Calibre Search
Head of Research
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About the Client
Our client is a specialist research and insight agency with an outstanding reputation in the research and tech industry. With offices in the UK and US, they work with some of the world’s most recognised entertainment and consumer brands, helping them understand the behaviours, motivations, and passions of customers. They sit at a genuinely exciting intersection of research, digital, and entertainment, giving them a perspective on audiences that few agencies can match.
At the heart of their offer is a proprietary research product that delivers deep, actionable insight into their market in a way that sets them apart from any generalist agency.
The Opportunity
This is a senior leadership role for someone who wants to run something, not just work within it. You’ll take ownership of the research function, leading a well-established, high-performing team and shaping the strategic direction of a division that is central to the business.
The team is in good shape, the offer is strong and the client base is enviable. What’s needed now is a leader who can elevate the function. Someone who thinks strategically, gives clear direction, pushes the team’s thinking, and isn’t afraid to get in front of clients.
What You’ll Do
- Lead, develop and inspire a talented research team; setting standards, giving honest feedback, and creating a culture of excellence
- Oversee the delivery of quantitative and mixed method research programmes, providing strategic direction rather than hands on execution
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, leading presentations and insight sessions with confidence and authority
- Drive commercial growth by expanding existing client relationships
- Lead proposal development and pitching for new business. Working with existing warm relationships and an already strong pipeline
- Champion innovation within the research function. Developing new initiatives, methodologies, and service lines including growing the qualitative offer
- Think strategically about the division’s future, contributing to business wide decisions alongside the senior leadership team
- Represent the business at industry events and conferences in the UK and internationally
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What We’re Looking For
You’ll be a senior research professional, most likely at Director or Associate Director level, with a strong agency background and the credibility to lead both a team and a client conversation. Specifically:
- Strong quantitative expertise with broad exposure to qual. You don’t need to be a qual specialist, but you need to understand it and see its value
- Experience overseeing complex, market research programmes including segmentation, trackers, and ideally advanced analytics
- A natural leader - someone who gives clear, constructive feedback and develops the people around them
- Commercially confident. Comfortable contributing to revenue targets and engaging clients in a business development context
- Brilliant communicator with high energy and presence, someone who owns the room in a client presentation
- Strategic thinker who can see beyond individual projects to the bigger picture of what the division should become
- Experience working in entertainment, gaming, media, digital, or youth focused sectors is a bonus but not essential
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What’s on Offer
- Up to £70,000 base salary
- Private healthcare insurance
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- Additional day off for your birthday
- Workplace pension (3% employer / 5% employee contributions)
- Employee Assistance Programme; free confidential support covering mental health, counselling, and legal or financial guidance
- Enhanced DBS check arranged and funded by the employer
- Hybrid working, a minimum two days per week in the Leeds office
- Some (not regular) UK and international travel (US) for key clients and events
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