Research Executive

Location
Chicago, IL
Workplace
On-site

About this role

The foundational execution role. This person builds fluency across the full project lifecycle and increasingly owns core components of design, fieldwork, analysis, and story development.

The Research Executive supports and increasingly owns core pieces of qualitative and quantitative custom research, contributing across project setup, materials development, fieldwork, analysis, and reporting. This is not an administrative support role. It is a growth role for someone who can think critically, synthesize evidence, communicate clearly, and build toward fuller project leadership.

Core responsibilities

Support all major phases of research: backgrounding, design, fieldwork, analysis, and reporting.

Draft screeners, discussion guides, and other core project materials with appropriate guidance.

Manage fieldwork details with increasing independence, and escalate issues early.

Organize notes, observations, and early findings accurately and clearly.

Contribute to debriefs, theme development, and early story building.

Communicate professionally with clients and internal partners on project-specific matters.

Work effectively with PMs, operations, analytics, moderators, and vendors.

Use AI responsibly and transparently to strengthen work, while remaining accountable for accuracy, judgment, and final output.

How the role works here

A strong Executive learns the real operating system of the business, not only abstract research methods. They understand how qualitative and quantitative studies move through kickoff, materials, fieldwork, debrief, reporting, and close-out — and know how to contribute productively at each step.

What we are looking for

Must-haves

Critical thinking and synthesis

Clear written and verbal communication

Qual and quant exposure, or strength in one and the ability to learn the other

Comfort with ambiguity and deadlines

Ownership, judgment, coachability

Genuine interest in healthcare and life sciences

Helpful experience

Healthcare, public health, life sciences, or clinical research exposure

Survey tools, qual platforms, analytics software

Responsible AI use on real research work

Adjacent backgrounds

Market research

Public health or clinical research

Business analytics

Marketing research graduate programs

Strategy, UX, or mixed-method research


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