Senior Research Operations Program Manager

About the team

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 create useful, usable, and innovative experiences for Zillow customers across web, mobile, and internal software platforms, with a deep focus on quality.
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!

About the role

The Senior Research Operations Program Manager will spearhead the development and implementation of programs designed to optimize research processes. With a strong emphasis on efficiency, automation, and AI-driven workflows, the first priority will be streamlining the recruitment of B2B research participants, such as Real Estate Agents and Property Managers.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including research, design, product management, marketing, engineering, and data science, to identify and implement automation opportunities that will enhance the team's impact, scale, and efficiency. While your primary focus will be on operational tasks, you will also play a key role in supporting the evolution and growth of the Research Ops function at Zillow.

This role requires a good balance of strategy and tactical execution, sharp communication skills and the ability to collaborate widely across the business. Are you looking for a dynamic blend of Product Management (ensuring we are building the right thing), Project/Process Management (helping the team/organization to operate effectively), and Technical Knowledge (supporting/leading the team through technical challenges)? This role uses those skills to reduce operational burden on researchers so they can focus on increasing the impact of research.

You Will Get To: 

• Lead researcher enablement programs, including building recruitment and in-field support programs from the ground up.

• Align recruiting efforts with Zillow Group’s evolving needs through collaboration with ZRI researchers, leadership, and key collaborators.

• Partner with research operations leadership to set team goals, roadmaps, and optimize team resources.

• Proactively identify and drive improvements in research effectiveness.

• Create, socialize, and maintain repeatable processes for research (e.g. communications, templates, process mapping etc.), using AI to scale your role.

• Own systems for project documentation, status tracking, and reporting.

• Build and maintain trusted, cooperative relationships with cross-functional partners.

• Use strategic tools (including prompt writing for LLMs/other AI-backed approaches), systems, and data to analyze trends, deliver insights, define goals, and improve processes.

• Facilitate meetings to drive progress, establish next steps and owners, and resolve blocks.

• Report on achievements and impact of managed programs.

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. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $145,500.00 - $232,500.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Washington state, and Washington DC and may not be applicable to other locations.

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

Who you are

You are an experienced Research Operations Program Manager who excels at automating manual systems, saving researchers time