Head of Research Operations & Customer Insight

Mercury; United States; Remote; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercury is seeking a Research Operations Lead to build and scale our research program. You will run day-to-day operations, own the tool stack (Dovetail, Maze, Rally), and partner with Product, Design, and Marketing to ensure customer evidence informs decisions from discovery through post-launch analysis.

You will lead the research operations team, recruit and coach talent, and drive ethical guardrails, consent, and privacy while exploring AI-enabled workflows to improve speed and quality.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on research operations experience with measurable impact.
• 1-2 years of people management experience.
• Be a thought leader in the research ops space.
• Thrives in ambiguity where the discipline isn’t fully figured out.
• Excellent coach to non-researchers, building judgment and confidence.
• Uses AI in daily work and stays curious about useful applications.
• Communicates clearly with practitioners and senior stakeholders.
• Nice to have: qualitative research experience, quantitative fluency, fintech familiarity.

Responsibilities

• Define how research works across product, design, and marketing with autonomy.
• Own the customer research panel end-to-end, including sourcing and recruitment.
• Run day-to-day operations: scheduling, incentives, consent, privacy guardrails.
• Consult teams on research methods and turn feedback into insights.
• Partner with design and PMs to ensure evidence informs decisions from discovery to post-launch.
• Own the research tool stack (Dovetail, Maze, Rally) and manage vendor relations.
• Build AI-enabled workflows to prepare for conversations and synthesize feedback.
• Pilot new ways to get close to customers and manage one direct report.

Skills

Research operations

People management

Thought leadership

Ambiguity handling

Coaching non-researchers

AI workflows

Clear communication

Fintech context

Tools

Dovetail

Maze

Rally

Job description

Mercury is seeking a Research Operations Lead to build and scale our research program. You will run day-to-day operations, own the tool stack (Dovetail, Maze, Rally), and partner with Product, Design, and Marketing to ensure customer evidence informs decisions from discovery through post-launch analysis.

You will lead the research operations team, recruit and coach talent, and drive ethical guardrails, consent, and privacy while exploring AI-enabled workflows to improve speed and quality.