Research Operations Manager
$100k - $120k USD
Location: San Francisco, CA – In office, with flexibility for occasional remote work as needed
Compensation: $100,000-$120,000, depending on years of experience.
About Episteme
Episteme is a new kind of R&D company built for people who want their work to matter in the world. We support exceptional researchers pursuing ambitious, translational science; work that often struggles to find the right home within traditional academic or corporate institutions. At Episteme, we provide the financial, infrastructural and operational support that allows researchers to focus on the problems that genuinely deserve their attention. We work closely with them to move ideas from early insight to real-world application. Translation is part of the work, not an afterthought. When breakthroughs are ready, we help bring them into the world responsibly, including through commercialization when appropriate.
Working at Episteme means joining a company that is intentionally different. We are building something new, and that requires comfort with ambiguity, intellectual honesty, and a bias toward thoughtful execution. You will work alongside people from many disciplines who care deeply about rigor, impact and follow-through. We value clarity over complexity, ownership over passivity and collaboration without micromanagement. Roles evolve through contribution and trust rather than rigid job descriptions, and ideas are tested quickly, decisions are made explicitly, and learning is shared openly so the system improves faster than any individual.
What We Look For
Episteme’s scientific ambition requires execution that is not only reliable, but structurally durable. The Research Operations Manager owns and strengthens the operational systems that allow research programs to move with clarity, momentum, and accountability.
You are accountable for ensuring that execution remains steady under pressure, scales without confusion, and does not depend on informal heroics or constant reminders.
You operate with full autonomy within your defined scope. You make deliberate trade-offs between speed, rigor, and resource constraints. When ambiguity increases, you bring structure and alignment without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
What You Will Do
Operational Execution
You will own the operational rhythm and ensure work moves forward with clarity, coordination, and follow-through. You are responsible for making progress visible, commitments reliable, and priorities explicit, bringing structure without bureaucracy. This role is multifaceted and requires both insight and anticipation, as well as judgement and ability to navigate the operations of the company.
Establish clear meeting cadence and decision hygiene
Translate strategy into sequenced, trackable work
Maintain visibility on milestones, deliverables, and dependencies
Ensure clear ownership and closure of action items
Align effort with priorities and resource constraints
Surface stalled work early
Ensure meetings have agendas and clear follow-ups
Track action items and reinforce follow-through
Send reminders ahead of key deadlines
Communicate progress, updates and completed work
Research Programs Coordination
You will partner closely with PIs and program leads to ensure operations support scientific progress without distraction. You reduce cognitive load by making logistics orderly and transparent.
Maintain budget visibility and flag financial risk early
Coordinate purchasing, vendors, contracts, and renewals
Track resource allocation and anticipate constraints
Keep documentation organized and current
Track milestones and surface slippage early
Align operational timelines with scientific goals
Manage Risk and Bottlenecks
You maintain visibility into operational risk and execution health, preventing small misalignments from becoming systemic drag.
Identify bottlenecks or coordination breakdowns
Track cross-team dependencies to resolution
Clarify decision ownership
Escalate appropriately when issues exceed your scope
Distinguish normal execution variability from meaningful risl
Strengthen How Work Gets Done
You own and evolve the coordination architecture within your scope, ensuring it remains resilient as scale and complexity increase..
Clarify handoffs across teams and partners
Simplify workflows where complexity adds no value
Strengthen documentation and shared visibility
Introduce lightweight planning structures where needed
Create systems that make follow-through natural
What Success Looks Like
Programs within your scope move forward with steady clarity. Meetings produce real decisions. Commitments are visible. Dependencies are tracked before they become surprises. Work does not stall quietly in the background.
Budgets, purchasing, and documentation feel orderly and easy to navigate. Teams are not chasing updates or rediscovering decisions. Operational structure supports the science rather than competing with it.
Researchers are able to focus more of their energy on scientific reasoning and less on coordination logistics. If this role were removed, execution would quickly feel heavier, slower, and less predictable.
Who Thrives in This Role
You bring order to complexity without making it feel rigid. You are calm in ambiguity and practical in your decisions. You notice when alignment starts to drift and intervene early.
You care about clarity, sequencing, and follow-through. You are not attached to process for its own sake, but you understand that structure protects momentum.
You are comfortable operating independently within a defined scope. When you say something is at risk or off track, people trust your judgment because it is grounded in visibility, not opinion.
You take ownership quietly and consistently. You do not need to be the loudest person in the room to move work forward.
Qualifications:
You bring meaningful experience in operations, technical program management, or a similar role within a scientific or R&D environment.
Typically, this includes 6+ years of relevant experience supporting complex, multi-stakeholder workstreams where clarity, sequencing, and follow-through matter.
You have worked in environments where documentation, budgets, vendors and technical workflows interact, and you understand how small operational gaps can create larger downstream impact.
You have demonstrated ownership of bounded operational systems end-to-end, including improving their durability over time.
You are comfortable owning defined operational systems end-to-end, not just participating in them. You have experience creating and improving workflows, not only following them.
You are proficient with project management and collaboration tools, and you use them to create visibility and structure rather than noise.
A Bachelor’s degree is required; a scientific or technical background is strongly preferred.
A Project Management certification is also preferred.
What We Offer
Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), plus 12 company holidays
Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
100% company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, basic life insurance, and AD&D insurance
16 weeks of fully paid parental leave
Relocation assistance for qualifying relocations