Senior Research Operations Program Manager

About the teamThe 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’re a tight-knit, fun-loving, and upbeat group.
We build useful, usable, and innovative experiences for Zillow customers. These experiences live across web, mobile, and internal software platforms.
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.

About the role

The Senior Research Operations Program Manager will partner with the research team to help everyone on the team do the best work of their careers by helping to drive impact, scale, and efficiencies. You’ll work closely with research, design, content strategy, product management, marketing, engineering, and data science. You will spend the majority of your time executing on operational tasks, while supporting the evolution and growth of the Research Ops function at Zillow. Some key areas that this role will focus on:

• Research planning: Define, implement, and iterate annual planning and prioritization and project tracking.

• Capacity allocation: Evolve framework for coordination of resources across multiple projects and teams

• Collaborative alignment: Partner with Product, Engineering, Marketing and Design Ops to increase alignment across teams, including timelines, tooling, and systems

• Strategic influence: Find opportunities where research can impact business prioritization and strategy; develop programs to address these opportunities

• 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.

• Lead cross-team planning, ensuring a comprehensive view of all research conducted by four disciplines to inform business and product strategy and execution

• Operationalize resource stewardship to ensure our research team is addressing Zillow’s highest priorities

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

• Engage, partner, and collaborate with Research & Insights 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

• Move initiatives forward, find resources, raise concerns to appropriate owners early and resolve open issues that prevent progress

• 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

• 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

• Define and keep up to date documentation of how we work and how to work with us

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 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.

Who you are

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.

• 4+ years of experience in research operations or project/program management

• 3+ years of experience in technology OR user experience research

• 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.

• Experience leading planning processes in a tech or research environment

• Ability to identify process improvements and improve inefficiencies, experience in process improvement. Process mapping experience is a plus.

• Experience working in or general understanding of agile product development.

• Experience communicating with a variety of audiences ranging from product team members to directors/VPs

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

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

• Strong time management, organization, and prioritization skills

• A strong sense of ownership and drive

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

• Experience with Jira’s suite of tooling is a plus

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make it easier to unlock life’s next chapter. 

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do is helping people move from dreaming to transacting — and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making this vision a reality. 

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, and a  fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2022 list, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, honoring the Best Places to Work in 2022, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index 2022, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index and Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality 2022, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, and gender identity. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

---