Research Manager

Inventum Group; London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial services company is seeking an Ad-Hoc Research Manager to join their Customer Insight team in London. This role involves leading customer studies, managing insight communities, and driving a customer-centric culture. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in customer research and the ability to turn insights into actionable business recommendations.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in customer research or insight in a commercial environment.
• Proven ability to design impactful insight programmes.
• Skilled at managing insight communities and engaging customers.

Responsibilities

• Own the delivery of ad-hoc research across the business.
• Lead and manage the Headlight customer panel.
• Monitor consumer trends and ensure actionable research projects.

Skills

Customer research

Data storytelling

Stakeholder influence

Qualitative methods

Quantitative methods

Tools

Insight tools

Data visualisation

Job description

Ad-Hoc Research Manager

Location: London, Bristol or Edinburgh (Hybrid - 3 days a week in the office)

Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week

Inventum is working with a purpose-driven financial services business that helps people making everyday life that little bit easier.

They are now looking for an Ad-Hoc Research Manager to join their Customer Insight team and help drive smarter, customer-led decisions across the organisation.

What's the role?

You'll be the go-to for all things ad-hoc research - leading customer studies, trend monitoring, and community engagement through their 'Headlight' panel. Your job is to bring the voice of the customer into the business, helping teams understand the people they serve and plan for what's coming next.

You'll report into the Customer Insight Lead and work closely with cross-functional teams to shape a more customer-centric, insight-led culture.

Key responsibilities:

• Own the delivery of ad-hoc research across the business, from scoping to impact.

• Lead and manage the Headlight customer panel, ensuring regular, high-quality engagement.

• Build and run a customer closeness programme to help colleagues connect with customer realities.

• Monitor consumer trends - keeping an eye on what's changing and what it means for the future.

• Ensure research projects are actionable, relevant and aligned to commercial goals.

• Oversee agency partners and research platforms to deliver quality, on time and within budget.

• Support the wider insight agenda alongside the Customer Insight Lead.

• Help visualise and automate insight outputs for wider business use.

• Champion best-practice methods and continuously improve how research is done.

• Own the "last mile" of insight - making sure it lands with the right people and sparks action.

• Act as an ambassador for customer data and insight across the business.

What you'll need:

• Strong experience in customer research or insight - ideally in a commercial or service-led environment.

• Proven ability to design and deliver impactful insight programmes.

• Skilled at managing insight communities or panels, and engaging customers meaningfully.

• Confident turning research findings into business recommendations.

• Great communicator - able to tell a clear story with data and influence stakeholders.

• Experience managing research agencies and juggling multiple projects.

• Comfortable with both qualitative and quantitative methods.

• Knowledge of trends, customer segmentation, CRM and customer journey mapping.

• Experience with insight tools, dashboards and data visualisation is a bonus.

• Familiarity with AI/GenAI applications in research is a nice-to-have.

Inventum Group is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.