Research Manager, EMEA (Fixed Term Contract - 12 Months)

About The Role & Team

A research role with responsibility for leading, managing, and delivering consumer insight projects across The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) EMEA & UK.

This role supports the Brand & Franchise Marketing function in developing audience-led strategies across the enterprise for priority brands and franchises and helps shape the One Disney brand and franchise strategies. The role requires a Research Manager with a strategic mindset to help Enterprise marketing teams drive sustainable audience growth and deepen fan engagement. This role has EMEA responsibilities, meaning being aware of activity across the region, consulting with local and global teams, and driving best practice.

The role will optimise multiple sources of TWDC audience, brand, and franchise data, providing an EMEA perspective and heavily utilising outputs from globally led studies such as Brand Equity, Consumer Spend, Character Strength, as well as Franchise Financials, EMEA cross line of business sources such as Disney+ Looker, revenue, and social sentiment.

This role will leverage excellent communication and analytical skills, combined with strong project management expertise and the ability to collaborate across multiple teams, to inform audience, brand, and franchise research.

This role will be based in our London Hammersmith office, 4 days a week, with either a Monday or Friday working from home.

You’ll join a team grounded in our Disney values — acting with Integrity, welcoming everyone through Inclusion, embracing boundless Creativity, working together through Collaboration, and caring deeply for our Community. These values shape how we work and how we support one another every day.

What You Will Do

• Delivery of actionable & strategic insights – Inform and support on strategic planning for the business; draw insightful conclusions from large volumes of content, identifying trends and patterns, using either a single source of data or multiple sources to create cross-referenced conclusions.
• Quantitative research expertise – Lead the day-to-day management of complex multi-market quantitative tracking and ad-hoc studies, managing quality and effectiveness across all stages from screener / survey design to creating decks & presenting debriefs. Through a strong understanding of the business and its audiences, identify knowledge gaps, and recommend research initiatives that can fill those gaps to meet business needs.
• Audience Expertise – Build a deep knowledge and expertise of priority audiences, particularly Gen Alpha, via cross platform franchise onboarding that drives this key audience’s lifelong emotional bond with Disney. Utilise different sources of proprietary research and external sources (e.g. Brand Equity, Consumer Spend, Audience Leisure Time, Social Listening, Disney+ Looker data, GWI, and The Insights Family) to create narrative-led, visual PowerPoint decks & inform holistic audience plans across platforms, content, and partnerships.
• Commercial and Ad-hoc requests – Share responsibility for commercial and ad-hoc insight requests across the business, working alongside the apprentices. Provide compelling arguments and proof points to support partner relationships.
• Stakeholder partnership and collaboration – Partner closely with the broader enterprise-wide marketing team, both centrally and locally, and with the global Brand Insights & Analytics team to disseminate insights and strategic recommendations across the business, ensuring understanding is reflective of specific business challenges and opportunities. Meet weekly with US-based Global Brand Insights & Analytics team.
• Team management – Nurturing and developing junior talent within the team to elicit strong performance and contribution.
• Stay updated on industry trends and emerging approaches in research, including data access and visualization (e.g. dashboards).
• Support the Senior Manager on ad-hoc strategic projects, including developing agency briefs, commissioning research, and creating compelling debrief materials for stakeholders.