Research Operations Specialist, Contracts, Vendors & Spend

Cypress HCM; United States; On-site; USD 141,000 - 152,000; Full time

Job summary

Cypress HCM is seeking a Research Operations Specialist to own the spend lifecycle for contractors and vendors, aligning procurement with research needs. You will coordinate across Finance and Legal, manage vendor on/offboarding, and streamline processes with AI-enabled tooling.

The role requires strong Airtable, Po-to-Pay system experience, regional contracting awareness, and a focus on efficiency and accuracy in a fast-paced research environment.

Qualifications

• Experience in procurement, contracts administration, or vendor operations in a research/tech environment.
• Fluency with procure-to-pay systems such as Zip, Oracle, or Coupa.
• Hands-on Airtable skills and data-management.
• Ability to read contract terms and engage Legal when needed.
• Familiarity with regional contracting, procurement, and privacy requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own spend-request intake through Airtable, Zip, and Oracle, including PO changes and invoice approvals.
• Onboard and offboard vendors and tools end to end: supplier questionnaires, NDAs, risk/privacy review, legal routing, and tool access.
• Facilitate MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, and renewals with Legal and Procurement across regions.
• Maintain contract repository, agency retainer trackers, and master supplier list; track renewals at 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Act as operations liaison to Finance and researchers: spend-tracker upkeep, forecasts, budget reviews, and syncs.
• Support vendor evaluation and consolidation, including data-use, model-training, and DPA terms for AI tools.
• Represent researchers in scoping and negotiation, translating study needs into commercial terms.

Skills

Procurement ops

Contracts administration

Vendor operations

Airtable proficiency

Zip/Oracle/Coupa familiarity

Cross-functional comms

Attention to detail

Tools

Airtable

Zip

Oracle

Coupa

DocuSign

Salesforce

Job description

Research Operations Specialist: Contracts, Vendors & Spend

Description

• You run the commercial and financial operations of our Research team, supporting roughly sixty researchers and a large vendor and agency portfolio. You own the contract and spend lifecycle for vendors and agencies, serve as the operations liaison to Finance, and represent researchers' needs in vendor and contract conversations so they can stay focused on the work. Across all of it, you look for ways to optimize and streamline, ideally leveraging AI.

Duties

• Own spend-request intake through Airtable, Zip, and Oracle, including PO change orders and invoice and requisition approvals.
• Onboard and offboard vendors and tools end to end: supplier questionnaires, NDAs, third-party risk and privacy review, legal routing, and tool access such as SSO and MCP/API connections.
• Facilitate MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, and renewals with Legal and Procurement across regions, navigating the different legal, procurement, and data requirements of markets such as EMEA and China.
• Maintain the contract repository, all agency retainer trackers, and the master supplier list; track renewals at 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Act as the operations liaison to Finance and research leads: spend-tracker upkeep, quarterly forecast inputs, monthly budget reviews, and the Research and Finance sync.
• Support vendor evaluation and consolidation, including data-use, model-training, and DPA terms for AI tools.
• Represent researchers in scoping and negotiation, translating study needs into commercial terms.

Cross-functional Partnership With Operational Pillars

• Act as Research's primary liaison to Commercial Legal, Privacy, Third Party Security, Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Finance, and Accounts Payable, coordinating NDA, MSA, SOW, DPA, and purchase order workflows across Zip, Oracle, Salesforce, and DocuSign.
• Anticipate and unblock cross-functional review gates (privacy, security, AI, sourcing thresholds, regional signature processes), setting expectations with researchers on timelines and escalating proactively when reviews stall.
• Upkeep of Research's operating dataset in Airtable, including project and supplier bases.
• Knowledge-management support for the shared drive and research repository.
• Help maintain the team's tools and AI hub.

Requirements

• Experience in procurement, contracts administration, or vendor operations, ideally in a research, insights, or tech environment.
• Fluency with procure-to-pay systems such as Zip, Oracle, or Coupa, and hands-on Airtable skills.
• Comfort reading contract terms and knowing when to engage Legal.
• Familiarity with how contracting, procurement, and privacy requirements differ across regions and markets, and the judgment to adapt processes accordingly.
• Working knowledge of how research operates, enough to speak for researchers and spot when a scope does not fit the need.
• A systems thinker who sees the bigger picture across intake, contracts, and spend, gets ahead of problems, and proactively finds ways to make the work more efficient.
• Highly organized, detail-driven, and a clear, proactive communicator with finance and vendor partners.

Nice To Have

• Time in or alongside a market research, consumer insights, or UX research team; experience working with AI tools day to day, and ideally building with them, such as automations, agents, or AI-assisted workflows; Airtable automation experience.

Compensation

• $102.56 – 110.34/hr W—2

Req ID

• 37680116