Research Operations Manager

The posting, as DoorDash wrote it

About the Team

DoorDash’s mission is to grow and empower local economies. By building intelligent, last-mile delivery technology for local cities, DoorDash connects people with the local businesses they care about — helping grow businesses and the communities that support those businesses. At DoorDash, there are three audiences that are at the core of every decision we make - our Consumers, Merchants, and Couriers. The Research team has a direct link to uncover the unmet needs and pain points of each of these audiences. We bring their voices into the business in order to help set the strategic vision for all of DoorDash’s current and future products.

About the Role

We're looking for a Research Operations Manager to be the operational backbone of our research team, and a driving force behind DoorDash's commitment to customer obsession. Every great product decision starts with a real voice: a Dasher, a merchant, a customer. You'll own the systems, tools, vendors, and AI-powered processes that get those voices in front of the people building for them, faster and at greater scale. You'll also champion a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement, so the research practice keeps getting better along with our understanding of the people we serve. This is a high-impact role at the intersection of research, operations, and technology, built for someone who sees friction before it's surfaced and treats it as theirs to solve.

What You'll Do

Vendor & Procurement Management : Own the end-to-end lifecycle of research vendor relationships — from sourcing and evaluation through contract negotiation, onboarding, and ongoing performance review. You'll manage relationships with research tool providers, recruiting agencies, transcription and analysis services, and other third-party partners. You'll establish clear SLAs, hold vendors accountable, and continuously evaluate the market for better options.

Budget Management: Own the research team's budget: track spend, forecast needs, manage purchase orders, and ensure resources are allocated to the highest-impact work. You'll build visibility and reporting so research leaders can make informed investment decisions, and you'll identify opportunities to optimize spend without sacrificing research quality.

Participant Recruiting Lead the strategy and execution of participant recruiting across studies — managing panels, recruiting vendors, and internal databases to ensure the team has access to the right participants at the right time. You'll develop screeners, coordinate scheduling, manage incentives and compliance, and build systems that make recruiting faster and less effort-intensive for researchers.

AI-Powered Research Tooling: Partner with researchers, engineering, design to evaluate, build, maintain, and scale AI-based tools that accelerate the research process, from automated synthesis and analysis pipelines to intelligent tagging, search, and knowledge management. You'll bring a practical, i
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success have no place at DoorDash. We value a diverse workforce – people who identify as women, non-binary or gender non-conforming, LGBTQIA+, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, differently-abled, caretakers and parents, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply. Thank you to the Level Playing Field Institute for this statement of non-discrimination.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and any other state or local hiring regulations, we will consider for employment any qualified applicant, including those with arrest and conviction records, in a manner consistent with the applicable regulation.

If you need any accommodations, please inform your recruiting contact upon initial connection.

Notice Regarding Use of AI and Automated Tools: To streamline our hiring process, DoorDash utilizes an automated recruitment tool called Metaview.

How it works: Metaview assists our recruiting team by evaluating job related qualifications and characteristics in connection with hiring. The tool is designed and used to support - rather than replace - human decision-making; trained personnel make final decisions with meaningful human review and oversight, and DoorDash does not use Metaview or other AI-enabled tool in a manner that has the effect of subjecting applicants or employees to discrimination based on any protected characteristic or proxy or for engaging in any protected activity under applicable law.

Data Retention, Privacy & Bias Audit: Data collected during this process is retained in accordance with our Candidate Privacy Policy https://help.doordash.com/en-us/legal/article/ax-privacy-notice and applicable state laws. In compliance with New York City Local Law 144, the independent bias audit summary for Metaview is publicly available for review at https://trust.warden-ai.com/metaview/application-review .