Associate Director Of Research & Insights

Base pay: £60k-70k

Principal level as per our Career Development Framework.

Bonus: 10% depending on company performance

EMI Share Options: £10,000

We've calculated this compensation in line with our Benchmarking Philosophy.

Opportunity for an Associate Director of Research & Insights to join a high-growth technology start-up focused on eliminating fuel poverty and improving living standards in social housing through data insights.

Role: Associate Director of Research & Insights

Reporting to: Head of Customer Success

Location: This is a field-based sales role, with a mix of remote working, customer travel, as well as limited company and head office gatherings.

Our mission

At Switchee, we believe that everyone deserves to live in a decent home and that the environments we inhabit have a massive influence on our ability to enjoy life and prosper.

One in five households in the UK live in social housing, a sector with the right values at its core but that has historically struggled to deploy innovations in the home. Many residents still can’t afford to heat their homes, and live in cold, mouldy properties they can’t be proud of.

We believe that radical innovation in internet-connected technology can ensure that every resident, every day, is living in a home that allows them to succeed. That’s why our products are built not just on great technology, but on an understanding of what people want from the space they live in.

This approach led us to reimagine the most mundane household object: the thermostat, into a product that automatically reduces energy bills, looks great, and offers control to those who want it. We are also revolutionising the way social landlords manage their housing stock with an obsessively tailored SaaS property dashboard and handy alerts on things like when the boiler is going to break.

Our goal is to perfect the ultimate connected hub for the social home. It’s going to revolutionise the way residents interact with their homes and landlords manage their properties.

Your responsibilities

This is a seminal role for Switchee and is a critical part of our growth strategy.

As the Research and Insight Associate Director, within the Customer Success department as part of a matrix customer team, you will be responsible for bringing the data & insight story to life for the customer, helping cement Switchee’s value, and ensuring Switchee remains a ‘must-have’.

You will inspire the Customer Success Managers as the bridge between the analysts and clients to tell the right stories at senior and strategic levels, whilst coordinating with the commercial owner, supporting the commercial objective for each assigned customer.

Switchee has had great success working with individual Housing Association departments to invest in and deploy the Switchee solution. However, we have found that the key to enterprise-scale customer relationships is working with and challenging the Executive and Senior leadership teams of the housing provider from the outset with genuine insight that helps them understand the challenges they face, in the delivery of their high order outcomes.

Possessing the Gravitas to engage with Academics, C-level with clients and deliver thought leadership as a peer at sector events. you are curious and will understand the influences and drivers of the sector (both current and future). You will be research driven with the ability to pick out the insight and trends from Switchee data within the context of the sector influences at large.

At Switchee your growth and development will be the focal point for your quarterly performance and progression conversations with your manager. We will encourage you to reflect on our Career Development Framework to enable you to grow in line with your scope of role and responsibilities. Our CDF is divided into levels where a selection of expected behaviours describes your ability to move up on the career ladder for your role. We have had 20% promotions in the last 12 months, and our manager-to-employee ratio is 1:3.

The Role:

• Work within an assigned set of existing customers to explore their research and insight needs using Switchee data to realise these.

• Assist and help define the customer Strategic Account Plan with the customer commercial lead.

• Lead small and mid-sized bespoke research and insights projects. Run large-scale projects with support from SLT.

• Create impactful stories based on both Switchee and external data delivered in high quality presentations for customers, the wider housing sector and government.

• Coach and mentor the Data team on research best practices.

• End-to-end project management – ensure projects meet key milestones, are on budget and the client is delighted with quality deliverables.

• Lead in brainstorming and execution, both at the beginning of the project for questionnaire/discussion guide design; and on the back end with analysis, story-boarding, and reporting

• In partnership with the commercial lead for the customer, draft, develop and present proposals to customers and wider audiences.

• Coordinate with academics / external studies that relate to the key topics impacting our customers where Switchee can have a positive impact.

We are a company built on a strong technical foundation, however, we deliver ‘business’ value. You’ll need to be able to grasp and communicate the business value of a technology-driven, verticalised solution with clients. We also expect you to work closely with Product Development and Customer Success to ensure our product evolves with the customer’s needs at the very centre.

Your experience

We firmly believe extraordinary people can come from a wide range of places – but we wouldn’t be surprised if the person who gets this role has:

• Experience in the Social Housing Industry (Housing Associations and Local Authorities).

• B2B research experience

• Experience in the housing sector / social research.

• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills

• Experience with statistical methods such as segmentation, conjoint, key drivers’ analysis – Experience with SPSS, Q, or similar software.

• Experience running run big complex B2B quant projects.

• Experience moderating interviews / workshops – Experience with a range of qualitative techniques (IDIs, focus groups)

• Strong understanding of the context, influencers and drivers of the social housing sector (both current and future), as well as keeping abreast of political, legislative and regulatory changes/challenges.

• Ability to engage with customers at a C-Suite level.

• Genuine curiosity for uncovering new insights and trends within Switchee data that can result in demonstrating how Switchee data can solve sector challenges.

Nice to have:

• Experience working with Internet of Things devices would be great.

• Experience with working with Housing CEO’s to develop and implement their transformational strategies

Who You Are
We are a diverse bunch of people at Switchee. That said, there are some characteristics we always look for:

• The desire to build something revolutionary.

• Care about the environment and are interested in energy efficiency.

• Interested in technology and neat solutions to complex problems.

• Biassed toward action.

• You're open, positive, and straightforward.

• We are not able to nurture success for those who don’t thrive on challenge and change.

• We are not a team for people who believe in negative chatter and gossip.

Perks

• Unlimited holiday policy + Bank Holidays so you can take as much as you want! No need to count those Winter break days anymore!
Everyone at Switchee enjoys flexible working hours and is the master of their own routine.

• We have a remote-first Hybrid Working Model, with offices near London Bridge.

• We will provide you with all the necessary equipment to work from home in a safe and enjoyable manner.

• We socialise together with regular outings in London, Quarterly Company Off-sites and an annual “working remotely” trip where you have the option (but no obligation) to join us in working from a fun location.

• We are hosting regular Virtual Socials and keep finding creative ways of staying connected with each other.

• We provide an L&D budget and access to our Switchee Library, where you can request new books monthly.

• We provide access to ThanksBen - a platform with plentiful discounts and free virtual well-being sessions.

• We offer Spill, a Mental Health app at your fingertips, where you can get in touch with a therapist in record time.

P.S Switchee is a Disability Confident Employer and we aim to provide reasonable adjustments for our new hires to ensure they are successful and supported in their roles. We also practice an anti-bias approach to recruitment. Read more about it here.

Application Process:

1. Phone Screen - with Keziah (Talent Coordinator)

2. Technical Interview - with Kate (Head of Customer Success) & member of the Data or Commercial team

3. Task & Role play - with Kate and other members of the commercial team

3. Culture Fit interview - with Olya (Head of People) & another SLT member

To prepare for the interview stages, review all the available information about Switchee online, and our careers website and most importantly, prepare real-life examples of having dealt with the responsibilities listed in the job description.

Our average time to hire is 24 days, this is from the moment we receive your CV to the offer letter sent.