Public Affairs - Research Executive - Mixed Methods (Trade, Innovation & Enterprise)

Are you looking to develop a career in within one of the world’s largest Research Organisations?

The Trade, Innovation and Enterprise team within Ipsos Public Affairs is a fast-growing team of social researchers and evaluators. We work to understand and shape the interactions between businesses, government and the public. We carry out a wide range of qualitative and quantitative projects. These address some of the most important challenges facing society, including:

• How and why businesses grow and prosper
• The challenges faced by different types of businesses, such as SMEs, or those in creative and tech industries
• How the UK works and trades with other countries, and what businesses and the UK public think about this
• How UK organisations can meet their Net Zero commitments

Our work has influenced policies (e.g. around the NI Protocol) and strategies (e.g. the National AI Strategy), strengthened the evidence base for various business tax reliefs (e.g. Video Games Tax Relief) and supported new businesses to deal with challenges like cyber crime.

The role…
This vacancy is for a Research Executive with experience of supporting project managers and suppliers to deliver successful research projects.

This is an exciting opportunity for a mixed-methods researcher with experience of supporting wider project teams to deliver high profile studies which influence government policy and decisions. You will work with a range of research participants, including businesses, industry bodies, policy experts and the general public.

You will be able to work within small project teams, where you will have the chance to interact with clients and keep them updated on projects, and present findings. You will also work on large multi-strand projects, where you will get to learn from experienced project managers, and other senior colleagues providing support and guidance.

You will be able to work closely with our associated policy teams, the Energy and Environment team, and Transport and Infrastructure team, as well as our evaluation, economic analysis, stats analysis and qualitative methods experts in Ipsos Public Affairs.
Finally, you will also be able to take advantage of the excellent training and career progression opportunities at Ipsos.

Our team is a diverse and exciting place to work within Ipsos Public Affairs. We run regular knowledge sharing sessions across projects, run informal team breakfasts, have dedicated wellbeing leads within the team, and have regular social activities.
The overarching responsibilities, and the key opportunities this role offers, include:

• Drafting questionnaires and topic guides to meet client/study objectives (for review by project managers)
• Drafting fieldwork materials such as invitation letters, interviewer instructions and recruitment materials
• Moderating in-depth interviews and discussion groups
• Drafting quantitative data specifications and checking data files (e.g. samples or data tables) to help find and remove errors
• Developing qualitative analysis frameworks, under the guidance of project managers
• Supporting project managers to manage relationships with suppliers and our internal operations colleagues, to ensure successful qualitative recruitment or survey fieldwork across a range of methods (like telephone and online)
• Drafting analysis plans and report outlines with director support, and subsequently helping to create narrative-driven reports and presentations
• Building and managing effective client relationships through strong communication with individual client teams and their stakeholders (e.g. policymakers)
• Learning how to monitor projects’ financial progress
• Ensuring projects are delivered to time, through effective project planning (including drafting and following timetables)

What do I need to bring with me?

• Very good quantitative and/or qualitative social research skills, and ability to comfortably support projects and deliver day-to-day
• Excellent attention to detail, organised, and solutions-focused
• Time management skills, working across multiple projects, prioritising tasks efficiently
• Ability to work to tight and demanding deadlines with high quality outputs
• Experience in writing questionnaires, discussion guides, fieldwork materials etc.
• Proficiency in Excel, SPSS and other packages
• Ability to understand and interpret qualitative and quantitative data
• Very good communication, client handling and supplier negotiation skills
• Confident and clear written and verbal communication skills, including experience of preparing written reports and presentations, with a high level of accurate use of English and the ability to write in a variety of styles
• Proven ability to work well in teams
• Knowledge or interest in Trade, Innovation & Enterprise policies (desirable) or interest in B2B research (essential)

About us…
We are one of the world’s largest research companies and currently the only one primarily managed by researchers. With offices in 90 markets, Ipsos brings together research, implementation, methodological, and subject-matter experts from around the world, combining thematic and technical experts globally with local knowledge to deliver top-quality research.

Our culture is unique - we have the entrepreneurial spirit and quirkiness of a small boutique, but we also have the resources, scale and diversity of a large global agency. We have more bright, friendly, hard-working and enthusiastic people, from more backgrounds, with more interests, skills and experiences to learn from. Our values are based on our diverse cultural backgrounds, helping us to be responsive, client-focused and flexible.

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 - 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. We understand the importance of choice and offer a blended work environment, office and work from home. We also realise you may have commitments outside of work and will consider all flexible working applications - please highlight what you are looking for when you make your application.

If this is what you are looking for from your next role, we look forward to hearing from you!