Manager, Research Operations

Ensemble Learning; United States; Remote; USD 85,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Ensemble Learning seeks a Manager, Research Operations to lead systems for high-quality research, data sharing, and governance. You will own dashboards, SOPs, and data workflows, ensuring rigor and fidelity to the nonprofit’s service model.

You will collaborate across research, program evaluation, and partnerships to scale impact, managing privacy, IRB considerations where applicable, and ensuring timely reporting to leadership.

Qualifications

• 2–4 years of experience in research coordination or program evaluation.
• Experience in project management or operations, preferably in education or nonprofit.
• Familiarity with survey tools (Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms).
• Understanding of student data privacy practices (FERPA) and data sharing agreements.

Responsibilities

• Maintain dashboards and documentation of research project progress, milestones, and deliverables.
• Run and maintain systems for program evaluation and continuous improvement, delivering timely data to the team.
• Enforce process consistency and fidelity to written contracts.
• Coordinate and manage survey data reporting, including analysis of themes and trends.

Skills

Research coordination

Program evaluation

Project management

Operations

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in education, social science, public policy, research methods, or related field

Master's degree in education research, evaluation, or related field

Tools

Qualtrics

SurveyMonkey

Google Forms

Excel/Sheets

Job description

Reporting to the Vice President of Research and Operations, the Manager, Research Operations is a systems-driven operational leader who ensures the research department runs with consistency, rigor, and fidelity to Ensemble Learning's commitments and service model. This role owns the infrastructure behind high-quality research— pursuing Data sharing agreements and IRB approvals, maintaining project dashboards, enforcing process consistency, developing SOPs, and analyzing survey data to support continuous improvement cycles led by the Vice President of Research and Operations.

Ensemble Learning is a nonprofit organization that helps schools and districts nationwide transform teaching and leadership to better serve multilingual learners. Since 2016, Ensemble has supported nearly 300 school systems and reached over 100,000 students through professional learning, coaching, and strategic planning. The organization will employ 15-20 staff in 2026, has doubled its footprint in recent years, and operates on a lean $3M annual budget as it builds infrastructure to scale in the coming years.

Our work blends instructional excellence, leadership development, and systemic change. We anchor the work in the belief that collaboration and equity must work in concert to create lasting impact.

Requirements

Location:This role is Remote working across the 4 US time zones. You can expect to travel up to 40% of the time, including company-wide gatherings twice per year for 3-5 days at a time.

Compensation:Salary commensurate with experience ranging from $85,000–$95,000 + generous benefits .

Candidate Profile

Ideal Experience

• Bachelor's degree in education, social science, public policy, research methods, or a related field
  
• 2–4 years of experience in research coordination (including research work during graduate school), program evaluation, project management, or operations, ideally in education or the nonprofit sector
  
• Working knowledge of survey administration and basic quantitative and qualitative data analysis
  
• Advanced skill in spreadsheets (Excel or Google Sheets) and experience with survey tools such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, or Google Forms
  
• Basic understanding of student data privacy practices, including FERPA and data sharing agreements
  
• Preferred: Master's degree in education research, evaluation, or a related field

Critical Professional Capabilities

• Meticulous record keeping including, but not limited to, project plans and meeting notes
  
• Ability to influence and motivate a diverse set of stakeholders
  
• Ability to coordinate and communicate with multiple stakeholders with different objectives
  
• Clear and direct written and oral communication
  

Other Personal Characteristics

• Low-ego style with comfort sharing leadership
  
• High commitment to the mission
  
• A sense of innovation and creativity
  

Key Responsibilities

Research Operations and Management (50% of the time)

• Maintain dashboards and documentation of research project progress, milestones, and deliverables
• Run and maintain systems for program evaluation and continuous improvement, delivering timely data to the team
• Enforce process consistency and fidelity to written contracts
• Maintain Project dashboards and internal and external documentation of project progress
• Build and run a recurring reporting process for survey data, including Net Promoter Score (NPS) and open-ended client feedback, with summaries of themes and trends
• Manage research files, data storage, and version control in line with data privacy requirements (FERPA, data sharing agreements, and IRB protocols where applicable)

Program Evaluation (25% of the time)

• Send, track, and file data sharing agreements with partner districts and schools
• Coordinate the request, receipt, and secure storage of state standardized assessment data from partners
• Ensure post-event and coaching surveys are administered as planned and monitor response rates
• Schedule observations and walkthrough data collection events, coordinating logistics with program staff
• Clean, organize, and run descriptive analyses on quantitative and qualitative data to support evaluation
• For research grants, project manage operations against proposals, budgets, timelines, and agreements, and support funder reporting

Partnership Engagement (15% of the time)

• Build and maintain onboarding processes and tools for new research partners
• Serve as a day-to-day point of contact for partners on research logistics, timelines, and data requests
• Review proposed research agreements with the program team to confirm capacity, skills, and strategic fit before signing

Research Team Strategy (10% of the time)

• Provide data and input to the Vice President of Research and Operations during strategic planning and decision making for research priorities
  
• Provide data and input to the Vice President of Research and Operations to support the maintenance of research team culture and norms