Design & Research Operations Director

Superhuman Labs, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent health care

401(k) and RRSP matching

Paid parental leave

20 days PTO + 12 holidays + floating

Job summary

Superhuman Labs, Inc. seeks a Director of Design & Research Operations to lead the operational backbone for design and research at a fast-moving tech company.

You will collaborate with design and research leadership to shape strategy, drive excellence, and build scalable processes that enable researchers to generate insights guiding product decisions. You will partner with cross-functional teams—design, research, product, engineering, finance, and legal—to ensure alignment, resource allocation,

Qualifications

• 7+ years in design operations, research operations, design program management, or a related operational role within a design- and/or research-driven organization.
• Proven ability to embed structure and process within creative teams without stifling the work — you know how to make rigor feel enabling, not restrictive
• A track record of building systems that scale. Frameworks, processes, and tools that teams actually adopt and that help organizations move faster without losing quality.
• Experience running operations for a mid-to-large design and/or research team, ideally in a fast-moving product or tech environment
• You lead with data and land change through relationships — bringing evidence to every conversation while tailoring your approach to what each stakeholder needs to move forward
• You're energized by ambiguity and default to action — but you know when to slow down, build alignment, and make sure the team is moving in the right direction

Responsibilities

• Serve as the connective tissue between Design, Research, Product, and Engineering, ensuring teams stay aligned, unblocked, and set up to deliver high-quality work.
• Partner with Design & Research leadership to define the vision for craft and research excellence, and build the systems, programs, and culture that elevate both — raising the bar on design quality while making insight-driven decision-making the default across the team.
• Act as a strategic liaison across departments, from Finance to Legal to Marketing, ensuring Design goals are understood, resourced, and prioritized.
• Connect strategy, business goals, execution, and customer needs into a coherent operational picture that keeps the design team focused and moving forward.
• Shape the team's culture and practices around how research informs design and product work, ensuring we have the right rituals, norms, and systems that allow insights to inform product decision-making.

Skills

Design operations

Research operations

Program management

Data-driven

Stakeholder management

Job description

Superhuman Labs, Inc. seeks a Director of Design & Research Operations to lead the operational backbone for design and research at a fast-moving tech company.

You will collaborate with design and research leadership to shape strategy, drive excellence, and build scalable processes that enable researchers to generate insights guiding product decisions. You will partner with cross-functional teams—design, research, product, engineering, finance, and legal—to ensure alignment, resource allocation,