Sankhara · 3 days ago
Head of Research
San Francisco Bay Area
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/Staff, Director/Executive
3+ years expSankhara is a groundbreaking private equity fund dedicated to preserving the human experience through extraordinary physical assets. They are seeking a Head of Research who will lead and execute the research backbone of the firm, ensuring that acquisitions are well understood with depth and integrity.
Venture Capital & Private Equity
Hiring Manager
Blake Schneider
Responsibilities
Lead research supporting potential acquisitions across all Sankhara verticals
Develop, maintain, and continuously elevate the firm’s research methodology and standards
Conduct primary and secondary research on provenance, authenticity, cultural importance, historical relevance, and risk considerations
Produce structured, defensible research briefs to support investment decisions
Where necessary, engage, manage, and coordinate subject matter experts, researchers, historians, scientists, and technical authorities
Ensure research supports responsible decision-making, not storytelling bias
Design and maintain research frameworks that withstand institutional scrutiny
Ensure research is audit-ready, organized, documented, and verifiable
Support LP diligence needs through clear, high-quality research outputs
Partner with legal, finance, and operations to ensure alignment between research, compliance, and governance expectations
Contribute to clear standards around provenance management and authenticity validation
Build trust and confidence with internal stakeholders by being the steady, disciplined truth source
Help establish Sankhara as a serious, credible, intellectually grounded institution
Produce high-quality materials as needed for Board review, executive decision-making, and strategic thinking
Support the development of internal knowledge infrastructure across categories and themes
Identify emerging cultural and thematic research areas relevant to future acquisitions
Where appropriate, support external-facing thought leadership, while always anchoring in substance over hype
Build and lead the Research function over time
Be highly hands-on in the near term, personally doing a meaningful portion of research work
Create documentation systems, workflow tools, and research architecture that scale
Know when to leverage outside experts and when to execute directly
Where useful, thoughtfully introduce process improvements, technology, tooling, or automation (including AI where appropriate) to enhance speed and rigor - without compromising standards
Operate with urgency, but never at the expense of quality or integrity
Qualification
Required
3–5+ years of formal research experience in environments such as Gartner, Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, leading consulting research organizations, major museums, or equivalent
Proven track record producing serious, structured, and defensible research
Experience working in environments that require accuracy, auditability, and institutional credibility
Ability to synthesize complex cultural, historical, financial, and contextual information into structured research outputs
Hands-on, execution-first mentality while capable of building toward a broader function
Preferred
Experience across cultural assets, rare collectibles, historical objects, museums, or heritage fields
Experience in research supporting investment, diligence, or risk frameworks
Exposure to working with CEOs, Boards, or executive leadership
Comfort operating in a fast-moving, ambitious environment without sacrificing rigor
Benefits
Performance-based bonus opportunity
Long-term upside participation potential (including equity, carry, and/or token-linked economics depending on structure)
Company
Sankhara
Sankhara is a private equity fund dedicated to collecting, protecting and preserving the human experience through extraordinary physical assets.
Founded in 2024Burlingame, CA, US
2-10 employeesFunding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase