Research Operations Specialist II

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Research Operations Specialist to help our research team run faster, cleaner, and with greater impact.

In this role, you’ll support the day-to-day engine of research ’ll help coordinate studies, manage participant logistics, maintain research documentation, support recurring research programs, and make it easier for researchers and cross-functional partners to access and reuse customer insights. You’ll partner closely with researchers, Product, Design, Analytics, Customer Service, Legal, and other teams to help research move smoothly from request to setup to execution to documentation.

This is a strong fit for someone who is highly organized, detail-oriented, comfortable managing multiple moving pieces, and energized by helping small research teams deliver high-impact, high-quality work.
This role requires past experience supporting research operations and a strong understanding of how good research gets planned and executed — including recruiting, scheduling, participant communication, consent, incentives, tooling, note-taking, documentation, and repository hygiene.

Salary Range : $112,200 - $139,700 ( Eligible for competitive bonus and equity offering). Root is a “work where it works best” company. Meaning we will support you working in whatever location that works best for you across the US. We will continue to have our headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

• Experienced with modern research operations: You have at least 2 years of experience supporting UX research, customer research, research operations, or a closely related function. You have knowledge and excitement for how AI-enabled tools can improve research speed, consistency, note-taking, documentation, repository management, and access to customer insights.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented: You can manage recruiting logistics, study schedules, participant communication, incentives, documentation, and follow-through without letting details fall through the cracks.
• Methodology-aware: You understand the basic mechanics of high-quality customer research, including study setup, screeners, consent, participant experience, note-taking, synthesis support, documentation, and research tools.
• A structured communicator: You can help organize, package, and distribute research insights so they reach the right teams at the right time and are easy to find, understand, and act on.
• Pragmatic about process: You like making work more repeatable and easier to navigate, but you do not create process for its own sake. Your goal is to help researchers and product teams move faster, reduce risk, and make better decisions.
• Comfortable in a growing practice: You can work in an environment where some systems are still forming, and you’re willing to help improve them without needing a perfect playbook.

• Facilitate research team operating rhythms, including sprint planning, daily scrums, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, in close partnership with the Research Manager.
• Manage the research intake and triage process, ensuring new requests are captured, clarified, routed, prioritized, and tracked appropriately.
• Maintain visibility into active, upcoming, and backlogged research work so researchers and cross-functional partners understand what is in flight and what is next.
• Provide operational oversight for always-on research programs that require human coordination but not dedicated researcher ownership.
• Monitor always-on programs for participation, data quality, operational issues, and follow-up needs, escalating to researchers or the Research Manager when patterns, risks, or decisions require deeper research judgment.

• Manage participant recruiting logistics, scheduling, communications, consent tracking, incentive processing, and participant experience for research studies.
• Help ensure participants are appropriately screened, contacted, compensated, and treated with care.
• Draft and manage screeners, outreach language, scheduling communications, and participant instructions in partnership with researchers.
• Provide live study…