Director Research

Director, Research
 
About the Role: 
 
We’re looking for an experienced Director Research who has delivered significant results at a company level — defining strategy, overseeing sophisticated processes and organisational challenges, hiring and developing top talent and acting as a trusted advisor to senior leadership. Naturally data-driven, you cut through complexity to identify high impact opportunities and simple solutions. You act decisively on these insights and collaborate with colleagues in ways which inspires and motivates. Above all, you are in touch with the end user, working constantly to understand their pain-points and exceed their expectations.  

The goal of our Director Research is to drive continuous progress toward the team’s vision of delivering user insights that spur major incremental growth and underpin all key product decisions, as well as enabling all teams at Skyscanner to better understand our users and partners.  

You will lead, enable, develop and inspire a friendly, collaborative and dynamic team of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods researchers across our three European offices.  

You will partner with senior stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of key insights, represent the voice of our users and partners, as well as travellers more broadly, and identify white space opportunities for exploration or innovation.  

This role requires exceptional collaboration, and an ability to hear the business needs and build trusted relationships and consensus with colleagues at all levels. Skyscanner is a data-driven organisation, and the successful candidate will be comfortable with using this (both qualitative and quantitative) to support decisions and measure results.   

Often, the problem spaces are large and the business objectives complex and ambiguously scoped, so we are looking for individuals who are comfortable navigating this and delivering high-quality outcomes. Skyscanner’s leaders are collaborators, not empire-builders, and they will adapt frequently to optimise for the right company result.   

Skyscanner combines strong legacy with an entrepreneurial edge to drive ambitious growth goals. As a brand with a big role to play, both for travellers and our partners, we have the opportunity to legitimately challenge and disrupt the sector and help travellers explore the world effortlessly for generations to come. 

Key Responsibilities:   

• Lead a team of User and Consumer Researchers and actively help them develop into the User Research leaders of tomorrow through mentorship and coaching  

• Connect the dots across all data, research and otherwise (user / partner / consumer / market / behavioural analytics / financials / etc) to surface and evangelise the most impactful insights for the business across the business, including at CxO level 

• Build upon the long-term vision for User Research, ensuring strategies evolve as needed to align with business needs and continuously exceed expectations  

• Proactively and autonomously define and solve previously unidentified ambiguous problems across the business.  

• Work in a highly collaborative way across the whole organisation, bridging disciplines and levels to continually learn, optimise processes, and drive growth  

• Grow the User Research team in a lean way to maximise impact on the product and therefore commercial results  

• Identify and shape strategic company-wide initiatives on the mid and long-term research roadmap, gaining buy-in from partner disciplines and leadership  

• Create the environment for timely delivery of the right research methods and business outcomes.  

• Take pride in the craft & teach it 

 Key Skills: 

• Experience as a Director Research / Head of Research or equivalent, ideally in a fast-paced tech environment  

• Deep, first-hand experience with a range of research methodologies; an expert who is able to coach and teach across a breadth of qualitative and quantitative methods  

• Track record of owning large, complex product initiatives to successful completion, resulting in significant business growth  

• A self-starter with business savvy, expert storyteller, trusted collaborator, and inspiring leader with a passion for impact and efficiency  

• Literacy of the product design process and how to feed insights into the process  

• Literacy of consumer research and how to inform brand & marketing strategies  

• Experience hiring, mentoring, and developing top talent  

• University degree in a relevant field preferred (e.g. Psychology, HCI, Statistics, Business…), but we welcome applicants from all educational backgrounds  

• A passion for travel  

• Bonus points for experience growing / building a User Research team, working on a two-sided marketplace, or experience in a mid-size tech company