Senior Director (Qualitative)

About the Role

A Senior Director at Basis Global is, quite simply, the best of us. Clients see you as their primary Basis contact — your quality of work is the reason they return, and your presence in the room is the reason they trust us. You deliver brilliant work entirely independently, lead project teams that develop talent, and proactively drive the commercial growth of Basis. This is a demanding, high-impact role that combines research excellence with senior leadership and business development.

What You’ll Do

• Research Excellence
• Create excellent written outputs — including cross-team integrated deliverables — entirely independently and with no intervention from seniors.
• Demonstrate intelligent, creative decision‑making in complex, multi‑stakeholder scenarios across a wide range of project types and client sectors.
• Facilitate outstanding client meetings, workshops, and debriefs that cement Basis’s reputation for quality.
• Run multiple projects and project teams concurrently with consistent excellence, tailoring team involvement based on profitability and complexity.
• Be a credible, impressive ambassador for Basis in any client‑facing scenario.
• Client & Commercial Leadership
• Own senior client relationships at account level — going beyond individual projects to proactively identify and capture revenue opportunities.
• Take full accountability for creating, managing, and holding to project costings, tailoring resourcing decisions to profitability.
• Demonstrate commercial thinking that drives account growth: building client strategies, owning proposals, and contributing to pitches.
• Co‑responsible for a financial target based on account goals and/or proposal wins, and deliver against it.
• Demonstrate a shift in mindset from projects to accounts — proactively maintaining and growing long‑term client relationships.
• Team Leadership & Talent Development
• Lead project teams in a way that has a measurable positive effect on the development, quality of work, and retention of talent.
• Provide expert‑level guidance, feedback, and mentorship to Directors, Associate Directors, and Research Managers.
• Support the Head of Qual with team leadership workstreams (e.g., improvements to WoW).
• Business Development & Basis Growth
• Play a starring role in proposal writing and new business pitches — producing winning, Basis‑grade responses.
• Contribute actively to Basis marketing and thought leadership, creating content that builds awareness and reputation.
• Work closely with Principals/SVPs and the growth team to identify and develop new opportunities within existing and prospective accounts.

Skills & Experience

• Deep expertise in qualitative research across a broad range of methodologies, sectors, and client types.
• A track record of leading complex, high‑profile qual projects independently and to an exceptional standard.
• Outstanding moderation and facilitation skills — credible and impressive in any client setting.
• Proven ability to convert strategic insight into compelling, commercially astute outputs and recommendations.
• Demonstrated experience managing senior client relationships and growing accounts beyond individual projects.
• Experience leading project teams and developing junior talent, with a reputation as a positive and enabling leader.
• Active involvement in business development: proposal writing, pitching, and contributing to marketing initiatives.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen — ability to manage costings, profitability, and resource allocation.
• A collaborative, ambitious mindset with a growth orientation and the resilience to operate at senior level.

What Makes You Basis Material

Senior Directors are a conscious, ambitious choice — not everyone will reach this level, nor do they need to. If you want to, and think you could, we want to hear from you. You will embody the Basis values in everything you do, be hungry for growth, and genuinely care about the quality of work that leaves your team.

Salary £85,000+