Senior Design Operations Program Manager

Summary

Join Toast as a Senior Design Operations Program Manager – Research Ops and lead the scaling of our research operations strategy. You will drive cultural change and embed research across R&D. This role is instrumental in spearheading Toast’s evolving research approach, ensuring customer-centric learning across all roles. You will create scalable processes and a culture where teams feel empowered to learn from customers and act on insights. As a strategic leader and change agent, you will bridge the gap between research and decision-making. This is an opportunity to build research ops excellence through process creation and influencing behaviors. The position offers a competitive salary and benefits package.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in research operations, design operations, or a combination of research operations and hands-on research experience
• A strategic mindset—able to balance short-term operational needs with long-term vision and scalability
• Experience partnering with senior leaders to drive alignment and influence decision-making at scale
• Proven experience developing and scaling research operations in a high-growth environment, including setting vision and leading adoption to ensure research is a deeply embedded practice across teams
• Proficient ability to synthesize complex feedback from multiple stakeholders into actionable strategies
• A history of navigating ambiguity and directing action in dynamic, cross-functional environments
• Deep experience in research enablement, including participant recruitment, compliance management, and research tooling
• Great communication skills, with the ability to influence and build trust across teams

Responsibilities

• Collaborate on and drive the strategic roadmap to enable a customer-centric learning culture, identifying key barriers and implementing solutions across multiple fronts—tools, processes, education, and leadership engagement
• Design and implement scalable research operations, building proficient systems for participant recruitment, governance, compliance (e.g., GDPR), and logistics to ensure research is accessible and actionable
• Partner with product, design, and engineering teams to integrate customer learning into strategy, prioritization, and execution, ensuring insights directly inform decision-making
• Assess, implement, and manage research tools and platforms that enhance efficiency, compliance, and collaboration across teams
• Develop training, frameworks, and self-serve resources to enable teams to conduct sound research at scale
• Establish scalable knowledge-sharing systems to ensure teams can easily access, apply, and act on research insights

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits programs
• Total rewards package beyond great earnings potential
• Means to a healthy lifestyle with flexibility to meet Toasters’ changing needs
• Cash compensation (overtime, bonus/commissions if eligible)
• Equity
• Benefits (details available at https://careers.toasttab.com/toast-benefits)