Associate Director ResearchOps (DD&IT Experience and Adoption)

About the role

The ResearchOps Associate Director enables and scales user research operations by establishing effective processes, tools, governance and repositories for research data and insights. The role supports high-quality research delivery, improves compliance and efficiency, enhances insight accessibility and drives greater research impact across the organization. It is based in Barcelona, Spain, and Novartis does not offer relocation support.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement and continuously improve the ResearchOps operating model, including workflows, intake processes, standards and ways of working.
• Establish and scale participant management processes, including recruitment, screening, scheduling, incentives and participant panels.
• Own research governance, ethics and compliance, ensuring adherence to privacy, consent, security and data handling requirements.
• Develop and manage research knowledge repositories to capture, organize, govern and share insights across the enterprise.
• Lead the research tools and platform ecosystem, including tool selection, governance, onboarding, licensing, vendor management and optimization.
• Drive research competency and enablement through onboarding, training, playbooks, templates, coaching and community-building.
• Measure and improve ResearchOps effectiveness through operational metrics, research impact, insight adoption and continuous improvement.
• Champion AI-enabled research operations, implementing responsible automation and AI tools while maintaining compliance and governance.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Design, Research, Business, Operations, IT or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• 10+ years of experience in Research Operations, UX Research, Design Operations, Product Operations, Data Operations, AI Operations or similar operational leadership roles.
• Strong understanding of the end-to-end research and insights lifecycle, from planning and recruitment to analysis, reporting and knowledge management.
• Hands-on experience with enterprise-scale research tools, repositories, participant recruitment platforms, vendor management, procurement and licensing.
• Experience defining governance standards for consent, privacy, research ethics, data handling and insight management.
• Working knowledge of responsible AI, data privacy, security, participant confidentiality and governance of AI-assisted research.

Required skills

• Qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and how multidisciplinary research teams operate.
• Program management, stakeholder management, process improvement, change management, communication and operational excellence.
• Desired: budget management, business acumen, incident management, IT governance, IT service management (ITSM), performance management, quality assurance and problem solving.

What we offer

• Expected annual base salary of EUR 57,900 to 107,500, with a possible performance-based bonus.
• Benefits such as insurance plans, retirement plans, wellbeing resources and global recognition programs.
• Flexible and hybrid working options where possible, and at least 14 weeks of paid parental leave.