Associate Director-Observer (12 month FTC)

Ipsos; Harrow; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Pension contribution

Income protection

Life assurance

Health & wellbeing benefits

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

Ipsos Observer seeks an Associate Director to lead a pivotal tracking programme and manage a major client relationship. You will oversee large project teams, ensure high-quality fieldwork and data, and drive strategic recommendations across UK and international studies.

You will partner with Directors and global colleagues to deliver commercial growth, mentoring talent and guiding project profitability in a dynamic, hybrid workplace.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in quantitative market research, consumer insights or related fields.
• Proven track record leading complex projects and growing client relationships.
• Skilled in developing and mentoring teams and project leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of a complex tracking programme with high-quality fieldwork and robust data.
• Own a key client relationship while identifying opportunities for growth and revenue.
• Collaborate with Directors and global teams to deliver actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
• Manage project profitability and govern budgets across sizeable project teams.

Skills

Market research leadership

Client relationship management

Team leadership

Research methodologies

Commercial growth

AI in research

Availability to start immediately

Education

Bachelor or equivalent in a relevant field

Tools

SPSS

R

Power BI

Job description

Make Your Mark at Ipsos

Are you an experienced market research leader looking for the opportunity to shape high-profile client programmes, drive commercial growth, and lead talented teams? Do you thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment where your insights and leadership create real impact? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

Job Description

Make Your Mark at Ipsos

Are you an experienced market research leader looking for the opportunity to shape high-profile client programmes, drive commercial growth, and lead talented teams? Do you thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment where your insights and leadership create real impact? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

About The Role

Ipsos Observer is a specialist team delivering bespoke research solutions that help organisations understand customer behaviour, public opinion, and market trends. Working across a broad range of sectors including government, academia, charities and commercial organisations, the team delivers both continuous and ad hoc research projects in the UK and internationally.

As an Associate Director, you will play a pivotal leadership role within a growing and ambitious team. You'll lead the successful execution and delivery of a complex tracking programme, ensuring the client receives high-quality fieldwork, robust data, actionable insights and strategic recommendations. You'll take ownership of a key client relationship, helping to grow this existing account while identifying opportunities for new business development and revenue generation.

Working alongside Directors and senior colleagues, you'll lead sizeable project teams, manage project profitability, and collaborate with global Ipsos colleagues to deliver impactful research solutions. This is an excellent opportunity for a commercially minded research professional who enjoys combining client leadership, business growth and people management in a dynamic environment.

About You

Essential Skills:

• Significant experience within quantitative market research, consumer insights or related research environments.
• Proven success managing complex research projects and developing strong client relationships.
• Experience leading, developing and motivating individuals and project teams.
• Strong understanding of research methodologies and a passion for delivering high-quality insights.
• Experience contributing to commercial growth, revenue generation and account development.
• Proficiency in AI use and adoption to enhance day-to-day research and business activities.
• This person needs to be immediately available to work full time for 12 months.

Desirable Skills

• Strong research skills including questionnaire and study design, project management, sampling and analytical techniques.
• Commercial awareness with the ability to understand client challenges and identify opportunities.
• Strong numerical and analytical capabilities with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience managing project finances, budgets and profitability.
• Knowledge of research and analytics tools such as SPSS, R, Power BI or equivalent platforms.

Behaviours

• Curiosity and lifelong learning
• Leadership and social influence
• Collaboration and relationship building
• Analytical and critical thinking
• Creative problem solving
• Customer and service orientation
• Resilience, flexibility and adaptability
• Empathy and active listening
• Talent development and coaching

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support you as an individual. Our standard benefits include 25 days annual leave, pension contribution, income protection and life assurance. In addition, there are a range health & wellbeing, financial benefits and professional development opportunities.

We have a hybrid approach to work and ask people to be in the office or with clients for 3 days per week. We appreciate you may have commitments outside of work and will consider flexible working applications - please highlight what you are looking for when you make your application.

We are committed to equality, treating people fairly, promoting a positive and inclusive working environment and ensuring we have diversity of people and views. We recognise that this is important for our business success - a more diverse workforce will enable us to better reflect and understand the world we research and ultimately deliver better research and insight to our clients. We are proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme, certified as a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. We provide an inclusive and accessible recruitment process.

About Us

Ipsos is one of the world’s largest research companies and currently the only one primarily managed by researchers, ranking as a #1 full-service research organization for four consecutive years. With over 75 different data-driven solutions, and presence in 90 markets, Ipsos brings together research, implementation, methodological, and subject-matter experts from around the world, combining thematic and technical experts to deliver top-quality research and insights. Simply speaking, we help the biggest companies solve some of their biggest problems, serving more than 5000 clients across the globe by providing research, data, and insights on their target markets. And we are proud of our continuous efforts in making Ipsos the best place to work!

About The Team

Observer offers fast and on-demand access to real consumers, citizens and business across all markets and modes. With a flexible service model, we provide a high-end 24/7 DIY platform for clients to build their own surveys as well as assisted service for those who prefer to work directly with a researcher. We are specialized in survey management, data collection and data delivery, well suited to clients that don’t need analysis and recommendations, but still require execution delivered in a format that helps them run analysis quickly and accurately with data they can trust.