Senior Director, Research Management

Role Summary

Project CETI, a nonprofit organization and National Geographic Society program, dedicated to translating whale communication is seeking a Senior Director of Research Management (based in New York City or Boston) to join the team.

CETI’s science team depends on close collaboration across diverse domains, including robotics/engineering, machine learning, linguistics, network science, theoretical analysis and whale biology. These teams are advancing complex work streams that must converge on shared milestones.

The Director of Research Management orchestrates this convergence, integrating research strategy across teams and driving program execution and accountability, to ensure all teams are marching toward organization-wide goals. The DRM also serves as the CEO and Founder's right hand for research planning and delivery, helping navigate quick shifts between scientific and operational conversations. The ideal candidate seamlessly blends operational execution, cross-disciplinary coordination, program management, and communications skills.

Location: Remote based in New York City or Cambridge, Massachusetts with periodic travel to other CETI partner sites and Dominica

Responsibilities

Integrate research strategy

• Collaborate with thematic team leads (biology, machine learning, linguistics, robotics, etc.) and Principal Investigators (PIs) to set annual and refine research questions and activities for each of CETI’s individual research teams, complete with concrete and measurable milestones.
• Map cross-team dependencies and integrate them into a consolidated research roadmap explicitly tied to CETI’s long- and short-term strategic goals.

Drive program execution and accountability

• Establish a rhythm for cross-team coordination.
• Lead regular thematic team Lead, PI, and other cross-team meetings to ensure aligned progress across all research domains; lead select meetings on behalf of Founder & CEO and report back on any key insights, decisions, or next steps.
• Proactively identify risks, bottlenecks, and resource needs, and coordinate solutions with Thematic Team Leads and Founder & CEO.
• Support the Founder and CEO with vetting of new research collaboration opportunities and how they fit with CETI research goals.
• Track partner deliverables with owners, timelines, and documented completion.

Provide operational support to Founder & CEO

• Elevate critical research updates, issues, and decision points to the Founder & CEO, offering thought partnership on potential paths forward.
• Build high-quality decks and briefing materials that translate scientific progress into clear narratives and milestones for Board, donor, and other external and internal audiences.
• Collaborate across CETI and National Geographic Society team members to ensure externally-facing collateral accurately represents CETI’s scientific progress.
• Ensure that the CETI data pipeline is operating efficiently and the various teams and researchers have seamless access to data for analysis.
• Support the contracting process for CETI research partners and vendors.
• Ensure that the science team is well informed about and following CETI policies and procedures.
• Ensure the science team is updating the CETI publications tracker updated and collaborate with CETI’s Director of Press Relations to ensure they are across any publications updates relevant for media outreach
• Coordinate with the communications team and National Geographic Society.
• Support onboarding and offboarding process for new and former members of the science team in collaboration with CETI’s Associate of Research and Programs.

What You’ll Bring

Required

• Advanced degree in a technical discipline (e.g., computer science, data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or robotics).
• At least 5 years of experience coordinating cross-functional teams across diverse settings (e.g. academia, Focused Research Organizations (FROs), startups, industry R&D, management consulting, nonprofits, and/or consortiums).
• Ability to drive operational execution while maintaining strategic clarity.
• Demonstrated excellence in program management, including roadmapping, dependency tracking, and meeting design and execution.
• Strong written and verbal communications skills, with the ability to translate across scientific domains.
• Proficiency in building executive-quality presentations and concise technical summaries.
• Interest in immersing oneself in the science underpinning CETI’s technical domains.
• Interest in marine field biology and a passion for CETI’s mission.
• Strong emotional intelligence and ability to work with a wide variety of people.
• Prior experience coordinating breakthrough, interdisciplinary scientific collaborations at organizations such as ARPA-E, LIGO, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), companies at the forefront of machine learning and use of innovative technologies or Focused Research Organizations (FROs).

About Project CETI

Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) is a nonprofit organization, as well as a collaboration with the National Geographic Society. Project CETI applies advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art to listen to and translate the communication of sperm whales in the Eastern Caribbean off the coast of the island of Dominica and beyond. Led by Dr. David Gruber, a National Geographic Explorer, the science team of leading artificial intelligence, natural language processing and complex systems experts, cryptographers, linguists, marine biologists, roboticists, engineers and underwater acousticians. Through innovative research and global outreach, Project CETI is revealing the intricate world of sperm whales while inspiring deeper appreciation for marine ecosystems and the urgent need to protect them. CETI has numerous scientific publications on translating whale communication, as well as development of the robots and technology to do so, that can be viewed here.

Project CETI is an equal opportunity employer. Project CETI provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to age, race, color, disability, national origin, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital and partnership status, genetic information, veteran status or any other protected category under federal, state and local law. At Project CETI we continue to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates the diverse voices in the workplace.

• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Retirement plan with match
• Three weeks PTO plus sick leave, U.S. Federal holidays and end of year office closure

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