# Product Operations Manager, Research Services

**Company:** [Mercor](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/mercor)
**Location:** San Francisco, CA
**Role:** Product Operations
**Salary:** $140k – $210k/yr
**Experience:** 3+ years
**Skills:** Llm Evaluation, SQL, Python, Sft, Preference Ranking, Reinforcement Learning, Inference Economics, Agentic Rollouts, Benchmarking, Sla Management, Capacity Planning, Project Management, Cross-Functional Coordination, AI Infrastructure
**Posted:** 2026-08-19

> Own operational delivery for Mercor’s research partnerships, including benchmark prioritization, evaluation and post-training engagements, vendor capacity, budgets, and customer delivery. The role requires technical fluency in LLM evaluation and post-training, plus strong cross-functional execution and communication.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own intake and prioritization of new benchmarks and evaluations, balancing customer demand, capability gaps, differentiation, and build cost.
- Run and share leaderboard evaluations to support research brand equity during new model releases.
- Manage inference providers, compute partners, and external training vendors, including capacity forecasting, SLA and rate-card negotiation, cost monitoring, and partner qualification.
- Track active evaluations, loss analyses, and post-training engagements, including scope, milestones, dependencies, and SLA status.
- Lead delivery reviews, escalate risks, and communicate status to research counterparts.
- Translate delivery friction into product requirements and partner with Engineering to automate operational workflows.

## Requirements
- 3+ years of experience in Product Operations, Product Management, Technical Program Management, Research Operations, Solutions Engineering, or a similar technical customer-facing role.
- Experience in an ML research or AI infrastructure environment is strongly preferred.
- Fluency in modern LLM evaluation, including harness design, verification, agentic rollouts, contamination, and fairness considerations.
- Working knowledge of post-training methods, including SFT, preference ranking, and RL, as well as inference economics.
- Familiarity with coding agents and comfort using SQL and Python without agent assistance.
- Ability to plan capacity against uncertain demand, manage SLAs, and balance cost and reliability.
- Strong ownership, communication, project management, and cross-functional coordination skills.
- Ability to communicate effectively with AI researchers and executives.

## Benefits
- Bi-annual performance bonus structure.
- Generous equity grant vested over 4 years.
- Up to $15,000 relocation bonus.
- $10,000 housing bonus for employees living within 0.5 miles of the office.
- $1,500 monthly meal stipend.
- Free Equinox membership.
- $200 monthly laundry reimbursement.
- $200 monthly personal wellness reimbursement.
- Health, dental, and vision insurance.

## Similar jobs

- [Business Systems Analyst](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/e5477bcc-24d0-4f2b-9703-b94e25dda350) - Square - Remote - $136k – $245k/yr
- [Open Science Policy and Operations Manager](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/29685287-13ae-4316-9e72-ae998e87b753) - Astera - Emeryville, CA - $150k – $200k/yr
- [PLM/PDM Systems Architect](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/5db9da27-49f9-41e0-944a-ec7830ac4d77) - Parallel Systems - Los Angeles, CA - $150k – $190k/yr
- [Product Operations Manager | Housing](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/29aef03b-6a5c-48a7-b268-df457d6e72ff) - EliseAI - San Francisco, CA - $150k – $220k/yr
- [Product Operations Specialist | Bill Pay](https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/7bd15dbd-5fde-4e11-85ac-394ebed4a874) - Ramp - New York, NY - $128k – $180k/yr

**Apply:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/08000756-e3dd-4843-a64e-80fa33184dc2
**Canonical:** https://hotfix.jobs/jobs/08000756-e3dd-4843-a64e-80fa33184dc2