About the Role
In this individual contributor position, the Research Director plays a pivotal role in driving the identification, testing, and adoption of innovative research methodologies, technologies, and AI capabilities within the Advisors Research Center (ARC). The Research Director combines expertise in global research innovation with a focus on supporting research solutions in the Arabia region. This role necessitates a strong ability to influence, manage stakeholders, and collaborate across functions while demonstrating commercial acumen.
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Key Responsibilities
Research Innovation & AI
- Identify emerging research, AI, and automation opportunities across the research lifecycle.
- Design and execute pilots to assess new methodologies, tools, and vendors.
- Develop recommendations on adoption, scaling, or discontinuation based on evidence and business impact.
- Support insourcing and product teams by providing research expertise and validated innovation findings.
- Evaluate research and AI vendors for quality, commercial fit, scalability, and compliance.
- Drive responsible AI adoption aligned with governance, privacy, and quality standards.
- Develop playbooks, training, and best practices to enable adoption across ARC.
Arabia Research Solutions
- Serve as a key point of contact for research intake, scoping, methodology design, and pricing.
- Support proposal development and project handovers to delivery teams.
- Manage vendor feasibility assessments, RFQs/RFPs, and fieldwork procurement.
- Coordinate supplier onboarding and contracting with Legal, Sourcing, and Privacy teams.
- Maintain reporting and dashboards for revenue, pipeline, backlog, and business performance.
- Support internal enablement and communication of ARC offerings and research capabilities.
Qualifications & Experience
- Extensive experience in market research, research technology, or agency environments.
- Deep knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
- Experience applying AI, automation, or emerging technologies to research processes.
- Strong skills in experimentation, vendor management, commercial negotiations, and project governance.
- Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
- Strong analytical, reporting, communication, and documentation skills.
- Experience in financial services, payments, technology, retail, or similar data-rich industries is preferred.
Success Measures
- Increased adoption of validated research innovations and AI capabilities.
- Improved research delivery efficiency, cost savings, and cycle-time reduction.
- Strong proposal quality, pricing accuracy, and pipeline conversion.
- Effective vendor management, consolidation, and commercial outcomes.
- Accurate business reporting and visibility across revenue and pipeline performance.
- Successful transition of validated capabilities into ARC delivery, product, and insourcing initiatives.
Corporate Security Responsibility
All activities involving access to assets, information, and networks come with inherent risk. Thus, it is expected that every person working for, or on behalf of, the organization is responsible for information security and must:
- Abide by security policies and practices;
- Ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the information being accessed;
- Report any suspected information security violation or breach; and
- Complete all periodic mandatory security trainings in accordance with guidelines.
