Senior R&D Operations Specialist, Design & Research
Clio
Clio is the global leader in legal AI technology, empowering legal professionals and law firms of every size to work smarter, faster, and more securely.
We are transforming the legal experience for all by bettering the lives of legal professionals while increasing access to justice.
Summary:
We are seeking a Senior R&D Operations Specialist to help us scale and mature the Design & Research practice at Clio. This role will build the operational foundation that enables our teams to do their best work consistently, collaboratively, and with measurable impact. This role is available to candidates across the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec) in a remote capacity. If you are local to one of our hubs (Burnaby, Calgary, or Toronto) you will be expected to be in office minimum two days per week for our Anchor Days.
You’ll play a critical connector role, helping bring together people, processes, and practices that make our Product Design & Research organization work as one with Product, Engineering, and Strategy & Operations. From streamlining processes and managing tools, to coordinating research operations and connecting insights across teams, you’ll help ensure our creative and strategic efforts are supported by strong systems and clear communication.
As a strategic thinker and trusted partner, you’ll proactively shape a culture that values curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. You’ll help evolve how we work together, building the conditions for innovation, experimentation, and delivery of meaningful, human-centered experiences at scale. This is a rare opportunity to design how a design organization operates, helping one of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies deliver a transformative impact in the legal industry.
What you’ll do
Lead the operational foundation for Design & Research, managing tools, systems, and budgets that keep our teams focused on delivering exceptional work.
Shape and maintain the rhythms and rituals that connect our teams within Design (design critiques, sprints, workshops, office hours, etc.) and within the organization (Product & Design All Hands, etc.) ensuring they’re consistent, purposeful, and well supported.
Coordinate research operations by managing participant recruitment, scheduling, incentives, and insights management in partnership with Strategic Research and DI teams.
Develop and maintain shared documentation and guidelines that strengthen collaboration between Design, Research, Product, and Engineering.
Identify and implement process improvements that increase clarity, reduce friction, and enable faster, more informed decisions across the organization.
Design and evolve onboarding programs that help new designers and researchers ramp quickly and feel connected to Clio’s mission, practices, and culture.
Track and report on key operational metrics including team health, delivery velocity, and efficiency to inform leadership planning and resourcing decisions.
Partner with Design & Research leadership to align on operational vision, priorities, and long-term goals that support the growth and maturity of the practice.
Support the evaluation and rollout of new tools and vendors, ensuring we’re investing in the right infrastructure to scale design and research effectively.
Contribute to building a collaborative, high-performing culture that values curiosity, transparency, and shared learning across teams.
What you bring
5+ years of experience in design, research, or product operations.
Strong organizational, communication, and program-management skills.
Comfort navigating ambiguity and bringing structure to complex systems.
Proficiency with design and research tools (Figma, Miro, Maze, Pendo).
Experience maintaining process documentation and operational metrics.
A pragmatic, collaborative approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement.
Experience working in fast-paced, iterative product development environments.
Deep understanding of good user experience, IA, and visual design
Demonstrate a keen interest in improving your craft by using AI
Where you excel
Experience collaborating with Design Systems to improve workflows, documentation, and tooling that enable consistent design execution.
Hands-on experience with research operations, including participant recruitment, study logistics, and insight management.
Background working within enterprise or multi-product software environments, ideally supporting SaaS or platform teams.
Strong understanding of design thinking methodologies and how to connect qualitative and quantitative insights into operational workflows.
Demonstrated ability to implement measurable process improvements, define KPIs, and report on operational impact.
Experience driving change management or organizational transformation within a growing design or product org.
If you’re excited about transforming how lawyers deliver legal services, and want to support a team designing intelligent, intuitive, and impactful experiences, we’d love to hear from you.
What you will find here:
Compensation is one of the main components of Clio’s Total Rewards Program. We have developed a series of programs and processes to ensure we are creating fair and competitive pay practices that form the foundation of our human and high-performing culture.
Some highlights of our Total Rewards program include:
Competitive, equitable salary with top-tier health benefits, dental, and vision insurance
Hybrid work environment, with expectation for local Clions (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Dublin and Sydney) to be in office min. twice per week.
Flexible time off policy, with an encouraged 20 days off per year.
$2000 annual counseling benefit
RRSP matching and RESP contribution
Clioversary recognition program with special acknowledgement at 3, 5, 7, and 10 years
*Our salary bands are designed to reflect the range of skills and experience needed for the position and to allow room for growth at Clio. For experienced individuals, we typically hire at or around the midpoint of the band. The top portion of the salary band is reserved for employees who demonstrate sustained high performance and impact at Clio. Those who are new to the role may join below the midpoint and develop their skills over time. The final offer amount for this role will be dependent on geographical region, applicable experience, and skillset of the candidate.
Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity (DIBE) & Accessibility
Our team shows up as their authentic selves, and are united by our mission. We are dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. We pride ourselves in building and fostering an environment where our teams feel included, valued, and enabled to do the best work of their careers, wherever they choose to log in from. We believe that different perspectives, skills, backgrounds, and experiences result in higher-performing teams and better innovation. We are committed to equal employment and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.
Clio provides accessibility accommodations during the recruitment process. Should you require any accommodation, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.
Learn more about our culture at clio.com/careers
We're a Human and High Performing AI company, meaning we use artificial intelligence to improve all of our operations. In recruitment, AI helps us streamline the process for greater efficiency. However, we've built our systems to ensure that a human always reviews AI-generated output, and we never make automated hiring decisions.
Disclaimer: We only communicate with candidates through official @clio.com email addresses.
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