Qualitative Researcher - PM / Associate Director

RED C Research; Dublin; Hybrid; EUR 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working (two days in office)

Flexitime

1pm finish every second Friday

Time off for fieldwork

Competitive salary + bonus

Learning and career progression

Job summary

RED C Research, a leading qualitative research company in Ireland, is seeking an experienced Qualitative Researcher at PM or Associate Director level to join our team and lead projects across Ireland and the UK.

You'll design research approaches, moderate groups and interviews, analyse findings and turn insights into compelling client stories. This role offers cross-market exposure, collaboration with senior practitioners, and opportunities to mentor others.

Qualifications

• 4–7 years' experience in qualitative research, ideally in an agency environment.
• A natural curiosity about people and why they do what they do.
• Ability to see the story in the research and identify underlying insights.
• Willingness to learn from senior practitioners and develop your own craft.
• Comfort with clients, challenging thinking when appropriate, and building confidence in recommendations.
• Strong communicators who can present complex findings clearly.

Responsibilities

• Take responsibility for qualitative projects from brief to final presentation, collaborating with Ireland and UK teams.
• Design research approaches, discussion guides and stimuli.
• Moderate focus groups, depth interviews, workshops and online qual research.
• Dig beneath stated responses to understand behaviours, motivations and emotions.
• Analyze qualitative evidence and identify themes and human truths.
• Turn findings into clear, engaging, commercially useful stories and present recommendations to clients.
• Mentor junior researchers and collaborate with senior practitioners across markets.
• Contribute to cross-market projects in Ireland, the UK and beyond.

Skills

Qualitative research

Client management

Storytelling

Communication

Curiosity

Collaboration

Job description

Do you love sitting down with people, understanding what makes them tick and uncovering the insights that aren't immediately obvious?

Do you enjoy the craft of qualitative research, uncovering the Why? behind decisions by moderating groups, managing communities, conducting interviews, observing real human behaviour, analysing conversations and turning what you hear and see into a compelling story?

If so, we'd love to talk to you.

RED C is one of Ireland's largest qualitative research companies, with a busy and growing qualitative practice working across a fascinating mix of clients, sectors and research challenges.

You’ll also be part of the wider RED C qualitative team across Ireland and the UK, working alongside and learning from some of our most experienced senior qualitative practitioners. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate with senior researchers across both markets, gaining exposure to different approaches, methodologies, clients and ways of thinking about qualitative research.

For someone who loves qual and wants to keep developing their craft, its an exciting environment in which to build your career.

We are looking for an experienced Qualitative Researcher at PM or Associate Director level to join our team.

The opportunity

At RED C qualitative research is a core part of what we do.Across our Irish and UK businesses, we have a large and highly experienced team of qualitative specialists, creating a genuine community of qualitative practitioners.

You’ll both manage and lead projects yourself, while also working alongside senior researchers with many years of experience across different sectors, methodologies and markets, giving you the opportunity to learn from experienced practitioners while developing your own style and areas of expertise.

You’ll have the opportunity to work across different types of qualitative research, from traditional focus groups and depth interviews to online communities, workshops, ethnographic and observational approaches.

Examples of recent qualitative projects include understanding current and future video consumption behaviour through ethnographic understanding, new product development for a major wine brand, ongoing consumer engagement for a financial brand, evaluating advertising and comms messaging, understanding the culture connections and brand opportunities among the over 55’s market, evaluating the experiences of festival goers, the impact of GLP1 on the snacking market and understanding the future media needs of Gen Alpha

Such diversity of projects means no two weeks are the same.

What you'll be doing

You’ll take responsibility for qualitative projects from brief to final presentation, working closely with clients and colleagues across the RED C Ireland and UK teams.

Depending on your experience, this will include:

• Designing research approaches, discussion guides and stimulus.
• Moderating focus groups, depth interviews, workshops and online qualitative research.
• Getting beneath what people say to understand the behaviours, motivations, tensions and emotions driving them.
• Analysing qualitative evidence and identifying the themes and human truths that really matter.
• Turning findings into clear, engaging and commercially useful stories.
• Presenting recommendations directly to clients.
• Collaborating with senior qualitative practitioners across Ireland and the UK, learning from their experience while bringing your own ideas and perspective.
• Working on UK and international projects alongside our wider RED C team.
• Managing projects and working with more junior researchers to deliver consistently excellent work.
• Bringing new qualitative techniques, thinking and ideas into the wider RED C qual team.
• At Associate Director level, you'll also play a greater role in developing client relationships, shaping proposals and mentoring other members of the qualitative team.

Who we're looking for

You’ll probably have at least 4–7 years' experience in qualitative research, ideally within an agency environment, although we're open to people from different research backgrounds.

You'll be someone who:

• Is naturally curious about people. You're interested not just in what people do, but why they do it.
• Can see the story in the research. You can move beyond summarising what respondents said and identify the underlying insight.
• Wants to keep learning. You're already an experienced researcher, but you're excited by the opportunity to work alongside senior practitioners, see how they approach different challenges and continue developing your own qualitative craft.
• Is comfortable with clients. You can understand their business problem, challenge their thinking when appropriate and build confidence in your recommendations.
• Is a strong communicator. You can turn complex research into simple, engaging stories and present them with confidence.
• Enjoys variety. You like moving between different sectors, audiences, markets and business challenges.
• Enjoys collaboration. You want to be part of a wider community of qualitative researchers, sharing ideas and approaches with colleagues in Ireland and the UK and helping less experienced researchers develop their skills.

Why RED C?

If you love qualitative research, we think RED C is a particularly interesting place to practise it.

1. Learn from some of the best people in the business. You'll work closely with highly experienced senior qualitative practitioners across both Ireland and the UK. That means exposure to different styles, methodologies, sectors and ways of thinking, and the opportunity to keep developing your craft rather than feeling that, once you reach a certain level, you're expected to have all the answers.
2. Be part of one of the largest qual teams in Ireland and the UK. Rather than working as one of just a handful of qualitative researchers, you'll be part of a substantial community of qual practitioners, giving you people to collaborate with, learn from, challenge and develop new approaches alongside.
3. Work beyond the Irish market. You’ll have the opportunity to work closely with our UK team on research for UK and international clients, as well as collaborating across the wider WIN international research network.
4. Great clients and genuinely varied work. You’ll work with leading Irish, UK and international organisations across FMCG, telecoms, banking, retail, media, transport and the public sector.
5. Interesting problems, not just research projects. Our ambition is to deliver insight that helps clients understand behaviour, build stronger brands and improve customer experiences.
6. A chance to experiment. We're continually developing how we conduct qualitative research, combining established techniques with behavioural science, new technology and AI-enabled approaches where they add value.
7. Scale without losing the craft. Our scale gives us a constant flow of interesting projects across different sectors and markets, while still giving our researchers the opportunity to remain hands‑on practitioners.

And we try to make RED C a good place to work

We want talented researchers to have successful careers without work taking over their lives.

Our flexible working environment includes:

• Hybrid working, with just two days per week in the office
• Full flexitime, with core hours between 10am and 4pm
• A 1pm finish every second Friday (based on a 9am start)
• Additional time off for the qualitative team to recognise evening focus groups and fieldwork
• Competitive salary and performance-related bonus
• Strong support for learning, development and career progression