Associate Director - Observer

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Job Description

Role overview

The successful candidate will be jointly responsible for the commercial success of Observer by driving growth, reputation, culture and success. This person would be fully involved in the management and development of large, key clients, as well as fully responsible for design, execution and delivery of complex projects, financials and people management. Our Associate Directors / Directors are critical to the success of our business and our clients' businesses. You will lead teams and projects by example - whether on projects or in line management situations - and to create a fun and aspirational environment that delivers excellent results for our clients.

In Observer, no two days are ever alike. You will collaborate with a broad range of fascinating clients from all types of organisations and across all sorts of sectors, including charities, businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions.

You will be constantly engaged in multiple projects at once. Some are modest and straightforward where you'll take full ownership, while others are vast and complex where you will team up with four or five like-minded colleagues.

The research might be on your doorstep, helping local communities, or on the other side of the world, discovering global perspectives. We sometimes need views from people who are so remote that getting there requires a boat!

What will I be doing?

• Actively developing opportunities with existing clients, anticipating their business needs and making effective use of Ipsos tools and techniques where appropriate.
• Effectively lead on strategic or complex projects and have responsibility for higher value work.
• Working on challenging briefs, applying lateral thinking and a fresh perspective to deliver compelling proposals, leading on all aspects of the proposal/pitch process.
• Leading client meetings, advising on appropriate data collection methodologies to best meet objectives while pursuing best practice.
• Offering exceptional questionnaire design based on a client's brief or outline, challenging where necessary to ensure objectives are met.
• Taking responsibility and accountability for overall quality of projects including:
• Initial set-up and design of sample plans.
• Liaising and negotiating with internal and external fieldwork suppliers.
• Creating analysis plans to deliver the final data.
• Identifying and monitoring profitability, demonstrating a clear understanding of spending and seeking efficiencies
• Responsibility for overseeing charts and top line outputs, setting narrative outlines and workshopping new ideas to present data with impact and constructing clear, coherent narratives
• Setting clear, motivational and measurable development objectives for team members and regularly their review performance against these.
• Being an advocate for the team and company strategy, business objectives and plans
• Actively promoting a learning culture and championing knowledge management.

Ipsos UK offers a hybrid working environment, 3 days in the office and working the rest from home.

What do I need to bring with me?

• Solid quantitative research skills experience across a range of methodologies.
• A proven ability to build strong relationships with clients, with a commitment to excellent client service.
• Strong commercial drive, with demonstrable business acumen and leadership.
• Meticulous attention to detail and a commitment to maintaining consistency and accuracy.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to tailor message and tone to suit the individual audience.
• Strong technical skills, with proficiency in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, SPSS/Survey Reporter.
• Excellent survey design skills including complex sampling and weighting approaches.
• Experience of summarising research findings
• Excellent hands-on project management skills, with experience of running complex multi-mode international projects
• Strong time management and organisational skills, with the ability to work well under pressure and effectively manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent people management skills, including the ability to coach and motivate others and to work with a variety of people in a team setting.

What is in it for me?

Ipsos UK offer an attractive basic salary and a rewards package including 25 days annual leave, a pension scheme and a great range of flexible benefits to suit your personal needs. For roles at Research Manager level and above we also offer private healthcare.

In addition to this we have a fantastic Learning & Development offer delivered through a mix of face to face, online or on-demand; you can read more by clicking here.

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.

Ipsos is committed to equality, treating people fairly, promoting a positive and inclusive working environment and ensuring we have diversity of people and views. We also 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.

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're proud to share we've received our Great Place to Work Certification in 2022 & 2023!

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.