Insights Research Assistant Director

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for an Insights Research Assistant Director based in United States.

This role leads the planning, execution, and delivery of custom market research and insights projects across qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid methodologies.

You’ll serve as a trusted project and methodology leader, translating complex client questions into rigorous research strategies.

The position combines hands-on analysis, client consulting, project leadership, and direct people management.

You’ll advise stakeholders on methodological trade-offs, challenge assumptions when needed, and ensure research answers the underlying business question.

You’ll work across studies involving focus groups, interviews, surveys, conjoint, MaxDiff, concept testing, and usage & attitude research.

As a team leader, you’ll develop researchers, balance resources, strengthen quality standards, and improve scalable research processes.

The role is ideal for an experienced insights professional who enjoys combining analytical depth, client influence, and team development in a remote environment.

Accountabilities

• Lead custom research projects across qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid methodologies, managing activities from initial scoping and research design through execution, analysis, and delivery.
• Partner with sales, account, project, and client stakeholders to understand business objectives and translate them into practical research plans, timelines, budgets, and deliverables.
• Recommend appropriate research methodologies, including focus groups, IDIs, surveys, conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, sequential monadic testing, message and concept testing, and usage & attitude studies.
• Advise clients on methodological trade-offs, clearly explain recommended approaches, and confidently challenge requested methods when they may not address the underlying business question.
• Develop study plans, discussion guides, surveys, research activities, data-collection strategies, and reporting plans aligned with project objectives.
• Oversee survey programming, platform configuration, testing, troubleshooting, fieldwork, and other research execution activities.
• Guide qualitative and quantitative data interpretation, validate data quality, and ensure findings are translated into clear, actionable business recommendations.
• Review and oversee executive summaries, presentations, dashboards, reports, video reels, storytelling materials, and other client-facing deliverables.
• Present research findings and recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders, including communicating areas of ambiguity or disagreement with confidence and professionalism.
• Directly supervise, coach, and develop Insights team members through regular feedback, performance discussions, training, and professional development.
• Manage team capacity and resource allocation across concurrent projects, establishing priorities and ensuring workloads are balanced effectively.
• Establish and maintain quality standards across research design, programming, data processing, analysis, and reporting.
• Develop reusable templates, tools, workflows, and best practices that improve efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
• Identify opportunities to apply technology, automation, AI, and emerging research tools to improve research delivery and insight generation.
• Partner with project leadership on operational planning, issue resolution, departmental growth, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain compliance with internal processes and applicable ISO standards.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in marketing, market research, communications, psychology, statistics, data science, STEM, or a related discipline.
• At least 3 years of experience in a market research agency, insights consultancy, research supplier, or corporate market research/insights environment with direct experience applying established market research methodologies.
• Strong understanding of both qualitative and quantitative research, with exposure to techniques such as conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, sequential monadic testing, message/concept testing, and usage & attitude studies.
• Experience leading or supervising a team, or demonstrated readiness to transition into a people-management position.
• Proven ability to advise clients or internal stakeholders on research methodology, explain trade-offs, and confidently defend recommendations.
• Experience personally designing, executing, and analyzing complex quantitative studies is a plus.
• Experience independently developing executive-level reports, presentations, and research deliverables is a plus.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects and competing priorities while maintaining attention to detail.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving abilities, including the capacity to identify root causes and develop sustainable solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to communicate directly with clients and senior stakeholders.
• Ability to scope research projects and translate objectives into clear execution plans for teams.
• Comfortable reviewing and interpreting research data and deliverables, identifying quality issues, and guiding teams toward stronger outputs.
• Exposure to advanced methodologies, panel/sample design, data visualization, storytelling, mobile ethnography, product testing, or behavioral research is advantageous.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled research and analytics tools and an interest in adopting emerging technologies.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Experience with survey platforms such as Qualtrics, Forsta, or comparable solutions.
• Familiarity with data management and analysis tools.
• Strong integrity, adaptability, organization, and follow-through, with the ability to make sound decisions in ambiguous or fast-moving situations.
• Demonstrated ability to build collaborative teams, influence stakeholders, foster innovation, and represent research recommendations with confidence.

Benefits

• Competitive annual salary of $55,000-$72,000 USD.
• Remote work opportunity based in the United States.
• Full-time position with opportunities for leadership and professional growth.
• Opportunity to lead diverse research programs across qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid methodologies.
• Direct exposure to clients and the opportunity to influence research strategy and business decisions.
• People-management and team-development responsibilities with opportunities to shape the growth of the Insights function.
• Inclusive workplace committed to diversity, equal opportunity, and professional development.
• Opportunities to work with emerging research technologies, automation, and AI-enabled tools.