Research Operations and Partnerships Manager- Atlanta

About the role

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• Job Title: Research Operations and Partnerships Manager- Atlanta
• Agency: Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities
• Job Requisition ID: JR0000007191
• Shift: Not Applicable (United States of America)

About the role

Workplace: Atlanta, Ga.

Hybrid: 3-5 days per week in office based on business needs

Travel: None

Job Summary

The Research Operations & Partnerships Manager serves as the administrative and operational lead for the Office of Research and Academic Publications (RAP) research portfolio. The position coordinates research intake, approvals, agreements, data access, Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes, grant-related activities, project tracking, dissemination, and closeout.

Working across DBHDD offices and with external researchers and institutions, the manager maintains portfolio visibility, helps move projects efficiently through required administrative and governance processes, and provides research and writing support as workload permits.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Research portfolio and workflow administration: Maintain the master portfolio of RAP-led, internal, and external research and pending requests. Coordinate intake, completeness review, routing, approvals, status communication, and transition of approved projects into applicable governance, IRB, data-access, project-management, dissemination, and closeout workflows.
• Project and portfolio coordination: Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, trackers, and documentation for concurrent initiatives. Monitor milestones, deliverables, deadlines, dependencies, and reporting requirements; identify stalled activities and decisions requiring escalation; and coordinate follow-up.
• Data agreements and access: Facilitate data-use agreements, data-access requests, memoranda of understanding, amendments, renewals, and related documentation in coordination with Legal, data owners, technology and analytics teams, researchers, and external institutions.
• IRB and research compliance coordination: Coordinate submissions, determinations, amendments, continuing review, reliance arrangements, documentation, and approval or expiration timelines with the Georgia Department of Public Health IRB, researchers, and relevant DBHDD offices. Support compliance with applicable human-subjects research requirements.
• Grant portfolio support: Help identify funding opportunities aligned with RAP and DBHDD priorities; coordinate proposal timelines, application components, approvals, and submissions; and support post-award milestone tracking, reporting, compliance, and coordination with DBHDD Grants Management.
• Records, reporting, and leadership support: Maintain authoritative project records on the RAP SharePoint site and prepare routine and ad hoc reports on portfolio status, deadlines, risks, bottlenecks, dependencies, deliverables, publications, and decisions needed.
• Process and infrastructure development: Develop, document, implement, and continuously improve RAP procedures, templates, intake tools, trackers, governance workflows, project-management systems, and other research-administration infrastructure.
• Cross-office and external partnerships: Coordinate work among RAP, DBHDD program and administrative offices, data and analytics teams, OPAQI, Legal, Grants Management, OIT, Communications, the IRB, universities, researchers, and other partners. Convene or support meetings when coordinated action is required.
• Research and writing support: As portfolio and administrative workload permits, assist the Director and other RAP personnel with research-related tasks, including literature and background research, evidence summaries, and drafting, editing, and formatting research-related documents, briefs, reports, presentations, and supporting tables or figures.

Core Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong organizational and project-management skills, including the ability to coordinate multiple projects with overlapping deadlines, stakeholders, and dependencies.
• Ability to build reliable portfolio-tracking systems, maintain accurate records, and translate complex activity into concise status reporting and decision support.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to build productive relationships across program, administrative, legal, data, technology, and research functions.
• Working knowledge of research processes and the administrative requirements associated with research design, data access, human-subjects protections, grants, and dissemination.
• High attention to detail, sound judgment, and the ability to handle sensitive information, identify operational risks or bottlenecks, and escalate issues appropriately.
• Proficiency with office, collaboration, reporting, and project-tracking tools; ability to learn and adopt new research-administration systems and technologies.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education plus experience requirement as established for the Georgia state job classification.
• Relevant experience must include coordinating or administering complex projects, programs, research activities, grants, data-access activities, compliance processes, partnerships, or comparable multi-stakeholder work.
• Demonstrated experience managing concurrent workstreams, deadlines, documentation, and dependencies involving internal and external stakeholders, including developing or maintaining project plans, trackers, workflows, or reports.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to establish productive working relationships and communicate research activity and results in support of operational decision-making;

Preferred Qualifications

Preference may be given to candidates with direct experience in

• Research administration, sponsored programs, grants administration, or project or portfolio management;
• IRB processes, human-subjects protections, research compliance, data-use agreements, memoranda of understanding, or related agreements;
• Health, behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, public-sector, or other sensitive data environments;
• Government, higher education, health systems, nonprofit research organizations, or similarly complex institutions;
• Developing standard operating procedures, workflow documentation, templates, trackers, and research-operations infrastructure; and/or
• Conducting literature reviews or background research and drafting or editing research briefs, reports, or other research-related documents.

Employment Requirements

To ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees, individuals and communities we serve, certain positions within DBHDD may require evaluations, vaccinations, professional licensure and certifications. Licenses must be current and enable providers to practice within the State of Georgia.

The following are a listing of evaluations and vaccinations that may be required for employees, including those not involved with direct care:

• Drug Screening
• TB Evaluation
• Annual Influenza*

Additional information

*Limited exemptions may be made for documented medical contraindications or religious beliefs that object to vaccinations.

Due to the volume of applications received, we are unable to provide information on application status by phone or e-mail. All qualified applicants will be considered but may not necessarily receive an interview. Selected applicants will be contacted by the hiring agency for next steps in the selection process.

This position is subject to close at any time once a satisfactory applicant pool has been identified.

FOR THIS TYPE OF EMPLOYMENT, STATE LAW REQUIRES A NATIONAL AND STATE BACKGROUND CHECK AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT.

Minimum Qualifications

High school diploma/GED and two (2) years of professional level experience related to the area of assignment; or two (2) years of experience required at the lower level Project Mgr (Non-IT) 1 (GSP110).