Research Operations Manager

About the team & opportunity 

We’re looking for a Research Operations Manager to join our growing Research & Insights team. In this role, you will build the engine that powers world-class research across Calendly. You’ll be instrumental in scaling research practices, driving operational excellence, and enabling our researchers and cross-functional partners to bring the voice of the customer into every decision.

This is a brand new role at Calendly. You will build and drive systems and programs from the ground up - democratizing the ability to learn from customers and making our research more efficient, compliant, and actionable. If you're highly motivated to create a culture of operational excellence, energize product teams through customer insight, and leverage AI and automation creatively, we’d love to hear from you.

A day in the life of a Research Operations Manager at Calendly

On a typical day, you will: 

• Strategy and culture: Build a thriving research culture, acting as a thought partner to the Head of Research & Insights and other leaders in product, design, and GTM (go-to-market) and creating feedback loops to improve how research powers decision-making 
• Customer immersion: Bring leaders and product development teams closer to customers while also creating an engaging experience for customer participants, through programs like Customer Advisory Boards, research communities, and customer panels
• Participant recruitment and incentives: Develop and manage global customer participant recruitment processes for both interviews and surveys across all departments, including sourcing, screening, incentives, and ensuring GDPR and privacy compliance 
• Knowledge management: Continuously optimize and scale how we capture, share, and leverage insights across the organization
• Research infrastructure: Design, drive, and optimize net-new tools, templates, processes, and systems to support research at scale across product, design, and GTM teams.
• Tool and vendor management: Own the evaluation, procurement, and maintenance of research tools and platforms (e.g., participant panels, knowledge management, AI-based analysis).
• Budget and resource planning: Track and manage research budgets, vendor relationships, and internal resource allocation.
• AI & automation: Identify and strategically implement AI-powered tools to increase research efficiency and amplify the impact of insights across teams.

What do we need from you?

• 5+ years of experience in Research Operations or a similar role within a product-led, fast-paced tech company
• Expertise in communicating directly with customers and managing global participant recruitment, compensation, and compliance with data privacy regulations
• Demonstrated success creating and managing customer immersion programs that build a culture of customer obsession 
• Strong proficiency in building knowledge management systems and scaling research access and impact
• Strong vendor and budget management skills, including evaluating and negotiating research tools and contracts autonomously
• Experience with a range of qualitative and quantitative research tools (e.g., User Interviews, Sprig, Marvin, Displayr, etc.)
• An entrepreneurial approach with a strong ability to act quickly, confidently, and collaboratively

What’s in it for you? 

Ready to make a serious impact? Millions of people already rely on Calendly’s products, and we’re still in the midst of our growth curve — it’s a fantastic time to join us. Everything you’ll work on here will accelerate your career to the next level. If you want to learn, grow, and do the best work of your life alongside the best people you’ve ever worked with, then we hope you’ll consider allowing Calendly to be a part of your professional journey.

If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation as part of the application or recruiting process, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Calendly is registered as an employer in many, but not all, states. If you are located in Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, West Virginia, and Rhode Island, you will not be eligible for employment. Note that all individual roles will specify location eligibility.

All candidates can find our Candidate Privacy Statement here

Candidates residing in California may visit our Notice at Collection for California Candidates here: Notice at Collection

The ranges listed below are the expected annual base salary for this role, subject to change.

Calendly takes a number of factors into consideration when determining an employee’s starting salary, including relevant experience, relevant skills sets, interview performance, location/metropolitan area, and internal pay equity.

Base salary is just one component of Calendly’s total rewards package. All full-time (30 hours/week) employees are also eligible for our Quarterly Corporate Bonus program (or Sales incentive), equity awards, and competitive benefits.

Calendly uses the zip code of an employee’s remote work location, or the onsite building location if hybrid, to determine which metropolitan pay range we use. Current geographic zones are as follows:

• Tier 1: San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, New York City, NY
• Tier 2: Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, Denver, CO, Boston, MA, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, PA, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Miami, FL, and all other cities in CA.
• Tier 3: All other locations not in Tier 1 or Tier 2