Associate Director, Distributed Research

At WHOOP, we're on a mission to unlock and inspire performance for life. WHOOP empowers members to perform at a higher level through a deeper understanding of their bodies and daily lives.

WHOOP is hiring an Associate Director of Distributed Research to own the strategy and implementation of large-scale decentralized data collections, powering research and innovation across WHOOP. In this role you will oversee a cross-functional team of researchers and operations specialists to scale WHOOP’s distributed research programs and infrastructure. Your leadership will help expand WHOOP's ability to generate trusted, actionable data that accelerates scientific discovery, product innovation, and member impact.

• Define the distributed research strategy, driving the continued evolution and scaling of product development and outcome generation research capabilities across WHOOP.

• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to build a roadmap that includes programs for large-scale sensor data collections, product testing/betas, and mixed methods research.

• Own the technical strategy for supporting the distributed research roadmap and partner with the Research Platform team to build any needed infrastructure.

• Partner closely with the Distributed Research Program Manager to prioritize initiatives, allocate resources, balance team capacity, and deliver against organizational priorities.

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of researchers across multiple career levels, fostering technical excellence, career growth, and a high-performing team culture.

• Partner with the Research Enablement team to optimize SOPs for distributed research leveraging user feedback, operational insights, and evolving business needs to drive continuous improvements in scalability, participant experience, data quality, and regulatory approvals.

• Monitor operational and team performance metrics, using insights to drive process optimization and inform strategic decisions across the Distributed Research function.

• Serve as an advocate for distributed research methodologies and survey science, educating cross-functional stakeholders on best practices and helping scale these capabilities across WHOOP.

• 5+ years of experience in remote study management, beta or product testing, research operations, or a related field.

• 3+ years directly managing and developing individual contributors. Demonstrated success leading and developing high-performing teams through organizational growth and ambiguity.

• Experience partnering closely with program management, product, engineering, scientific, or research platform teams to deliver complex cross-functional work.

• Strong understanding of distributed research methodologies, with the ability to communicate the importance of study design and other study considerations to diverse audiences.

• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and organizational leadership skills.

• Strong commitment to embracing and leveraging AI tools in day-to-day tasks, ensuring AI-assisted work aligns with the same high-quality standards as personal contributions.

WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-verify to determine employment eligibility. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

The WHOOP compensation philosophy is designed to attract, motivate, and retain exceptional talent by offering competitive base salaries, meaningful equity, and consistent pay practices that reflect our mission and core values.

At WHOOP, we view total compensation as the combination of base salary, equity, and benefits, with equity…