Senior Research Delivery Lead

Do you bring clarity and calm to complex, fast-moving research — shaping plans, anticipating risks, and keeping delivery on track? Do you combine methodological rigor with practical judgement — turning messy data into insight that people can act on? Are you energised by leading others through the detail — raising standards, strengthening storytelling, and helping teams deliver their best work?

The role involves providing day-to-day intellectual and methodological leadership across research projects. This role combines hands-on research delivery with oversight of multiple projects and their progress, quality, timelines, and coordination.

You will lead the design, execution, analysis, and storytelling of several insight projects, support practitioner development through project-level supervision, mentoring, and quality assurance. While not a formal line manager, you will play a key role in shaping and setting standards, leading delivery, and driving insight excellence across the team.

You will be expected to work with a high degree of autonomy, anticipate risks, improve thinking, and ensure insight is translated into clear, actionable recommendations. At ICE, we help people, places, and organisations thrive. We use behavioural insight, evidence, and co-production to create work that improves lives. Your role ensures our insight is grounded in the real world: inclusive, well-managed, and delivered with care.

This role is based within the Insight Team. You will work as part of a fast-paced, agile, creative organisation based in Wirral. You will be expected in the office for a minimum of 3 days per week. The role is hybrid and does require some travel depending on project delivery needs, including but not limited to other ICE offices from time to time. A driving licence and access to a car is required. A DBS check may be required for certain projects.

Salary Range: £35,000 - £40,000 per annum.

Key elements of the day-to-day role:

• Lead the design and delivery of several complex qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods insight projects.
• Strong research skills combined with strong project management skills to support delivery and keep others in the team on their toes.
• Lead on solving complex design challenges within projects, applying human-centred design and systems thinking approaches to translate insight into practical solutions.
• Take ownership of key projects and their overall delivery, including research design, discussion guides, surveys, frameworks, analysis plans, reporting, and presentations.
• Provide senior oversight of research materials and outputs to ensure methodological rigour and effective use of behavioural and qualitative research techniques.
• Set clear strategic direction for projects, bringing challenge and critical thinking to research design and analysis to ensure work is focused, purposeful, and aligned to project aims.
• Offer timely, constructive feedback to team members to strengthen insight quality, decision-making, and professional development.
• Work hands-on across projects where needed, particularly at key moments in design, analysis, sense-making, and storytelling.
• Apply behavioural science, theory, and evidence confidently to deepen insight and shape practical recommendations.
• Translate complex findings into compelling narratives and actionable strategies that can be applied in real-world settings.
• Ensure recommendations deliver on research objectives, are actionable, and are strategically aligned to the context of the client’s operating world.
• Produce outputs including publishable-level written reports, lay summaries, and presentations.
• Lead on communicating with and developing relationships with internal teams, clients, and wider stakeholders.
• Coach junior colleagues on presenting findings to client teams and other stakeholders.
• Lead multiple projects at one time.
• Produce sales assets (e.g. blogs, case studies) to promote and sell our offer.
• Contribute to writing tenders and proposals.
• Lead the facilitation of diverse research activities, delivered both online and in person, with people from many different backgrounds, spanning one-to-one interviews, focus groups, design workshops, and large-scale community sessions.
• May co-facilitate with more junior team members, providing support, feedback, and guidance where necessary.

Essential existing skills/experience:

• Undergraduate degree in the social sciences or other relevant degree.
• At least 5 years industry experience of delivering mixed methods research.
• Minimum of 5 years industry experience within the field of market research/insights.
• Minimum of 3 years line-management responsibility.
• Experience of writing winning bids or proposals – at least one example.
• Experience of translating insights into actionable, practical strategies – at least one example.
• Experience of combining survey data with qualitative findings to craft a single report narrative.
• Experience of authoring reports and presenting/storytelling to diverse audiences.
• Interest in behavioural insights and science, specifically its application to understand behaviour and develop behaviour change solutions.
• Ability to manage your own work and deliver across multiple projects.
• Ability to work as part of an inter-disciplinary team.
• Hard worker.
• Master’s degree in the field of behavioural/social science, health behaviours, or other relevant degree.
• Experience applying insights and behavioural science or theory in practice to inform solutions.
• Competent understanding of qualitative research to understand behaviour and decision-making.
• Experience of process/impact evaluation, logic models, theories of change.
• Experience of having works published.

We offer opportunities for professional development across behaviour change, design, insight, and digital innovation. We offer hybrid working with trust, autonomy, and a supportive leadership team. We promise a chance to shape the evolution of ICE’s brand and creative capability.