Research Director – NatCen Opinion Panel
Publicerad 2025-03-19
Description
Role: Research Director - NatCen Opinion Panel
Location: London or Edinburgh (Hybrid Working - 2 days per week in office)
Grade: 4
Salary: £40,000-£54,616
Department: Social Surveys - Attitudinal Surveys & NatCen Panel
Contract: Permanent
We are looking for an exceptional researcher to take the position of Research Director on the NatCen Opinion Panel.
Location: London or Edinburgh (Hybrid Working - 2 days per week in office)
Grade: 4
Salary: £40,000-£54,616
Department: Social Surveys - Attitudinal Surveys & NatCen Panel
Contract: Permanent
We are looking for an exceptional researcher to take the position of Research Director on the NatCen Opinion Panel.
The NatCen Opinion Panel is Britain's longest running random probability-based panel and is designed to enable researchers to collect survey data from a high-quality sample more quickly and at lower cost than 'traditional' methods. Projects are conducted with a range of clients, including government departments and academia, and cover a variety of topics - from attitudes to gender roles to experiences of working in the hidden economy or views on transitioning to low-carbon heating.
In the last few years the demand for research using the Panel has continued to grow and we are looking to expand our team to allow us to continue to innovate and meet this demand.
Your main responsibility will be leading the successful delivery of Panel surveys to budget and timetable, following established processes and driving continuous improvement to produce high quality data outputs that meet client requirements. This role would therefore particularly suit a candidate with experience in this area, and we are open to applications from people from a range of backgrounds.
You would also be responsible for identifying and securing funding and client relationship management. You will also have the opportunity to contribute more widely to the team and organisation, for example taking on line-management responsibilities, leading analysis and reporting, innovation and process development, and ensuring that our research has impact in society.
Key Responsibilities
Survey Design & Delivery
Leading the end-to-end delivery of high-quality surveys using the NatCen Opinion Panel, including:
- Overseeing survey delivery approach, including questionnaire development, sampling strategies, and fieldwork design to produce high-quality data within budget and time constraints.
- Managing survey operations, working closely with specialist statisticians, data managers, programmers and logistics teams to ensure smooth and efficient delivery.
- Taking responsibility for quality-assuring study outputs – from questionnaire scripts to datasets and tables.
- Troubleshooting operational and methodological challenges, ensuring surveys meet agreed timelines and quality standards.
Team & Resource Management
- Providing leadership and support to the research team, including through line management, ensuring high-quality delivery and professional development.
- Overseeing budgets and project timelines, ensuring surveys are delivered on time and within financial constraints.
Research outputs
- Overseeing the design and delivery of high-quality research outputs that are robust, address the study’s research objectives, and are suitable for the target audience.
- Produce outputs to ensure that NatCen’s research findings reach a diverse audience and had meaningful impact in society.
Stakeholder & Client Engagement
- Providing high-quality client service to client from a wide range of backgrounds including academia, government departments, and charities.
- Establishing and maintaining strong professional relationships with clients; ensuring research outputs meet their research and policy needs while providing clarity on what is achievable within project constraints.
Business Development, Growth, & Innovation
- Leading on research proposals and costings, ensuring proposals are robust, feasible, and competitive, while meeting the funder’s requirements.
- Collaborating to drive continuous improvement in how we deliver our surveys – both in terms of quality and efficiency.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
This role would be suitable for an experienced senior researcher looking to progress in their career or looking to move from market research into social research. We are particularly interested in people with experience in survey delivery, but are open to applications from people from a range of backgrounds
Essential
- Experience of leading survey projects in social or market research
- Excellent project management skills and the ability to manage project risks, timelines and budgets.
- Ability to work flexibly and proactively on multiple concurrent research projects, prioritising and troubleshooting when required
- Ability to work autonomously and manage own workload
- Experience working with data
- Attention to detail and a strong commitment to quality to ensure research meets quality standards
- Commitment to building and maintaining good relationships with partners and customers.
- Ability to build, manage and sustain internal relationships successfully, including the co-ordination of multiple individuals teams within a project, and effective delegation of tasks
- Ability to work in a process-driven project environment and to develop a deep understanding that enables continuous improvement
- Proficient in MS Office – in particular MS Excel
Desirable
- A track record of securing funding for high quality social or market research.
- Experience delivering research conducted using online panels
- Demonstrable survey research methodological knowledge, preferably in online and probability-based surveys.
- Demonstrable skills in survey data analysis and reporting, and communicating survey research findings to a range of audiences.
- Experience of leading, managing and developing teams.
- Ability to think strategically and align activities with wider team and organisational goals
- Proficient in data management & analysis software (e.g. SPSS, R)
Benefits
As well as a competitive salary, an excellent working environment (including a home/office hybrid working environment), you will be working for the largest independent social research organisation in the UK. We are proud of the benefits we offer our employees which include:
- 25 days holiday (plus 8 bank holidays) and flexible working
- Generous company pension scheme
- Life insurance and health cash plan
- Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loan
- Career development, professional subscriptions support and mentoring support from industry-leading experts.
At The National Centre for Social Research we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people’s lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping services that can make a difference to everyone. And as an independent, not-for-profit organisation we’re able to focus our time and energy on meeting our clients’ needs and delivering social research that works for society.
