Manager, R&D Strategy & Operations
$160,000–$190,000 year
On-siteSan Francisco, California, United States
Job Summary
Deploy to highest-priority R&D initiatives, build operating structures for each sprint, and hand off when systems become self-sustaining. Identify process and tooling friction across teams, own playbooks to fix it including agentification of manual workflows, and run org-wide operating rhythms like quarterly planning and cross-team reporting. Escalate to the S&O lead with context, a point of view, and a plan while building trusted relationships with engineering and product leads. This force multiplier role extends Handshake's S&O function into frontier AI development, working alongside the R&D S&O leader to uplevel how teams across two business units operate with AI in their toolkit.
Required Qualifications
- 6–8+ years 6 to 8 years in strategy & operations, chief of staff, or a hybrid role in a fast-moving R&D driven environment
- Proven track record deploying across complex, multi-team organizations and building operating systems that outlast their involvement
- Strategic range to move fluidly between a technical AI research environment and a consumer marketplace without losing effectiveness
- High judgment under ambiguity: goes to where the problem is, not where the job description points
- Executive presence to operate alongside senior leaders and push back when something is at risk
- AI-fluent operator who uses the latest tools and is excited to build the agentification playbook for others
- Relationship-builder who earns trust quickly across engineering, product, and design stakeholders
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