Research Program Manager

About the role

PhysicsX has launched its Asia-Pacific Hub in Singapore to scale AI-powered industrial engineering across the region. Central to this is a new applied research centre of excellence, built on strategic research partnerships with leading institutions and industry collaborators.

As Research Program Manager, you will be the operational backbone of these partnerships and of our applied research programs in Singapore. You will partner with research leaders and external collaborators to turn ambitious scientific goals into clear plans and sustainable progress, so our scientists and engineers can stay focused on the science. You will also help shape and build a new applied research team from the ground up.

Working shoulder-to-shoulder with technical leads and regional leadership, you will sit at the intersection of Research, Delivery, Product, Operations and external partners, keeping momentum across multiple parallel efforts and connecting the technical work to strategy and business outcomes.

What you'll do

• Drive strategic research collaborations and partnerships - coordinate multiple research projects with external partners, shaping and operationalising the governance, delivery cadence and communication channels required to keep momentum.
• Act as a trusted sounding board to research leads on the plans, priorities and decisions that matter most, synthesising, problem-solving and driving solutions forward
• Create clarity and resolve ambiguity, help translate high-level objectives into smaller manageable objectives.
• Own the planning and delivery cadence for research streams — crystalise and maintain roadmaps with clear milestones, owners, and decision points, working closely with research leads and technical partners.
• Run effective operating rhythms and rituals (stand-ups, planning sessions, reviews, and retrospectives) with clear agendas, captured decisions, and tracked follow-ups. Track progress against plans, surface risks and dependencies early, and drive them to resolution before they become blockers.
• Act as a translator and bridge between the technical and the strategic direction — maintain a single source of truth for research project status, scope, and reporting, and create clear and concise materials that communicate the work done to internal and external stakeholders.
• Support resourcing and capacity planning across concurrent research efforts, balancing near-term delivery with longer-term research objectives.
• Foster cross-functional and cross-regional collaboration across Delivery, Product, Engineering, and Operations, and our research hubs in London and New York, to align priorities, secure resources, and remove friction for the research team for key streams.
• Help coordinate research outputs — papers, conference attendance, internal demos — so deadlines and commitments are met. Review or contribute to high-level output where possible to improve messaging (e.g. in blogs).
• Coach individuals through complex challenges and ensure the conditions are in place to enable high-performing teams to produce pioneering work

What you'll bring

• 3+ years of experience in program management, strategic operations, or consulting, ideally in a research, R&D, deep-tech environment, or other complex content work.
• Comfort moving between high-level strategic work and hands-on execution, with no task too big or too small if it moves the work forward.
• Experience partnering with leaders in fast-paced environments, acting as a sounding board and thought partner on important projects, initiatives and decisions.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous settings with shifting context — you bring structure without slowing people down and enjoy environments where you can implement creative and innovative ideas which drive organisational performance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills; able to develop high-trust relationships and influence without authority, adapting your message for audiences from individual contributors to executives.
• Strong problem-solving skills — the ability to analyse issues, identify root causes, and drive practical solutions quickly.
• Attention to detail and commitment to high-quality output, while keeping in mind the bigger picture and adjusting accordingly.
• Enough technical literacy to engage credibly with researchers and engineers — you can follow technical discussions, understand dependencies, and ask the right questions. A background in a quantitative, scientific, or engineering field is a plus.
• Familiarity with modern project-management and collaboration tooling (e.g. Notion, Linear, GitHub).

Nice to have

• Experience managing research programmes involving machine learning, simulation, or scientific computing.
• Experience coordinating external research partnerships, grants, or academic collaborations.
• Knowledge and experience in utilising coaching techniques to foster high-performance teams
• Exposure to a high-growth, scaling technology company.

Why Join PhysicsX?

• The team: You’ll be surrounded by incredible talent, working on some of the world’s hardest problems at the frontier of AI research.
• High impact: Your work will have a measurable impact on our ability to scale and achieve our ambitious goals.
• Accelerated growth: This role gives you rare cross-functional exposure across every part of a scaling AI company - it’s one of the fastest ways to learn how an organisation is built from the inside.
• Diverse problems: Your day-to-day will change every quarter, with new challenges and new opportunities for growth.
• The culture: A culture that thrives on solving hard problems and innovating at speed.
• Competitive package: Industry-benchmarked salary + equity, private healthcare, and a dedicated budget for training, conferences, and coaching.