Research Lead
Location: Dunstable, Bedfordshire (LU5 5XE) - 3 days per week, with 2 days from home or another location
Salary: £55,000 - £60,000 dependant on skills & experiences + up to 20% bonus + up to 10% pension contributions + healthcare + bens
Role Type: Permanent
Function: Customer Engagement
At Premier Inn, understanding our guests is central to how we improve their experience and make better business decisions. We’re looking for an experienced Research Lead who can turn customer evidence into clear, compelling insight that shapes everything from our service standards, and food and beverage offer to how we understand and engage different guest segments.
You will be reporting to the Senior Insight Manager, and lead research projects from initial brief through to final recommendations. Assignments will vary significantly, with some delivered within days and others spanning several months. You’ll partner with senior stakeholders across Commercial and Operations, helping them translate business challenges into focused research questions and practical action.
You’ll design and deliver a blend of qualitative and quantitative research, using approaches such as interviews, customer surveys, and site intercepts. Responsible for running the workflow of research through our online community of approximately 8,000 guests. You’ll also bring together existing research, customer experience data and wider market evidence to identify opportunities, risks and gaps in our understanding.
This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to major initiatives, including a significant customer segmentation programme, the launch of a guest-obsessed customer closeness programme and Ad hoc research which directly shapes propositions and strategy.
Alongside managing external research partners and building trusted relationships with senior leaders, you’ll line manage and develop a Research Executive, providing coaching throughout the research lifecycle.
What we’re looking for
- Research experience, gained client-side or within an agency
- Strong hands-on qualitative and quantitative research capability
- Previous line-management, coaching or people-development experience
- Confidence turning complex findings into clear stories and recommendations
- Strong stakeholder, project and agency-management skills
- Good data literacy, without needing to be a statistician or analyst
- An understanding of research ethics, data protection and good practice
Experience within hospitality, travel, retail or another customer-led organisation would be advantageous.
If you’re passionate about ensuring the guest voice genuinely influences decisions, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re proud to be a Top Employer for 14 consecutive years, a top apprenticeship employer, a Leader in Stonewall’s Proud Employer Accreditation, and a Top 25 Exemplary Employer in the Investing in Ethnicity Parliamentary Matrix.
Skills Required
- Research experience gained client-side or within an agency
- Strong hands-on qualitative and quantitative research capability
- Previous line-management, coaching, or people-development experience
- Ability to turn complex findings into clear stories and recommendations
- Strong stakeholder, project, and agency-management skills
- Good data literacy
- Understanding of research ethics, data protection, and good practice
- Experience within hospitality, travel, retail, or another customer-led organisation
What We Do
Whitbread is a UK hospitality company that owns and operates Premier Inn, the country’s largest hotel brand, alongside restaurant brands including Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Bar + Block, Cookhouse and Pub, and Table Table. Its business spans more than 1,200 hotels and restaurants across the UK, with a growing hotel presence in Germany and the Middle East, serving millions of guests through recognizable hospitality brands.
