Research Manager

About us

CCW is the passionate, independent voice representing water consumers in England & Wales. We support thousands of people each year, providing free advice and helping people to resolve their complaints with their water company in an easy, caring way. We champion everyone’s needs and interests, completing and showcasing research that influences water companies, government, and regulators to make change happen.

We are a government Arm’s Length Body sponsored by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Our values

We expect and support all CCW colleagues to embody and celebrate CCW’s values through Positive Energy, Respect for all, Innovative spirit, Delivery of our promises and being Engaged as one (PRIDE).

The role

The Research Manager is responsible for delivering CCW’s research programme, ensuring that all research is robust, credible and aligned with organisational priorities. The role manages externally delivered research projects, and ensures findings are translated into actionable insight that strengthens CCW’s evidence base and informs policy, engagement and consumer advocacy.

Key responsibilities

• Manage CCW’s research portfolio from proposal through procurement, delivery
• Identifying and developing research solutions and opportunities for research innovation
• Translate research briefs into procurement specifications in line with the Procurement Act
• Represent CCW on externally led research working groups and workshops
• Ensure all research complies with the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct and maintain up‑to‑date research skills

Develop CCW’s evidence base to maximise insight:

• Identify key issues within research findings and shape the narrative for insight reports
• Join up evidence across projects, including consumer panels, identifying contradictions, gaps or new questions and proposing further testing
• Produce specific insight reports throughout the year, grounded in robust research

Lead CCW’s assessment of water company consumer engagement:

• Identify comparative engagement approaches used by water companies during business planning, highlighting gaps, inconsistencies and good practice
• Provide evidence‑based recommendations to strengthen consumer engagement across the sector

The candidate

Essential skills & experience:

• Project management experience
• Recent experience in customer research and a range of research techniques
• Educated to degree level (or equivalent)
• Member of the Market Research Society, or willingness to obtain membership within six months
• Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret qualitative and quantitative findings
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Research development skills and strong IT capability

To ensure you’re well-prepared before applying to work at CCW, we’ve laid out everything you need to know on our information for applicants page.

Benefits

• Hybrid working policy: 8 days per month office based, remainder can be worked from home.
• 25 days annual leave allowance plus 10½ days’ public and privilege holidays.
• Flexi time is available, with the ability to accrue and take time off in lieu throughout the year.
• Generous Civil Service Pension
• Health & Fitness allowance
• Paid allowance days for voluntary work
• Wellbeing Hour once a month
• Onsite Coffee shop
• Free Eye Test every 2 years and Free Flu Jab annually

Disability Confident Scheme

We guarantee an interview to anyone with a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. To be eligible for the guaranteed interview scheme you must have a disability or long-term health condition. The disability could be physical, sensory or mental and must be expected to last for at least 12 months. You do not have to be registered as a disabled person to apply under the scheme.

If you would like to apply through this scheme, please fill in the Disability Confident Scheme form and include this with your application.

We want everyone to have a fair chance, no matter their age, disability, gender identity, marital status, family status, race, religion/belief, sex or sexual orientation. All applications are considered fairly based on merit. To enable us to monitor this, candidates are asked to complete the voluntary Equal Opportunity Monitoring form. The information provided will be kept confidential and will be used for monitoring purposes only.