Research Operations Lead

Duration - October 2026 - May 2027 (Mat cover)
Contract - Inside IR35, day rate.
Hybrid working - 3 days on site, Central London

Role Overview

The Research Operations Manager is responsible for operational excellence, creating and maintaining processes, and providing operational support to the researchers. This role reduces the administrative burden so that researchers can focus on planning, running, and synthesising research.

Responsibilities

• Relationship Management: Report to and work alongside the Head of Experimental Research and ERT, managing relationships with finance, procurement, agency partners, and colleagues in the CPL Operations and Data Privacy team.
• Vendor Management: Establish and manage relationships with global vendors. Work with procurement, legal, and finance teams to organize budgets, Statements of Work, onboarding, purchase orders, consent forms, NDAs, GDPR, etc. for external agencies and freelancers.
• In-House Research Operations: Take ownership of in-house research operations. Manage all operational aspects of global kids testing programs by working with recruitment vendors, setting up test environments, organizing incentives, and owning operational aspects including consent, NDAs, safeguarding, risk assessments, GDPR compliance, etc.
• Budget Management: Spearhead team budgeting. Work with the Head of Experimental Research to set and manage budgets, take ownership of meeting internal deliverables in line with the financial calendar, and be the first point of contact regarding budget tracking and cost questions.
• Physical Space Management: Manage and maintain physical spaces. Drive initiatives to optimize research labs to empower teams to do their best work, including organizing maintenance of audio-visual technology, mics, cameras, etc., in the kids testing space.
• Research Technology and Infrastructure: Stewardship of the research technology stack, ensuring the tools we buy/build/use are adopted, correctly configured, and safe by default.
• Data Privacy: Participate in cross-functional data privacy working groups to ensure the most rigorous standards are maintained and that teams are clear on and adhere to policy and processes.