User Research Operations Specialist

At Compass, our mission is to help everyone find their place in the world. Founded in 2012, we’re revolutionizing the real estate industry with our end-to-end platform that empowers residential real estate agents to deliver exceptional service to seller and buyer clients.The Product Design & Research team is seeking a Senior Research Operations Specialist to act as the second member of our growing Research Operations practice. This role is essential for creating the systems, processes, and support structures that empower our Product Designers and Product Managers to gather high-quality insights efficiently and at scale. Reporting to the Staff User Research Operations Manager, you will be a strategic partner in evolving our fragmented, post-merger processes into a single, elegant system. You will directly enable teams to make informed, user-centered decisions that drive our mission forward. The ideal candidate brings deep experience organizing user research, an analytic approach to process development, and a collaborative disposition for problem-solving. What You'll Do Provide Hands-On Study Support: Act as the first point of contact for PMs and Designers, guiding them through the operational lifecycle of a study from triage and planning to participant recruitment, scheduling, and incentive management. Drive Process Improvement: Proactively identify bottlenecks in our current research workflows and design durable, scalable solutions. Document best practices and create resources that empower our teams to conduct research more effectively. Manage Tooling and Vendor Relationships: Administer aspects of our suite of research tools, manage seat allocation, and serve as a key contact for our vendor partners to ensure we are maximizing the value of our investments (UserInterviews, Qualtrics, Dovetail, Figma, etc.) Scale Our Insights & Knowledge Management: Manage and improve our research repository, ensuring insights are discoverable and accessible. Develop processes that encourage the synthesis of findings across multiple studies. What We're Looking For 4+ years of experience in a Research Operations, Design Operations, or a related program management role within a product organization. Deep Experience in Research Enablement: A strong understanding of the end-to-end research process and a passion for creating systems that empower non-researchers (like PMs and Designers) to conduct high-quality work. Process-Oriented Mindset: You are a natural systems thinker, adept at identifying inefficiencies, designing new processes, and creating clear documentation to support them. Hands-On Tool & Analytic Systems Expertise: You have direct experience managing key research tools, such as participant management platforms, survey tools, and research repositories. You're also comfortable working with user data at scale to produce targeted samples based on stakeholder needs (Google Sheets, PowerBI, SQL, Heap, Databricks, Fullstory, etc.). Exceptional Communication & Stakeholder Management: You can build strong working relationships, clearly articulate complex processes, and confidently guide stakeholders through operational requirements. You have excellent English "wordsmithing" skills for proofreading participant communications, screener questionnaires, and survey content. Proactive & Autonomous: You are comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously, and are driven to take ownership and deliver results with minimal oversight. You are capable of operating in ambiguity and aligning varied stakeholders in pursuit of novel goals. Nice to Haves Experience working with or supporting user research via AI-powered features. Experience supporting user research in a post-merger or multi-brand environment. Experience within the real estate, marketplace, or B2B space. Compensation: The base pay range for this position is $143,000 - $159,000; however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Bonuses and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of benefits. Base pay is based on market location. Minimum wage for the position will always be met. Perks that You Need to Know About: Participation in our incentive programs (which may include eligible cash, equity, or commissions). Plus paid vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, and recharge leave; medical, tele-health, dental and vision benefits; 401(k) plan; flexible spending accounts (FSAs); commuter program; life and disability insurance; Maven (a support system for new parents); Carrot (fertility benefits); UrbanSitter (caregiver referral network); Employee Assistance Program; and pet insurance. Do your best work, be your authentic self. At Compass, we believe that everyone deserves to find their place in the world — a place where they feel like they belong, where they can be their authentic selves, where they can thrive. Our collaborative, energetic culture is grounded in our Compass Entrepreneurship Principles and our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, growth and mobility. As an