I build the operations research and design teams run on.
I'm Isaac, a research and design program manager in the San Francisco Bay Area. At Splunk, Reddit, Credit Karma, Robinhood and Meta I've set up and run what sits behind the research: budgets, vendors, participant recruiting, data compliance and the programs that tie it together.
Career as a roadmap
Select a company to see the role and results.
2024–2026 · Contract
Meta
- Senior Research Program Manager, Reality Labs Wearables
Research budget, vendors and faster research for ~90 Reality Labs Wearables researchers
Read the Meta case study$14–20M
research budget managed
- Meta
Senior Research Program Manager, Reality Labs Wearables (contract), 2024–2026
- Robinhood
Senior Research Program Manager (contract), 2023–2024
- Credit Karma
Senior User Research Operations Program Manager, 2022–2023
- Reddit
User Research Operations Program Manager, 2021–2022
What teams get
Build the function
I've set up research operations where none existed, at Splunk and Reddit: budget, ethics, NDAs, recruiting, tooling and a lab.
Run the money
A $14–20M research budget at Meta across 60+ vendor and 30 contractor contracts. About $1M saved at Splunk by moving to Figma and consolidating tools.
Keep research compliant
Research NDAs with legal, CCPA and GDPR updates, FINRA requirements, data retention standards and automated deletion requests.
Make research faster
Recruitment 30–40% faster at Meta, Robinhood and Credit Karma, helped by AI-assisted workflows cleared with legal. Reddit's Rapid Research Program cut cycle time about 30%.
Selected work
All case studiesMeta
2024 – 2026
Senior Research Program Manager, Reality Labs Wearables (contract)
Research budget, vendors and faster research for ~90 Reality Labs Wearables researchers
$14–20M
research budget managed
Robinhood
2023 – 2024
Senior Research Program Manager (contract)
Research data governance, EEA and APAC expansion, and AI-assisted research workflows
5
new research markets across the EEA and APAC
Credit Karma
2022 – 2023
Senior User Research Operations Program Manager
A self-serve research program, a research library, faster recruiting and the first in-person research program
~50
studies per quarter on the self-serve UserTesting program
Reddit
2021 – 2022
User Research Operations Program Manager
Founding research operations and the Rapid Research Program
30+
studies in the program's first quarter
Splunk
2018 – 2021
Design Program Manager → User Research Operations Program Manager
First design program manager, then built research operations from zero
60+
designers supported as the first DPM
How I run programs
- Research program managementIntake, consent, recruiting, repository, data governance and budgetRead the method
- Design program managementRoadmaps, capacity planning, design critique, tooling and design system programsRead the method
- ToolkitSample templates: intake form, spend tracker, in-person checklist, data requestsSee the templates
About
I started as Splunk's first design program manager and moved into research operations as research teams grew. Since then I've usually been brought in when the foundations don't exist yet, or when the stakes around budget and compliance are high.