Research Operations Specialist: Contracts, Vendors & Spend (contract)

About the Role

You will run the commercial and financial operations of Airbnb's Research team, supporting roughly sixty researchers and a large vendor and agency portfolio. Your role involves owning the contract and spend lifecycle for vendors and agencies, serving as the operations liaison to Finance, and representing researchers' needs in vendor and contract conversations. You'll also look for ways to optimize and streamline processes, ideally leveraging AI.

Responsibilities

• Own spend-request intake through Airtable, Zip, and Oracle, including PO change orders and invoice and requisition approvals.
• Onboard and offboard vendors and tools end to end: supplier questionnaires, NDAs, third-party risk and privacy review, legal routing, and tool access such as SSO and MCP/API connections.
• Facilitate MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, and renewals with Legal and Procurement across regions, navigating the different legal, procurement, and data requirements of markets such as EMEA and China.
• Maintain the contract repository, all agency retainer trackers, and the master supplier list; track renewals at 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Act as the operations liaison to Finance and research leads: spend-tracker upkeep, quarterly forecast inputs, monthly budget reviews, and the Research and Finance sync.
• Support vendor evaluation and consolidation, including data-use, model-training, and DPA terms for AI tools.
• Represent researchers in scoping and negotiation, translating study needs into commercial terms.
• Act as Research's primary liaison to Commercial Legal, Privacy, Third Party Security, Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Finance, and Accounts Payable, coordinating NDA, MSA, SOW, DPA, and purchase order workflows across Zip, Oracle, Salesforce, and DocuSign.
• Anticipate and unblock cross-functional review gates (privacy, security, AI, sourcing thresholds, regional signature processes), setting expectations with researchers on timelines and escalating proactively when reviews stall.
• Upkeep of Research's operating dataset in Airtable, including project and supplier bases.
• Knowledge-management support for the shared drive and research repository.
• Help maintain the team's tools and AI hub.

Qualifications

• Experience in procurement, contracts administration, or vendor operations, ideally in a research, insights, or tech environment.
• Fluency with procure-to-pay systems such as Zip, Oracle, or Coupa, and hands-on Airtable skills.
• Comfort reading contract terms and knowing when to engage Legal.
• Familiarity with how contracting, procurement, and privacy requirements differ across regions and markets, and the judgment to adapt processes accordingly.
• Working knowledge of how research operates, enough to speak for researchers and spot when a scope does not fit the need.
• A systems thinker who sees the bigger picture across intake, contracts, and spend, gets ahead of problems, and proactively finds ways to make the work more efficient.
• Highly organized, detail-driven, and a clear, proactive communicator with finance and vendor partners.

Nice to Have

• Time in or alongside a market research, consumer insights, or UX research team.
• Experience working with AI tools day to day, and ideally building with them, such as automations, agents, or AI-assisted workflows.
• Airtable automation experience.

Core Systems

Zip, Oracle, Salesforce, Airtable

Pay Rate Range

$100-$120/hr

Benefits

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• 401K