Senior Manager of Research

White Collar Factory (95009), United Kingdom, London, London

Senior Manager of Research

About this role

We’re looking for a Senior Manager of Research to lead our research function at Capital One, reporting into our Head of Marketing.

As a company we have a mission to make credit simple, and to achieve this we constantly strive for a more human-centred business. The Research team is critical to this and to support teams across the business in ensuring human-insight is at the heart of every decision.

This role will lead the research team into its next evolution, strengthening our research operations and prioritising high-impact research which naturally combines a range of methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) to deliver rigorous insight across the organisation. The role requires someone who understands market insight, continuous CX programmes and UX research, offering an opportunity to develop holistic research leadership. 

Success will look like strong partnerships across all disciplines in the organisation, at multiple levels. This will also be reflected in research helping to shape our long-term business and product strategy, whilst also supporting customer centric delivery near-term. This is all underpinned by leading a practice which delivers quality, well planned and managed research. 

Looking after a research function in the financial sector comes with unique challenges. We’re a heavily regulated industry and we ensure we maintain the highest standards in how we plan, conduct and manage all our research work. Our success is measured through the success of our colleagues so it’s critical for us to build strong partnerships across the entire organisation as well as with colleagues in the US. It’s detailed, collaborative, customer-centred work.  

What you’ll do

• Lead and grow a team of 7 world­ class researchers, focussing on talent development, mentoring, and building a strong team identity and culture.

• Build deep cross-functional relationships across the business (marketing, analytics, design, product management, and engineering) to enable the research team in identifying, prioritising, planning, and delivering on research initiatives.

• Support a collaborative team who strike a good balance between serving against the needs  of our business partners and helping them upfront to make the most of research and insights

• Provide technical coaching on research best practice to your team, embedding a culture of continuous learning

• Operate a team which is enabled to work across strategic ‘horizontal’ research and in-depth, embedded UX research, navigating & adapting to the different ways of working

• Actively monitor and analyse research, data, and trends from internal sources, academic research, and industry published reports to discover and act on opportunities to drive our customer centricity agenda

• Actively contribute and elevate the customer voice through our formal reporting and informal channels, raising the profile of our work

• Improve research practice tooling and processes to create speed and efficiency, ultimately enabling your team to have impact. Manage relationships with our research partners within this.

• Own the processes associated with research, proactively managing risks & ensuring consistency across the team

What we’re looking for

• A research leader who is able to balance commercial and customer needs

• Experience developing talent and creating inspired, effective, empowered teams.

• Experience leading a collaborative function that serves the needs of the broader business and helps integrate customer insights at the heart of decisions

• Deep knowledge and experience in quant and qual research and a track record of delivery of mixed method studies ideally covering a range of applications (e.g. brand research through to UX) 

• Ability to consolidate, document and present research findings, often from multiple sources, in short, concise, actionable, compelling stories to large audiences.

• Experience with stakeholder management and the ability to schedule and manage multiple projects, including working with outside vendors where required.

• Experience leading a team and large research projects, including relationship management of external partners

• Experience practising a range of research methods hands on and collaborating with other data-driven disciplines

• Bachelor’s Degree in Research, Psychology, Marketing or other related field

Beneficial Qualifications:

• Experience in large organisations  and in digital product development environments

• Business analytics understanding 

• Experience collaborating closely with design thinking and product strategy

We are committed to creating a level playing field and seek to create teams that are representative of our customers and the communities we serve.  We’d love to hear from you if you identify with a typically under-represented group in our industry and are particularly keen to hear from women, the LGBTQ+ community and ethnic minority candidates.

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position based in either our Nottingham or London offices.  

We have a hybrid working model which gives you flexibility to work from our offices and from home. 

We’re big on collaboration and connection, so you’ll be based in our Nottingham or London office 3 days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Many of our associates have flexible working arrangements, and we're open to talking about an arrangement that works for you.

What’s in it for you

• Bring us all this - and you’ll be well rewarded with a role contributing to the roadmap of an organisation committed to transformation

• We offer high performers strong and diverse career progression, investing heavily in developing great people through our Capital One University training programmes (and appropriate external providers)

• Immediate access to our core benefits including pension scheme, bonus, generous holiday entitlement and private medical insurance – with flexible benefits available including season-ticket loans, cycle to work scheme and enhanced parental leave

• Open-plan workspaces and accessible facilities designed to inspire and support you. Our Nottingham head-office has a fully-serviced gym, subsidised restaurant, mindfulness and music rooms. In London, you can heighten your mood with a run on our rooftop running track or an espresso at the Workshop Coffee café

What you should know about how we recruit

We pride ourselves on hiring the best people, not the same people. Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We know it’s about what you do, not just what you say. That’s why we make our recruitment process fair and accessible. And we offer benefits that attract people at all ages and stages.

We also partner with organisations including the Women in Finance and Race At Work Charters, Stonewall and upReach to find people from every walk of life and help them thrive with us. We have a whole host of internal networks and support groups you could be involved in, to name a few:

• REACH – Race Equality and Culture Heritage group focuses on representation, retention and engagement for associates from minority ethnic groups and allies

• OutFront – to provide LGBTQ+ support for all associates

• Mind Your Mind – signposting support and promoting positive mental wellbeing for all

• Women in Tech – promoting an inclusive environment in tech

• EmpowHER - network of female associates and allies focusing on developing future leaders, particularly for female talent in our industry

Capital One is committed to diversity in the workplace.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact ukrecruitment@capitalone.com  All information will be kept confidential and will only be used for the purpose of applying a reasonable adjustment.

Who We Are

At Capital One, we're building a leading information-based technology company. Still founder-led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking. We measure our efforts by the success our customers enjoy and the advocacy they exhibit. We are succeeding because they are succeeding.

Guided by our shared values, we thrive in an environment where collaboration and openness are valued. We believe that innovation is powered by perspective and that teamwork and respect for each other lead to superior results. We elevate each other and obsess about doing the right thing. Our associates serve with humility and a deep respect for their responsibility in helping our customers achieve their goals and realize their dreams. Together, we are on a quest to change banking for good.