At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead research on customer behaviour and guide a team of researchers.
- Company: Wise, a global tech company revolutionising money management.
- Benefits: Inclusive culture, career growth, and the chance to make a real impact.
- Other info: Dynamic environment with a focus on diversity and inclusion.
- Why this job: Join a mission-driven team creating a fair financial system for everyone.
- Qualifications: Experience in UX research and team leadership required.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
hackajob is collaborating with Wise to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.
Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.
Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their lives easier and save them money.
As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere.
We’re looking for a Lead Design Researcher to join the Onboarding Squad in London. You’ll be part of Wise's global mission to build an open and fair financial system.
Your mission is to lead research on how our customers behave in our acquisition funnel. You’ll work as the lead researcher for a pod of 4 teams covering SEO, comparison, referrals and our website. You’ll join a thriving research community of 20+ researchers in London and work on the most important research for 4 of the Onboarding squad's teams.
As a Lead Researcher, most of your time will be doing hands-on research doing the strategic leadership with support of your lead around the work. You’ll ship important strategic and evaluative research while taking responsibility for the research direction for the teams in your pod, always prioritising the most impactful work for the customer. You’ll also manage and mentor one junior researcher within your area.
This role is suitable for a researcher who has led strategic direction and a small team before, or this might be your first leadership role for an experienced and grounded Senior/Staff researcher.
As a Lead Researcher, you’re evolving as a leader. You’ll contribute by:
- Setting priorities and research direction: proactively prioritise for yourself and others, understanding how the work connects to squad and business goals.
- Elevating craft and capabilities: lead by example and actively develop the research thinking and technical capabilities of individuals, the team and the squad.
- Articulating strategy: clearly communicate research strategy to your teams and key stakeholders, positively influencing focus and priorities.
- Demonstrating impact through people: mentor and guide team members, ensuring their growth and improved performance creates downstream impact.
- Influencing senior leaders: skilfully negotiate with teams, squads and senior leaders across the organisation to drive user-centred decision making.
- Leading with guts: set clear goals and direction for others, course-correcting when necessary, and champion quality, the user and a human-centred approach.
- Using modern tools thoughtfully: leverage AI and emerging tools where they help accelerate research delivery and impact, while maintaining research rigour and quality.
A bit about you…
Research excellence:
- Deep experience with both generative and evaluative research; exceptional problem-solving and holistic research thinking.
- Strong judgment in choosing the right research approach for different levels of ambiguity and complexity.
- Skilled at building decision confidence through well-designed studies and clear evidence.
- Expert at connecting user evidence to business outcomes that drive action.
- Proven track record of scaling research influence across teams and senior stakeholders.
- Experience with mixed-method studies and modern research tools, including thoughtful use of AI.
- Able to guide teams on actioning insights and work closely with designers to ideate based on findings.
- Top-notch presentation and storytelling skills, especially when sharing impactful insights.
- A strong point of view on how AI should be being used by researchers, and demonstrate how you have been using it to elevate your craft.
Leadership competencies:
- Experience managing and developing researchers, with examples of elevating team capabilities and performance.
- Proven ability to set clear goals and priorities for others that connect to business objectives.
- Skilled at influencing senior leaders and negotiating across teams and squads.
- Track record of championing research quality, user advocacy, and human-centred design at the organisational level.
Strategic impact:
- Able to articulate research strategy and positively influence squad and team focus.
- Deep understanding of how research connects to team, squad and business goals.
- Examples of mentoring others to create downstream impact through their growth.
As a heads up, this role probably isn’t for you if:
- Your experience is primarily market research and/or academia.
- You don’t have demonstrable experience leading UX research within the tech/product industry.
- You haven’t managed or mentored researchers before.
- You’re not comfortable navigating the complexity of overseeing multiple product areas in a fast-paced environment.
For everyone, everywhere. We’re people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.
We’re proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences. Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.
If you want to find out more about what it’s like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.
Keep up to date with life at Wise by following us on LinkedIn and Instagram.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Researcher Lead in London
✨Get Involved in Data Science Meetups
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We think you need these skills to ace Researcher Lead in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show Off Your Projects:In the world of data science, your projects can speak volumes about your skills. Make sure to showcase a few key projects in your CV or portfolio, especially those that highlight your ability to work with data sets, build models, or use relevant tools like Python, R, or SQL. Don’t forget to include links to any GitHub repositories if applicable!
Quantify Your Achievements:Employers love numbers! When drafting your CV, highlight your achievements with quantifiable results. For instance, mention how your data analysis led to a certain percentage increase in efficiency or revenue at a previous job or project. These details can really make your application pop!
Craft a Tailored Cover Letter:For a full-time role at Wise, your cover letter should reflect your passion for data science and your excitement about the specific projects or values of the company. Dive into why you’re a good fit, how your skills align with their needs, and any unique perspectives you can bring to the team.
Stand Out with Relevant Courses and Certifications:Although experience talks, relevant courses or certifications can be your ticket to impressing hiring managers at Wise. Mention any standout courses you've completed that equipped you with essential skills, such as machine learning certifications or data visualisation courses. This shows your commitment to continuously developing your skills in the field!
How to prepare for a job interview at Wise
✨Brush Up on Your Statistics
For a data science role, we need to seriously sharpen our statistics skills. Get ready to tackle technical questions on probability distributions, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. These are often the bread and butter of data science interviews, so don't just skim over them!
✨Showcase Your Projects
Prepare a killer portfolio showcasing your data science projects. We should include details about the datasets used, the tools and techniques applied, and the impact of your findings. If we can walk them through a particularly challenging project or a cool visualisation that had real-world implications, it’ll really make us stand out!
✨Get Comfortable with Python and R
Most data science positions require us to be proficient in programming languages like Python and R. We should practice common libraries like pandas, NumPy, and scikit-learn, and be ready for live coding exercises or algorithm questions. Showing off our coding chops can really impress the interviewers at Wise!
✨Prepare for Case Studies
Expect to encounter real-world case studies during the interview. We might be asked how we’d approach a data problem or analyse a dataset to extract insights. It's essential to think out loud and demonstrate our problem-solving process so that the interviewer can see our logical thinking in action.
