Research & Insight Manager - 12 month Fixed Term Contract in London

The Research & Insight team plays a critical role in guiding decision‑making across Heathrow through compelling research, insight, and strategic analysis. This role provides dedicated expertise for the Surface Access research portfolio, focusing on understanding how and why passengers and colleagues travel to and from the airport. It ensures that robust evidence and the customer voice are consistently embedded within Surface Access planning, customer experience improvements, and wider business decisions.

Working within the wider Customer Function and in close collaboration with the Surface Access team and a broad network of internal and external stakeholders, the role leads the design and delivery of ongoing measurement, ad‑hoc research programmes, and third‑party insights. The postholder translates complex business questions into clear research objectives and actionable insight to support prioritisation, investment decisions, and governance. By strengthening in‑house capability, the role reduces reliance on external agencies while maintaining control over quality, methodology, and timelines, requiring strong influencing and presentation skills, alongside a proven track record of leading complex research initiatives in transport, travel, or aviation contexts.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Surface Access research and insight programme, maintaining a clear, prioritised plan of continuous and ad‑hoc studies that support stakeholder needs and informed decision‑making.
• Deliver high‑value research projects end‑to‑end, defining robust methodologies, managing delivery, and ensuring outputs are timely, high quality, and decision‑ready.
• Own and evolve Surface Access tracking and mode share measurement, as well as the Team Heathrow Colleague Travel survey, ensuring consistency, robustness, and meaningful reporting of trends and drivers.
• Provide insight consultancy by translating business questions into research approaches, integrating multiple data sources, and delivering clear, actionable recommendations.
• Strengthen governance and auditability by documenting research objectives, assumptions, methodologies, and limitations, ensuring outputs can be confidently used in decision‑making and external evidence.
• Manage research partners and deliver effective stakeholder communication through clear reporting, dashboards, and engagement, while supporting wider team delivery and continuous improvement.

Qualifications:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent Market Research experience.
• Experience of running quantitative and qualitative research and insight projects for transport, travel, aviation companies.
• Ability to influence strategic decisions, credible and authoritative to operate with senior management.
• Ability to translate complex numerical data into easily understandable formats for onward communication and use. This should include development of recommendations for high level understanding and action planning.
• Great organisation and time management skills, able to prioritise to ensure relevant targets are met.
• Ability to understand data requirements/people’s needs, work well with a variety of personalities and work styles.
• Excellent verbal and written presentation skills.
• Ideally, you will also have experience of transport, mode choice, aviation, or journey behaviour research.
• Experience of working with data visualisation tools (e.g., Power BI) to support self‑serve insight and trend monitoring.
• Experience of regulatory environments and wider business planning (such as development consent orders) and how research is used to assist in formal submissions, audit trails, etc.