Head of Research and Insights

At Smart, our mission is to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world.

THE ROLE

The Head of Research and Insights is a leadership role, central to informing the leadership team in the execution of the Master Trust strategy. A key focus is on defining and prioritising insight needs, ensuring that data analysis and market research directly support strategic business objectives and outcomes. This position is responsible for determining the analytical requirements necessary for effective decision making and evaluation of outcomes. This involves translating strategic needs into specific data requirements and shaping the demand for insights from the Data as a Service function. This role integrates market research with business data insights to drive business growth, product proposition, retirement outcomes and competitive advantage.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the research and insights objectives, aligned with business growth strategy and the evolving regulatory landscape.
• Partner with leadership and business functions (eg marketing, proposition, policy) to understand, prioritise, and translate strategic questions into insight and analytical requirements.
• Establish a clear framework for insight generation, analytics and market research directly inform business decisions and measurable outcomes.
• Provide recommendations to support compelling product proposition development, customer engagement, retirement outcomes, and competitive positioning.
• Ensure a strong commercial focus through the new Value for Money requirements, while providing strategic guidance based on actionable insights, performance metrics, and emerging trends.
• Oversee the development of dashboards and reporting metrics (AUM, contributions, churn, retirement outcomes).
• Lead competitor and market analysis and recommendation, identifying commercial impact, opportunities and risks.
• Represent Smart proposition in response to RFIs to position within market.
• Combine research and data to drive insights to support customer acquisition, AUM growth, and contribution rates.
• Foster a data driven culture across the business area.
• Oversee reporting aligned with regulatory and client requirements.

Who We Are Looking For

The skills, experience, and aptitudes we are looking for are listed below but please don’t be discouraged from applying if you don’t meet every single one of these criteria – having a ‘can do’ attitude is sometimes more important than being able to tick every box:

• Experience in Financial Services is essential.
• Experience in fintech, wealth tech, or digital pensions platforms preferable.
• Deep DC pension market experience.
• Degree in Research, Statistics, Economics or related field.
• Proven commercial leadership experience.
• Knowledge of behavioural science or customer research methodologies.
• Experience in growth analytics, commercial insights, or business intelligence.
• Experience in competitor analysis and market intelligence.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Track record of translating data into strategic recommendations and outcomes.

Who We Are

We work in partnerships with governments and financial institutions in the UK and internationally. Our cloud-native digital platform is revolutionising how people around the world think about, and save for, their retirement. At heart, we’re a financial technology business. What we do is all about innovation, and using the power of digital change to put the customer first. Our Engineers will tell you that working at Smart gives you the opportunity to play your part in developing world-class technological solutions, working with – and learning from – like-minded people. You’ll also find that, across our business, our colleagues love Smart’s culture, and how what we do means better financial outcomes for savers. That feels worthwhile, and it means that what we do, collectively, goes way beyond the nine to five of a typical working day.

Benefits

• 25 days’ holiday per year, increasing with length of service.
• £500 annual training budget to spend on your professional development.
• Extensive private healthcare, including dental, eyecare and EAP.
• Enhanced sick leave (three months’ pay per year).
• Enhanced maternity and paternity (maternity – 6 months fully paid/paternity – 3 weeks fully paid).
• Death in service insurance cover.
• Fully-paid five-week sabbatical after five years of employment.
• In office wellbeing, such as manicures, massages and barbers.
• Smart employees also enjoy a 50% discount on orders from our sister company Arena Flowers, Britain's most ethical florist.

At Smart, we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to do their best work. We believe that diverse perspectives help us lead the way in transforming retirement, savings, and financial wellbeing. We welcome differences in background, experience, thinking, and identity, and we recognise that innovation is strongest when it is built on inclusion and fairness. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences and do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or in the workplace, we encourage you to let us know – we are committed to supporting you. We think Smart is an awesome place to work. If it sounds like somewhere you’d like to work, too, and if you’re ready to play your part in our continued success in the future, then naturally we’d love to meet you.