeat group and we’re excited to grow our Research Operations team with this role

The Senior Research Operations Program Manager will develop and be responsible for researcher enablement programs, helping everyone on the team do the best work of their careers through impact, scale, and efficiencies. This role works closely with research, design, product management, marketing, engineering, and data science. You will spend the majority of your time completing operational tasks while supporting the evolution and growth of the Research Ops function at Zillow.

• Recruiting Center of Excellence: Establish and lead participant sourcing processes across participant profiles and qualitative and quantitative methods with a focus on researcher efficiency (and alignment with compliance requirements)

• User List Management: Develop, implement, and own user list processes across Zillow Research + Insights in partnership with Data Science and Marketing Operations; drive adoption, establish feedback loops, continuous process iteration, and resolve challenges

• Panel Management: Consolidate and manage two B2B partner research participant panels

• Metrics: Track health/utility of different recruiting methods, all-up record keeping of studies completed, participants recruited, etc.

• Tool Management: Manage ZRI’s research tool suite, including access and use administration, maintenance of best practices documentation, and tooling strategy

• Operational Excellence: Support operationalizing the mission and principles of the Research & Insights team; project manage special initiatives and work groups

To be successful in this role, you’ll need a good balance of strategy and tactical execution, sharp communication skills and the ability to collaborate widely across the business.

You will get to:

• Lead the portfolio of researcher enablement programs.

• Collaborate with ZRI ICs, leadership, and key collaborators to align recruiting efforts with Zillow Group’s evolving needs

• Partner with research operations leadership to set team goals, roadmaps, and best utilize team resources

• Engage, partner, and collaborate with team members and leadership to proactively uncover opportunities to radically improve the effectiveness of our research team and processes

• Create, socialize, and maintain repeatable processes for research (e.g. communications, templates, etc.)

• Own systems for project documentation, status tracking, and reporting to ensure stakeholders and team members are involved at the right times, understand project timelines, and follow through on their commitments

• Build and maintain a trusted, cooperative relationship with cross-functional partners

• Apply strategic tools, systems, and data to help the team analyze trends and deliver insights to define goals and improve processes

• Own and facilitate meetings to drive progress against goals and objectives, and establish clear next steps and owners while resolving blocks that impede progress

• Report out on the top-level achievements and impact of programs you manage

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice which must be identified to the Company. This role requires travel ~4-6 weeks per year.

This role has been categorized as a teleworker position. Teleworkers do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice which must be identified to the Company. Employees may live in any part of Mexico, but preferably in Mexico City, as we would encourage attendance for occasional in-office events.

In addition to a competitive base salary and benefits, this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location.

You are an experienced Research Operations program manager who enjoys creating cohesion amongst the team, developing trust with partners, and driving systemic collaboration improvements at scale. You are a great collaborator and communicator and understand that the path to exceptional customer experiences is through great partnerships with cross-functional teams. You have…

• Consistent track record of breaking down processes and identifying challenges to deliver business improvements

• Ability to get into the details, manage multiple complex projects at once, and roll up your sleeves and do hands on work

• Demonstrated experience moving initiatives forward, finding resources, raising concerns to appropriate owners early and resolving open issues that prevent progress

• Strong time management, organization, and prioritization skills

• Strong sense of ownership and drive

• Experience in anticipating and making trade-offs, balancing the business need while building great customer experiences

• Experience:

  • 4+ years of experience in research operations program management

  • 3+ years of experience working with research team(s) (e.g. UX Research, Market Research)

  • Experience recruiting participants for research studies from internal user lists, internal panels, and third party sample

  • Setting up and maintaining internal recruiting panels

  • Proven track record of collaborating with cross-functional groups to produce results

  • Experience with operational routines and the management of internal-facing project teams

• Skills:

  • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

  • Ability to facilitate discussions and engage with business and research managers in an enterprise environment.

  • Proficiency in developing and managing metrics to measure recruiting program success.

  • Ability to see opportunities for process improvements and address them to increase efficiency

  • Can hold the line when schedule or progress is in jeopardy while maintaining respectful relationships

  • Effectively prioritize competing needs by providing clear reasoning and proposing practical solutions

• Attributes: Strong problem-solving skills with a focus on collaboration, and ability to thrive in a fast-paced work environment. Self-motivated with exceptional time management skills

• Process mapping experience

• Experience with Qualtrics

• People management experience; strong coaching and development skills

• Experience working in OR general understanding of agile product development