Director, Research Excellence

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Director, Research Excellence – Global Consumer Insights

About the team and the role:

Global Consumer Insights (GCI) sits within eBay’s Growth organization and exists to ignite growth by championing the voice of the consumer in decision-making. Research Operations is the engine that powers this mission—ensuring our insights are delivered with speed, rigor, scale, and trust across the company.

As Director, Research Operations, you will lead the team responsible for the core systems, tools, vendors, and processes that enable high-quality consumer data and insights at scale. This is a highly strategic and operational leadership role, focused on building a future-ready insights infrastructure with AI at its core. You will partner closely with GCI leaders, Analytics, Product, Tech, Legal, Privacy, Procurement, and external vendors to modernize how research gets done—automating where possible, elevating quality, and freeing teams to focus on insight and impact. This role reports to the VP of Global Consumer Insights.

What you will accomplish:

• Own and evolve GCI’s research operations engine, enabling high-quality internal and external research through scalable tools, processes, governance, and vendor partnerships that support confident, consumer-centric decision-making.

• Lead AI-enabled transformation of research operations, identifying and implementing automation across survey design, data processing, analysis, and knowledge management to materially improve speed, cost-efficiency, and insight quality.

• Set the strategy and operating model for research platforms and systems, including Qualtrics and downstream integrations, ensuring seamless data flows, strong data quality, and fit-for-purpose tooling across teams.

• Ensure research operations actively support brand health, customer engagement, and great end-to-end experiences by enabling trusted measurement, experience tracking, and feedback systems that inform how eBay shows up for buyers, sellers, and internal partners.

• Oversee vendor strategy and spend, including selection, onboarding, performance management, and business reviews, in close partnership with Procurement—optimizing investment while maintaining methodological excellence.

• Build and develop a high-performing Research Operations team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, and learning as the insights and AI landscape evolves.

What you will bring:

• Extensive experience leading research operations, insights platforms, or data-enabled operations, with ownership of systems, vendors, budgets, and governance in a complex, global organization.

• Demonstrated ability to apply AI and automation to research or data workflows, translating emerging capabilities into practical, scalable operational solutions.

• Deep expertise in survey and research operations, including survey design methodology and execution—covering research standards and approaches, sampling strategy, questionnaire design and writing, and end-to-end delivery across qualitative and quantitative methods.

• Proven leadership in vendor management and procurement partnership, including gap analysis, spend optimization, and performance-driven supplier relationships.

• Strong cross-functional leadership skills and recognized thought leadership, with the ability to influence across Insights, Analytics, Product, Technology, Legal, Privacy, and Procurement while advancing best practices in research operations.

• People leadership experience with a track record of building, coaching, and scaling teams, combined with a growth mindset and comfort leading change in fast-evolving environments.

Additional Details

eBay is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at talent@ebay.com. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

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