Strategic Research Manager

Job Description

A&O Shearman are recruiting a Strategic Research Manager to join our London office.
DEPARTMENT PURPOSE
Global Research and Library proactively serves internal and external clients with trusted, actionable and technology-enabled intelligence and resources across nearly 50 offices. The department provides four key services:

ROLE PURPOSE
The Strategic Research Group provides in-depth, bespoke analysis and research support to client teams and business development. They work across the global firm, supporting both management initiatives that drive new business opportunities for the firm and client teams as needed. SRG are embedded into the business and build close relationships with partners, sector and practice leads and BD teams; understanding the needs of BD and client teams and providing analysis that drives new business opportunities, shape strategic initiatives and support directly on live matters.
Demand for SRG's capabilities has grown in the last year post-merger - the team is a powerful differentiator in the marketplace. The team have contributed to several recent mandate wins in Europe and are currently working directly with clients on live matters contributing direct revenues to the firm.
The Strategic Research Manager will seek to proactively engage with key stakeholders and establish close relationships. The post holder is tasked with understanding stakeholder needs and developing creative analysis to meet these. The Strategic Research Manager will proactively identify opportunities; liaise with fee earners and the Business Development community; offer their expertise and input in respect of the best use of our information assets; and determine the most relevant approach to support the firm's analysis requirements.
ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES
The Strategic Research Manager uses a variety of resources to provide considered, comprehensive research outputs that support the firm. This involves interpreting data, analyzing trends and writing reports as required.
In detail the role involves:

• Producing detailed, insightful research and analysis that brings deep, timely insights to inform our internal clients and external clients of the firm;
• Building on the team's existing relationships, as well as actively seeking to develop new relationships, with fee earners, senior BD and other key stakeholders across the firm;
• Taking responsibility as the expert for one or more sectors, as well as being a product expert, both in terms of different practices that the firm serves and key databases;
• Interviewing requesters to understand and scope their needs and requirements, proactively making suggestions as to how research requests and projects can be enhanced;
• Responsible for managing large research and analysis projects, from scoping to resourcing and delivery of the final output;
• Producing detailed reports that provide in-depth analysis of clients/sectors, highlighting business opportunities; potential impact on the firm and for clients;
• Inputting into external content and thought leadership for the firm. Developing ideas for topics that will impact clients; developing bespoke analysis to support hypothesis; writing content alongside Global Content Team.
• Selecting the appropriate resources - and on occasion identifying new resources - to address the needs of the business. This involves checking resources for accuracy, consistency and timeliness;
• Partnering with our Practice Librarians to deliver inductions to senior joiners and newly promoted partners, to ensure that they understand the value of the function
• . Collaborating with colleagues across the network on the development of research and analysis approaches, methodologies and final output;
• Contributing to the training of colleagues and act as a mentor, as and when required.

The post holder will both manage and contribute to a range of projects. Examples include:

• Identifying opportunities to use information assets to develop new SRG Research branded reports, as the business requires;
• Providing recommendations on research and analysis approach, the merits of different data sets in support of firm initiatives and projects;
• Building stakeholder engagement, designing products and testing them with users;
• Identifying key data providers and then working with colleagues to determine if the firm should invest in them;
• Assessing the cost (both monetary and in terms of staff time) of products and making recommendations on their implementation.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Relevant professional experience as a research analyst or data analyst
• Direct management experience in an analysis and research setting;
• Excellent all-round analysis and research skills, covering business, sector and financial research;
• Ability to manage expectations and negotiate deadlines, along with strong organizational skills;
• Strong writing skills, including the ability to abstract and summarize complex arguments and draw conclusions that align to the firm's interests and/or help to identify opportunities;
• Numerical fluency and the ability to present data in an effective way, either through graphics or text;
• Ability to build and develop relationships at all levels of the organization, including senior executive level, and have credibility as an expert;
• Strong technical skills in key financial products, particularly Capital IQ, Pitchbook, FactSet and LSEG;
• Experience of creating reports using the functionality of Word and PowerPoint, and competency in the use of Excel; Power BI experience a plus;
• A strategic and commercial mindset, with the ability to think about the bigger picture in respect of how research can play a part in supporting the success of the organization;
• Proactive approach with the ability to work on own initiative and manage own workload;
• Takes a collaborate approach on larger projects, engaging colleagues with the objective of delivering the best outcome for our internal clients.
• The Strategic Research Manager must be a credible, capable professional who is able to build and maintain productive relationships with senior lawyers, senior BD people, key stakeholders and peers across the business;
• Be confident in promoting Strategic Research Group Services to the firm, globally, and seek opportunities to do this; be comfortable presenting to senior executives in the business and at clients;
• Experience of, and an interest in, delivering research and analysis that offers real insight;
• The ability to interpret and then articulate key trends from raw data, e.g. deal data, and present it to our internal audience in an engaging, decision-ready format;
• Able to source and then evaluate third-party output in order to determine opportunities that match the firm's interests, and proactively surface them to key stakeholders and explain why they are relevant;
• An interest in proactively taking ideas to our internal stakeholders and working with them to enhance our offering;
• Trusted to work on matters relating to the firm's strategy and deliver research output to senior members of the firm (and ultimately seek to be retained by these people going forward);
• Financial modelling experience is desirable
• Strong sector and investment banking product knowledge, drawing on this knowledge to produce insightful output that can support the strategy of our practice groups and the firm.

Should you require additional support at any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability or a health condition, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our recruitment team who will work with you to provide any adjustments as required.

We are an equal opportunities recruiter and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

We recognise that our people are our most valuable asset, which is reflected in the wide range of benefits that are available to our employees. Some of these benefits include: our occupational pension scheme, group income protection cover, private medical insurance, mental health resources and free apps, health and wellbeing services encompassing an onsite gym, wellbeing centre and GP service, emergency back-up care support, parental and special leave, holiday entitlement increasing with length of service, holiday trading, season ticket loans and online discounts and lifestyle management services.

Our approach to hybrid working seeks to combine and maximise the benefits of effective remote working with the benefits of being in the office. Our current hybrid working arrangements require office based working for a minimum of 60% of your time (i.e. three days per week for a full time role) in accordance with our hybrid working policy.