Associate Director - MSU

As an Associate Director in the Market Strategy & Execution Client Success Team, you will lead strategic research programmes for global clients, helping them make confident decisions about growth, positioning and portfolio strategy.

You will be responsible for leading large multi-market studies, particularly segmentations, demand spaces, usage & attitudes, shopper and brand strategy programmes. Acting as a senior client lead, you will build strong relationships with global and local stakeholders, oversee project delivery in partnership with our Delivery Excellence teams, and ensure insights are translated into clear, actionable business recommendations.

You will also contribute to business growth through proposal development, thought leadership and identifying opportunities within existing client relationships

This role is offered on a hybrid basis with 3 days in our London office and the rest from home.

Your Day to Day

These are the types of things you can expect to be doing during your day to day, although as Ipsos is a dynamic organisation, this may vary as different opportunities arise:

• Lead complex multi-market research programmes from design through to debrief.
• Act as the primary contact for senior client stakeholders.
• Design bespoke research approaches that address strategic business questions.
• Partner with Delivery Excellence teams to ensure smooth and efficient project delivery.
• Develop questionnaires, analytical frameworks and insight development processes.
• Translate data into compelling stories and strategic recommendations.
• Lead reporting, presentations and client workshops.
• Identify opportunities to grow client relationships and support new business.
• Line manage, coach and develop junior team members.
• Collaborate with specialist teams to bring the best of Ipsos capabilities to clients.

Essential Criteria:

To be successful in this role you will need the following skills and experience:

• Significant experience in quantitative market research.
• Strong expertise in market understanding and strategy research, in one or more of segmentation, demand spaces, shopper, brand and usage & attitudes studies.
• Proven experience leading large, multi-country research programmes.
• Strong client leadership and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent research design, insight generation and storytelling capabilities.
• Experience presenting to and influencing senior client audiences.
• Commercial awareness and experience contributing to proposals and business development.
• Strong analytical, organisational and communication skills.

 

Desirable Criteria:

These are the skills that would add value to the role but are not critical.  If you have them, we’d love to hear about them:

• Experience working on global segmentation and demand space studies.
• Experience across multiple sectors and international markets.
• Familiarity with advanced analytics approaches commonly used in strategic research programmes.
• Experience facilitating strategic client workshops.
• Proficiency in data visualisation and storytelling platforms.
• Experience managing and developing junior researchers.
• Enthusiasm for AI and emerging technologies, with experience using AI tools to enhance research design, analysis, storytelling and day-to-day productivity.
• Experience working within large global research agencies or consultancy environments.

 

Behaviours:

A successful candidate will demonstrate the following behaviours:

• Analytical thinking
• Resilience, flexibility and agility
• Creative thinking
• Motivation and self-awareness
• Empathy and active listening
• Curiosity and lifelong learning
• Service orientation and customer service
• Talent management
• Leadership and social influence
• Commercial mindset
• Collaborative approach
• Client-focused and relationship-oriented
• Proactive and self-motivated
• Confident communicator and presenter

 

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 realise 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 have a hybrid approach to work and ask people to be in the office or with clients for 3 days per week.

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 -  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. Your application will be reviewed by someone from our Talent Team who will be in touch  either way to let you know the outcome.

Ready to have an impact? Apply now!

About UsIpsos 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 TeamThe Market Strategy & Understanding (MSU) Service Line performs strategic research to deliver contextual understanding to help clients navigate dynamic markets. Our offer portfolio consists of strategic brand research as well as category & consumer fundamentals. We work with clients to understand the size and composition of a market as well as the segments/profiles/demand spaces therein.  We also specialize in brand equity, brand assets, brand stretch and open category opportunities (e.g. whitespace).