Robinhood
Research data governance for a regulated fintech, then research in five new markets
I came in to own research data governance, then led research operations for expansion into the EEA and APAC, redesigned the research repository and brought AI-assisted workflows in with legal's approval.
- Role
- Senior Research Program Manager (contract)
- Focus
- Data governance, international research, AI tooling
- Timeframe
- 2023 – 2024
- Partners
- Legal, privacy and every team connected to research data
- new research markets across the EEA and APAC
- 5
- new research markets across the EEA and APAC
- faster recruitment
- ~35%
- faster recruitment
- faster research execution
- ~25%
- faster research execution
Overview
Research at a brokerage collects participant data under privacy law and financial regulation. My job was to make sure that data was kept, retrieved and deleted correctly, then to help research reach customers outside the US.
What I did
Retention standards
Developed data retention standards for research data.
Automated retrieval requests
Automated how participants' requests for their data were handled.
Honored deletion requests
Worked with every connected team so deletion requests were honored, and automated per privacy law guidance.
FINRA adherence
Made sure FINRA mandates were met every quarter.
Research repository
Redesigned the research archive and repository to make past work easier to find and cut duplicate research.
International expansion
Led research operations for expansion into the EEA and APAC: France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Singapore, with early exploration of Latin America.
AI tools, cleared with legal
Assessed emerging AI research tools and partnered with legal to approve internal AI use, then put AI-assisted workflows in place to speed recruitment, clean participant data and make internal knowledge easier to reach.
Impact
- Research data handling that met privacy law and FINRA requirements, with participant requests automated rather than handled by hand.
- Research running in five new markets, with Latin America under exploration.
- Recruitment about 35% faster and research execution about 25% faster.