Director Research Operations

About the Role

IANS Research is launching a new data product for the cybersecurity market. The Director, Research Operations will own the end-to-end data collection engine that powers this product — building an in-house CATI interview program from scratch, managing third-party panel firms and industry partnerships for external data collection, and ensuring data quality across all channels.

This is a program-building role, not a program-maintaining role. You will stand up a seven-figure annual research operation covering dozens of security technology markets through both internally-run videoconference interviews and externally-fielded online surveys through panel firms and industry partnerships. You will hire and manage a team of research interviewers, own vendor relationships with panel firms, negotiate industry data-sharing partnerships, and be accountable for hitting response targets across complex firmographic quotas.

The data your team collects is the product’s competitive moat. The quality, depth, and consistency of the data we deliver depends directly on how well this operation is designed and run.

Why This Role Matters

This product is a strategic growth initiative for IANS. Its success depends entirely on having high-quality, structured data that provides unparalleled insight to our clients. The data your team collects compounds over time, strengthens with each collection cycle, and creates a flywheel that will lead to ever-increasing client engagement and value delivery.

Core Responsibilities:

CATI Program Leadership (~40% of time)

• Build and manage the in-house CATI interview program, targeting hundreds of completed interviews per year across multiple high-priority security technology markets.

• Hire, train, and manage a team of onshore US research interviewers conducting structured Zoom/Teams interviews with senior security practitioners.

• Own interviewer quality: monitor call recordings, review data completeness, coach on probing technique, and ensure interviewers can facilitate substantive technical conversations with senior security professionals.

• Design, execute and optimize the interview scheduling pipeline in coordination with IANS account managers — ensuring the right practitioner is identified and scheduled for each market-specific interview.

• Manage throughput against targets with real-time visibility into coverage gaps by market, product, industry, and revenue band.

• Own the market rotation schedule and ensure smooth transitions as new markets come online each year

Third-Party Panel & Partnership Management (~30% of time)

• Own relationships with B2B panel firms for external market data collection, managing significant annual external spend across multiple markets per year.

• Negotiate contracts, define screening criteria, set quality SLAs, and manage panel firm performance against cost-per-complete and data quality benchmarks.

• Create and manage ~20-30 survey variants for each specific topic to be covered by third-party panels.

• Manage industry association partnerships for supplementary sourcing in key verticals — co-branded survey distribution, partnership fee negotiation, and respondent incentive structures.

• Define and enforce quality assurance protocols for non-IANS respondents: screening layers, in-survey attention checks, completion time analysis, identity verification, and post-survey validation against known market patterns.

• Manage oversampling plans to account for expected rejection rates on panel-sourced completes.

• Evaluate and onboard new panel partners as needed to maintain coverage across niche and emerging security markets

Survey Operations & Platform Management (~15% of time)

• Own survey programming and fielding in Qualtrics for self-administered survey instruments.

• Manage the annual survey lifecycle: deployment timing, reminder cadence, completion rate optimization, and data integration with CRM firmographics.

• Coordinate survey distribution to appropriate contacts at IANS client organizations (different personas depending on specific survey)

Data Quality & Sample Design (~15% of time)

• Own sample design and quota management across all channels: ensuring adequate firmographic coverage (industry, revenue band, team size) to support filtered benchmarking in the product.

• Maintain real-time dashboards tracking completions vs. targets by market, product, firmographic segment, and channel.

• Identify and escalate coverage gaps early; develop corrective strategies (alternative outreach, adjusted incentives, supplementary panels).

• Collaborate with the product team on statistical modeling requirements — understanding how sample composition affects downstream data quality in the product.

• Manage client touchpoint budgets to prevent survey fatigue across multiple research programs

Requirements

Must Have

• 5+ years of experience managing primary research operations, with direct experience running CATI or structured phone interview programs at meaningful scale (500+ annual completions).

• Demonstrated experience managing third-party panel firm relationships — contract negotiation, quality SLA enforcement, cost-per-complete optimization, and multi-vendor coordination.

• Experience building or significantly scaling a research operation (not just maintaining an existing one) — you’ve stood up teams, designed workflows, and iterated on processes in a fast-moving environment.

• People management experience: you’ve hired, trained, and performance-managed research staff (interviewers, analysts, or field managers).

• Strong command of survey methodology: questionnaire design, sample design, quota management, mode effects, response rate optimization, and data quality frameworks.

• Proven experience operating with high autonomy — making methodology, vendor selection, and quality framework decisions without heavy oversight.

• Possesses the leadership skills, presence and gravitas to be an effective counterpart to panel firm account teams and industry partnership leads.

• Experience with Qualtrics or comparable survey platforms for both programming and fielding.

• Comfort managing a research budget of $500K+ including external vendor spend.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in B2B technology research, cybersecurity, or adjacent domains (IT infrastructure, enterprise software) — you understand the audience and can evaluate whether an interviewer is asking the right follow-up questions.

• Experience managing industry association, trade group, or consortium-based data partnerships (not just commercial panel firms).

• Background at a research firm (Gartner, Forrester, IDC, or similar), market research agency, or in-house insights function at a B2B technology company.

• Familiarity with hierarchical modeling or small-sample statistical techniques (you don’t need to build the models, but you need to understand how sample composition decisions affect model outputs).

• Experience with mixed-mode research designs (CATI + online) and managing data comparability across collection methods

Nice to Have

• Experience standing up research operations that serve a data product (not just ad hoc reports) — you understand the difference between collecting data for a one-time study vs. feeding a continuously-updated product.

• Experience with provider-sourced practitioner interview models in adjacent industries (e.g., healthcare IT, enterprise technology).

• Familiarity with GenAI tools for transcription, interview summarization, and data coding workflows

Compensation & Benefits

• Base salary: $128,000–$160,000 depending on experience. (plus bonus)

• Performance bonus tied to program milestones (response rate targets, data quality metrics, on-time market delivery).

• Boston preferred for proximity to IANS HQ. Standard IANS benefits package.

• Opportunity to build and shape a critical function from the ground up in a high-growth environment