Research Operations Manager

About the role

The Research Operations Manager will coordinate timelines, budgets, resources, vendors, fieldwork logistics, reporting and cross‑functional activities across Product Research, Implementation and Impact Research workstreams. The role also supports research processes, ethics, data management, donor reporting and dissemination of findings.

Key responsibilities

• Maintain a consolidated view of active studies, track timelines, dependencies and team capacity, and flag risks early.
• Manage budget planning, tracking and reporting for all research streams, including vendor and partner contracts.
• Build and maintain shared research operations infrastructure, intake processes, reporting templates and documentation standards.
• Ensure legal and ethical compliance for data sharing, storage and IRB submissions.
• Serve as operational liaison between Research and other departments, preparing portfolio‑level status reports and communicating insights organization‑wide.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, social sciences, business, management or related field.
• 5+ years experience in programme, project or research operations management.
• Experience managing budgets, vendors and timelines across multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Strong organizational and cross‑functional communication skills.

Required skills

• Functional understanding of research methods, study design and data quality.
• Experience with research ethics and regulatory processes in Kenya (IRB, NACOSTI).
• Ability to operate across fast‑cycle product and longer fieldwork delivery cadences.