Research Manager

M·E·L Research is a social research agency, with expertise in research, evaluation and behavioural insights. With 40 years’ experience in working for the UK’s public services, we have a very strong focus on what we want to achieve as a business.

We believe that all businesses have a duty to be socially responsible to re-invest in society, be active contributors to the local community, and to minimise their environmental impacts. We push for social value – in why we work, how we work and who we work with. Click here to see our recently published Social Value report.

You can read more about what it is like to work at M·E·L Research here.

Our history and journey

Formed in 1985, M·E·L Research has grown steadily to a core in-house team of over 30 research and evaluation staff, plus many more telephone interviewers and external CAPI interviewers and support staff. We are on an exciting growth journey, expanding our research and insights capabilities, enhancing our evaluation services, and embedding our data visualisation tools alongside recognised quality accreditations.  

Joining M·E·L Research means becoming part of a confident and forward-looking company, ambitious about the future and committed to broadening the expertise and solutions we offer our clients. At the heart of everything we do is our social purpose: to make a meaningful and lasting difference to society, to the communities we serve, and to our own people.

Benefits

Full details on what it is like to work for M·E·L Research can be found here.  

We offer employees a wide range of generous benefits including:  

• Annual pay reviews and cost-of-living pay increases (also subject to the company’s financial performance).  
• Flexible working arrangements based around the needs of the employee (such as family commitments/needs/childcare).  We are a very family-orientated business and encourage flexible hours and homeworking.  
• Provision of employer contributions to Royal London personal pension scheme starting from a 4% contribution and rising to 8% (subject to employee contributions that meet the auto-enrolment requirements)  
• In addition, paid annual leave allowance of 33 days per annum, including bank holidays (pro-rated for part-time hours), and your birthday  
• 2 paid volunteer days per year  
• Life assurance policy at 3x basic annual salary  
• Health cashback medical care scheme and employee benefits scheme inc. retail discounts  
• Eligibility for annual company profit and performance bonus scheme dependent on company performance  

Job description

Post: Research Manager

Job Location: Remote (with a requirement to occasionally come into the Birmingham office)

Reporting to: Associate Director / Research Director

Salary Range: £34,000-£40,000 depending on experience/location (37.5 Hours per week) plus potential profit bonus, pension and other benefits .

Full job specification

For the full job specification, please see the Research Manager briefing pack.

Person specification

We are looking for someone who combines excellent research expertise with strong consultancy
skills. You will enjoy working directly with clients, solving problems, and finding better ways to
generate and communicate insight.

Essential

• Applicants must be UK residents with the right to work in the UK
• At least five years’ experience in quantitative market or social research.
• Experience managing quantitative research projects from design through to reporting.
• Strong understanding of telephone, online and face-to-face research methodologies.
• Excellent understanding of sampling, weighting and statistical quality.
• Strong project management skills.
• Experience presenting findings to senior clients.
• Excellent written communication and report writing skills.
• Confident managing multiple concurrent projects.

Desirable experience:

• Customer Experience (CX) research.
• Resident satisfaction or social housing research.
• Public sector research.
• Employee research.
• Segmentation studies.
• Key Driver Analysis.
• Dashboard design.
• Power BI or Tableau.
• Forsta platforms.
• Data visualisation.
• SQL or advanced Excel.
• Experience working with CRM or customer feedback platforms.

Personal Qualities:

We’re looking for someone who is:

• Is naturally curious.
• Enjoys working collaboratively.
• Thinks strategically as well as operationally.
• Takes ownership of projects.
• Builds confidence with clients.
• Communicates clearly and professionally.
• Embraces innovation and continuous improvement.
• Is passionate about improving public services through research.
• Enjoys mentoring and supporting colleagues.

What you’ll bring to M·E·L Research

You will help us continue to evolve our quantitative research offer by combining methodological excellence with digital innovation. Whether delivering large-scale customer experience programs, resident satisfaction tracking, public consultations, or complex mixed-method studies, you will ensure our clients receive evidence they can trust—and insight they can act upon. Most importantly, you’ll share our belief that great research has the power to improve services, strengthen communities and make a genuine difference to people’s lives.

Equal opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age. We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment process is fair, transparent and free from discrimination or bias. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application process or have any questions about our approach to diversity and inclusion, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Applications

If you are interested in applying for this role, please upload your CV and a cover letter outlining your experience and why you are interested in working for M·E·L Research via the section below.

Applications close on 11th August 2026

Apply Now