Research Operations Lead (AI)

Location: San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Portland, OR; or remote within Canada or the United States

Salary: US employees: $170,400–$236,700 USD base salary depending on location; Canadian employees: $179,000–$223,700 CAD. Total rewards also include equity and benefits.

Company

Mercury is a fintech company providing banking services through partner financial institutions; it is not an FDIC-insured bank.

What you will do

• Define research processes, standards, and operating practices that enable Product, Design, and Marketing teams to conduct research autonomously.
• Own the customer research panel, including databases, outreach, and continuous participant recruitment.
• Run research operations including scheduling, incentives, consent, privacy, and ethical safeguards.
• Advise designers and PMs on research methods, study planning, and translating customer feedback into insight.
• Own the research tool stack, including Dovetail, Maze, and Rally, as well as vendors, budgets, and build-versus-buy decisions.
• Build AI-enabled workflows, pilot rolling research programs and customer events, and manage and coach one direct report.

Requirements

• 8+ years of hands-on research operations experience, including building or scaling a program with measurable impact.
• 1–2 years of people management experience.
• Thought leadership and the ability to operate effectively in an ambiguous environment.
• Strong coaching skills for non-researchers and clear communication with practitioners and senior stakeholders.
• Regular use of AI and sound judgment about evidence, privacy, and practical value.
• Ability to work from the United States or Canada, or from one of the listed US office locations.

Nice to have

• Qualitative research experience.
• Quantitative fluency.
• Familiarity with fintech.

Culture & Benefits

• Research is treated as a democratized practice embedded in everyday product and business decisions.
• Work alongside Product, Design, Marketing, and research practitioners to bring customer evidence into decisions from discovery through post-launch analysis.
• Total rewards include base salary, equity through stock options or RSUs, and benefits.
• Mercury is committed to diversity, belonging, equal employment opportunity, and reasonable recruitment accommodations.