Insights Research Assistant Director

Insights Research Assistant Director

Full-Time | Remote

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Insights Research Assistant Director leads the planning and execution of custom research and insights projects across qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid methodologies. This role serves as the primary project lead throughout the research lifecycle, working with internal stakeholders and clients to understand project needs, directing the team's work, and ensuring findings are translated into clear, actionable deliverables.

This is a team leadership and project management role that also requires hands-on data analysis and real methodology expertise. You'll personally analyze and synthesize qualitative and quantitative research data, translate findings into actionable insights, and guide your team's analytical approach on every project. This position directly manages the Sr. Research Assistant(s), Data Manager(s), and Data Processor(s), and is responsible for developing team capabilities, balancing resources, and ensuring successful project delivery.

What makes this role different: this isn't just project management. You'll be the team's go-to expert on research methodology, confident enough to advise clients directly on trade-offs (conjoint, MaxDiff, sequential monadic, and more), explain the reasoning behind a recommended approach, and diplomatically push back when a requested method won't answer the underlying business question.

Research Design & Client Consultation

• Partner with Sales, Account Managers, and Project Managers to understand client objectives and research needs.
• Participate in client meetings, project consultations, and solution development discussions.
• Recommend appropriate research methodologies and approaches based on client goals, drawing on a broad working knowledge of qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid techniques such as focus groups, IDIs, surveys, conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, sequential monadic testing, message/concept testing, and usage & attitude (U&A) studies.
• Confidently advise clients on methodology trade-offs, clearly explaining the what and why behind a recommended approach, and diplomatically push back or reset expectations when a requested method won't answer the underlying business question.
• Develop study plans, discussion guides, homework assignments, surveys, activities, and research materials.
• Build data collection and reporting plans aligned with study objectives and client expectations.
• Support proposal development, scope creation, and bid preparation.

Project Leadership & Execution

• Lead insights-related activities throughout all phases of project execution.
• Develop project timelines, responsibilities, and execution plans in partnership with internal stakeholders.
• Facilitate project check-ins and ongoing communication regarding project status, priorities, and risks.
• Oversee survey programming, technology platform setup, testing, troubleshooting, and field management activities.
• Ensure research activities remain aligned with project objectives, timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Identify risks and proactively implement solutions to maintain project success.

Data Analysis & Insights Development

• Guide the team's interpretation and synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research findings.
• Review and validate data for quality, accuracy, and completeness.
• Ensure findings are translated into clear, actionable business recommendations, partnering with senior insights staff on more complex quantitative deliverables as needed.
• Oversee development of executive summaries, presentations, dashboards, and client deliverables produced by the team.
• Maintain hands-on fluency with how clean, well-structured data and analysis should look, so you can personally spot-check team output and help finalize toplines and reports when needed.
• Coordinate video reels, highlight summaries, and storytelling materials, where applicable.
• Present findings and recommendations to clients and internal stakeholders or support the team member presenting them.

Team Leadership & Development

• Directly supervise, coach, and develop the Insights team.
• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings and performance discussions.
• Provide guidance on research methodologies, project execution, data quality, analysis, and reporting, including educating the team on the reasoning behind methodology choices, not just how to execute them.
• Support onboarding, training, and professional development of team members.
• Establish priorities and balance of workloads across the Insights team.
• Foster a collaborative, innovative, and solutions-oriented team culture.

Quality Assurance & Process Improvement

• Establish and maintain quality standards for research design, programming, data processing, analysis, and reporting.
• Review project deliverables to ensure accuracy, consistency, and client readiness.
• Develop and maintain best practices, templates, tools, and workflows that improve efficiency and scalability.
• Identify opportunities to apply technology, automation, AI, and emerging research tools to improve service delivery.
• Support ongoing compliance with company processes and applicable ISO standards.

Operational Leadership

• Manage Insights team capacity and resource allocation across multiple concurrent projects.
• Ensure projects are staffed appropriately, and workloads are distributed effectively.
• Partner with Project Managers to maintain seamless project flow and execution.
• Provide leadership on prioritization, issue resolution, and operational planning.
• Support departmental planning and growth initiatives for the Insights service line.

WHAT YOU BRING

Experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a field such as Marketing, Market Research, Communications, a STEM discipline (Statistics, Data Science, etc.), or Psychology.
• 3+ years working in a market research agency, insights consultancy, research supplier environment, or a corporate market research/insights department, with direct, hands-on experience applying these methodologies (rather than internal insights, UX research, or employee research roles without true market research methodology exposure). Should include a strong understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including exposure to a broad range of techniques such as conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, sequential monadic testing, message/concept testing, and usage & attitude studies, and how they apply to project needs.
• Experience leading or supervising a team, or strong readiness to step into a people-management role.
• Demonstrated experience advising clients or internal stakeholders on methodology selection, including situations where you had to explain trade-offs or push back on a requested approach.
• Experience personally designing, executing, and analyzing complex quantitative research studies is a plus.
• Experience developing executive-level reports and client presentations independently is a plus.

Knowledge & Skills

• Ability to scope a project and translate client objectives into an execution plan for the team.
• Strong project management and organizational skills; able to manage multiple projects at once with attention to detail.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the confidence to present a point of view directly to clients and defend a recommended approach.
• Comfort reviewing and interpreting research data and deliverables produced by the team, even if not personally building them.
• Exposure to advanced or specialty methodologies such as conjoint analysis, MaxDiff, sequential monadic product testing, or panel/sample design is a plus.
• Advanced data visualization and storytelling skills, mobile ethnography, product testing, and behavioral research approaches are a plus.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled research and analytics tools is a plus.
• Demonstrates adaptability and a strong aptitude for learning and leveraging new technologies, including emerging AI tools, to enhance efficiency and insight.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS

This role requires comfort with the tools and platforms our Insights team relies on every day:

• Microsoft Office, including Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Survey platforms such as Qualtrics, Forsta, or similar tools.
• Data management and analysis tools.

WHO YOU ARE

Beyond the technical skills, the right person for this role brings these qualities to the work every day:

• Acts with integrity. Holds your own behavior, and that of others, to the values and standards of the organization.
• Communicates clearly and confidently. Speaks, listens, and writes clearly, confidently, and promptly, including in client-facing settings where you may need to defend a recommendation.
• Brings creativity and innovation. Finds new ways to improve operations and create opportunities for the company and clients.
• Builds strong teams. Works cooperatively to set goals, resolve problems, and make decisions that improve effectiveness.
• Leads with influence. Positively influences others to achieve results in the best interest of the organization.
• Makes sound decisions. Assesses urgency and risk to make timely calls in the organization's best interest.
• Represents the team with confidence. Presents the team's research recommendations to clients, including areas of ambiguity or disagreement, rather than defaulting to whatever a client initially requests.
• Stays organized. Sets priorities, manages schedules, tracks progress, and attends to important details.
• Plans and follows through. Sets goals, builds and implements action plans, and evaluates processes and results.
• Solves problems at the root. Identifies root causes, analyzes information, and develops solutions built for the long term.

This job summary outlines primary responsibilities but is not intended to be all-inclusive. Duties may be modified or expanded to reflect business needs and the natural progression of the role.

L&E Research, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.