Associate Vice President, Research & Data Operations

Responsibilities

• Lead Research & Data Operations Across Three Functions
• Provide strategic leadership and oversight across Audience Operations, Survey Operations, and Activation Operations
• Set shared standards for quality, delivery, documentation, and team accountability across all three functions
• Ensure all three functions are resourced and structured to meet current and future client demand
• Own the RDO delivery model end-to-end -- intake, scoping, sequencing, QA, and handoff to the Revenue teams (Sales, Account Management, Partnerships)
• Drive Automation & Tooling Strategy
• Sponsor cross-functional infrastructure improvements across data ingestion, audience distribution, activation integrations, and survey tooling
• Align tooling roadmaps across all three functions to organizational growth vision -- the long-term trajectory of RDO is toward improved tooling and automation, and you lead that transition
• Partner with Product to translate RDO operational needs into tooling requirements and prioritized roadmap items
• Set Quality & Methodology Standards
• Define expectations for consistent and accurate deliverables across audience delivery, data activation, advanced analytics, and survey operations
• Establish methodology standards across survey programming, weighting, audience construction, modeling, and advanced analytics
• Balance rigor with speed across all three functions, with a strong sense of collaboration and client-oriented decision making
• Serve as the technical escalation point for data quality, audience methodology, survey design, and downstream activation issues
• Manage Activation & Partnership Operations Relationships
• Oversee Tunnl’s technical relationships with a variety of downstream activation platforms
• Ensure API connections and data integrations supporting audience delivery are maintained and improved over time
• Own usage reporting infrastructure and ensure accuracy of delivery reporting to Account Management, Finance, and clients
• Set standards for how delivery troubleshooting is handled when audiences do not arrive as expected
• Cross-Functional Leadership
• Ensure clean scoping and handoff processes between Revenue teams and RDO
• Set accountability expectations across departments for intake, delivery, and escalation
• Represent Research & Data Operations in senior internal discussions and with senior leadership
• Ensure exec visibility into RDO capacity, priorities, and risks
• Partner with Revenue teams on scoping conversations where RDO’s technical judgment is required to validate feasibility
• Develop Leadership Bench Strength
• Coach team on scaling leadership, prioritization, and cross-functional collaboration
• Build a culture of accountability, documentation, and continuous improvement across all three teams
• Cultivate cross-training between Survey Operations and Audience Operations, deepening the team’s collective technical range over time

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in research operations, data operations, audience technology, survey methodology, or a related field
• Proven experience leading multiple technical or research teams simultaneously
• Deep familiarity with at least two of the following: audience modeling and creation, programmatic audience activation and DSP/SSP/Other Partnership integrations, survey research methodology, ETL processes, or advanced analytics
• Demonstrated ability to build credibility and influence with C-suite executives and senior organizational leaders -- someone who walks into a room with senior stakeholders and commands their attention and respect
• Strong track record of building scalable delivery systems and enforcing quality standards
• Experience aligning team structure and capacity to revenue and business goals
• Strong cross-functional communicator who can bridge technical and strategic conversations

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in public affairs, brand research, or agency research environments
• Familiarity with programmatic audience activation, identity resolution, or data onboarding
• Experience managing DSP/SSP/Other Partnership relationships and API integrations at scale
• Experience contributing to product direction or roadmap prioritization
• Proficiency with SQL, Python, R, or similar tools
• DC-area strongly preferred

What Success Looks Like

Why You Should Apply