Research Executive

Do you want to be part of a force for good, helping to make life better for customers & society in the moments that matter? At Hodge, we put people at the heart of our business and that means our customers, colleagues and communities. Hodge is a Welsh financial service provider that focus on commercial lending, and specialist residential mortgage markets.

This role involves supporting the Research and Proposition Manager on all customer and market research on behalf of Hodge, the role ensures key insights are available to the business and seeks to influence product and proposition development, customer strategy design and business transformation through informed recommendations.

You’ll work across the entire project cycle with responsibilities that include briefing new research projects, project managing new and existing studies, and reporting findings of research projects to stakeholders. This will involve both quantitative and qualitative studies. In bringing research and insight to the forefront of thinking across the business, this role will contribute significantly to the development of a customer-centric culture.

Behaviours and Values: 

Our purpose is to make life better for customers and society in the moments that matter. At all levels of the organisation, we foster an environment where our organisation values are an integral element of our day to day working practices.

Essential experience: 

• Strongly focussed on the customer
• Experienced in managing research projects and relationships with research agencies
• Delivering research projects to tight deadlines and within budget
• Analytically minded and comfortable working with quantitative and qualitative data
• Confident in presenting findings and making recommendations
• Familiar with customer experience measurement and reporting processes
• Able identify and then translate insights into commercial opportunities

In return we offer:

• Salary: up to £31,000
• Permanent Contract
• Based in Cardiff City Centre operating in a flexible Hybrid workspace.
• Private Medical & Health Insurance
• 28 days Holiday with the option to buy more + additional days based on the length of service.
• Subsidised Gym Membership.
• Extensive learning and development programme
• Generous, personalised benefits package
• Company pension contribution up to 15%
• 4 days on top of annual leave for community and charity work
• Flexible working options

Key responsibilities will include:

1. Use research and insight to influence business areas to get closer to the customer.
2. Support the research agenda, prioritising projects to support the delivery of business objectives.
3. Support the customer strategy agenda translating insights into business and customer opportunities
4. Understand the research needs of multiple departments, translating requirements into clear research briefs and plans.
5. Support on the end-to-end delivery of research projects, from audience segmentation and design through to analysis and presentation to internal stakeholders.
6. Partner with key business functions, especially Marketing, Products and Propositions, to deliver insights into audience attitudes, behaviours and needs that drive business action and support informed decisions.
7. Establish and own the development of customer and adviser research panels, including initial recruitment and on-going engagement.
8. Own the creation and distribution of the insight packs, including updates on customers, competitors, the marketplace and other industries.
9. Develop and promote an understanding of the customer segments specifically their goals, attitudes, behaviours, motivations and frustrations.
10. Support the development and delivery of solutions to market, ensuring customer insight fuels each design decision and solutions meet expectations for both the customer and business
11. Help shape and execute Hodge’s customer value proposition.

Please be aware that should we pursue your application, all our Financial Services employees will be expected to complete background checks to assess suitability for employment, these include; a criminal record, identity, sanctions, adverse finance, fraud prevention and reference checks to comply with our regulatory requirements.

Hodge is an advocate of being an equal opportunities employer, We believe in promoting equality and diversity which is central to our lives today. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and recognises the value a diverse workforce brings to an organisation.

ESG and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do and serves as a reminder of the responsibility we have to our stakeholders, customers, colleagues and the communities we operate in to use our position wisely. We’re currently exploring different certifications available and have done an initial review of how we think we’d fare, as we see this as a real opportunity for Hodge given our social purpose.