Research Director

About Morning Consult: Morning Consult is a global decision intelligence company changing how modern leaders make smarter, faster, better decisions. The company pairs its proprietary high-frequency data with applied artificial intelligence to better inform decisions on what people think and how they will act.

This position will be based in one of our office locations (Washington, DC; New York, NY; Chicago, IL).

Our award-winning and modern, open concept offices are located in Washington, DC, Chicago, IL and New York, NY. All three offices are accessible by public transportation and in close proximity to great restaurants and shopping.

Join us in the office for catered lunch on Tuesdays and Wednesdays or grab a beverage from the fridge for an impromptu after-work happy hour!

The Role: Morning Consult is looking to hire a market research professional and team leader to join our Research Solutions team. Those in this role must understand survey research scoping, design, fielding and analysis for a variety of methodologies, as well as possess excellent client relationship-building, client management and project and team management skills.

In this role, you will be eager to develop creative and impactful projects that help our clients make the most of our data-focused technology products and capabilities. You will work closely with leadership to retain and expand current client engagements and ensure all client needs are exceeded.

We are currently hiring three Research Directors for different teams within our Research Solutions department. Ideal candidates will either have backgrounds in brand tracking and insights or research to support strategic communications.

The Research Solutions Team at Morning Consult: The Research Solutions Team at Morning Consult is focused on custom-designed research and is crucial to Morning Consult’s industry-leading, customer-obsessed Commercial Organization and its ability to drive sustainable growth across our entire portfolio of business. Morning Consult’s mission is to deliver high-impact, quality intelligence at scale to decision-makers anytime, anywhere. Our team consists of business leaders and researchers with experience in market research, insights, political polling, strategic consulting, and more.

What You’ll Be Working On:

• Owning client relationships for accounts of varying sizes and managing the execution of client work both personally and through direct reports (depending on track)
• Running large, complex, multi-sample and/or multi-country research projects and programs and ensuring teams deliver quality data and strategic insights to inform critical business decisions
• Overseeing research process and deliverables from start to finish to ensure final products deliver on clients’ objectives and priorities, including delivering report read-outs to clients and mainly senior-level clients and stakeholders
• Creating research strategies that embed Morning Consult data into clients’ workflows and finding opportunities for expansion and growth
• Participating in training and utilizing internal and external resources to build a specialized skill set related to quantitative research methodologies and industry knowledge
• Building strong relationships with clients and executive stakeholders to secure renewals and drive growth at the account level
• Managing revenue against contracts and adopt best-practice team workflows to optimize usage and maintain contracts on or ahead of pace
• Working hand-in-hand with Account Executives to pitch, price and deliver proposals to prospective clients, advising prospects/clients on the survey approach and analysis plan that will best meet their objectives
• Participating alongside other senior leaders to establish and work on strategic objectives at the Portfolio- and/or Commercial-level
• Coaching and mentoring direct reports, communicating openly and regularly on goals, performance and progress and providing input into Continuous Performance Management and talent decisions
• Delegating and empowering direct reports to execute the responsibilities of their role and contribute to an effective, efficient team

About You and What You’ve Done:

• 8+ years of professional experience in quantitative market research
• Proven track record of success, experience in survey research, sampling methodology, survey design, providing strategic consultation and project planning and delivering quality and timely project deliverables
• Strong client management experience and business financial acumen around managing and driving account-level revenue growth
• Strong prioritization and delegation skills based on the scale of impact, and ability to focus on key business objectives through moments of change
• An effective planner who can focus their team on achieving long-term objectives and translating strategic priorities and decisions in a clear and relatable way for the team
• Ability to mentor, coach, develop top talent and promote a positive work experience
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence decision-makers without authority through compelling arguments, presentation skills and domain expertise
• Uncompromising attention to detail with high technical standards
• Creative problem solver with an ability to simplify complex scenarios and challenges
• Feedback-oriented and recognizes and proactively raises inefficiencies and barriers to success