Senior Research Manager

Discover Durham is Durham’s marketing and sales agency, generating economic impact by attracting 13 million leisure, business and sports visitors to our vibrant community. Discover Durham also operates the Durham Sports Commission (DSC), a 501(c)(3) whose mission is to create economic and social impact by leading the community’s efforts to attract, support and promote sporting events at every level, as well as Durham Next, a nonprofit community partnership focused on the sustainable advancement of Durham as the best place to live, work and visit. 

We’re looking for a Senior Research Manager to join our team and turn data into insights that help shape Durham’s future. 

This role leads Discover Durham’s destination research efforts— helping shape Durham's next destination brand, understanding who visits Durham and why, measuring the economic impact of tourism, tracking how residents and stakeholders feel about it, and identifying where new opportunities exist.  

The Senior Research Manager sits on the Content & PR team and reports to the Director of Content & PR. This is a hands-on, highly collaborative role that works across marketing, communications and public relations, strategic initiatives, and with the Durham Sports Commission and Durham Next. The role also interfaces and works with many of our community partners and festivals. The role isn’t just about gathering and reporting data, but instead, taking the data and helping colleagues understand what it means and what to do next. 

Projects You Will Lead and Manage: 

Discover Durham’s Senior Research Manager will own and commission a portfolio of projects. Some studies happen once and shape the organization for years to come; others will recur on a regular cycle, yearly or every other year, providing insight into Durham’s tourism economy. Examples of projects include: 

• Destination Brand Research & Development — Lead the research that will help inform Durham’s future destination brand. 

  • Identify Durham’s top competitor markets for in-state and out-of-state visitors and conduct brand positioning research against those destinations. 

  • Develop audience personas for core visitation segments and emerging opportunity audiences. 

  • Establish a measurement framework and baseline for awareness and perceptions of Durham and the new destination brand among residents, partners and out-of-market audiences. 

  • Identify and manage research vendors supporting focus groups, concept testing and other qualitative research. 

  • Lead concept validation and audience testing, translating findings into clear recommendations for the destination brand working group. 

• Day-Tripper & Visitor Conversion Research — Develop insights that help Discover Durham understand day-trip visitors and identify opportunities to encourage more overnight stays.  

  • Research Durham’s day-trip audiences, including their origins, behaviors and motivations. 

  • Identify high-opportunity audiences, markets and time periods for visitor conversion. 

  • Develop insights that can inform out-of-market partnerships, activations and marketing campaigns. 

  • Work with the marketing team to translate findings into strategy and measure visitation lift. 

• Brand Sentiment & Lift Measurement — Measure how travelers in Durham’s priority origin markets perceive Durham and how those perceptions change as the new destination brand is introduced and on an ongoing basis as our work evolves.  

  • Establish pre-launch baselines for awareness, familiarity, consideration and key destination attributes. 

  • Design ongoing research to measure changes in destination perception and brand performance. 

  • Partner with the marketing team to ensure national advertising campaigns are structured to support valid brand-lift measurement. 

  • Translate results into clear recommendations for improving marketing and communications strategy and creative. 

• Visitor Profiles, Volume, Spending and Economic Impact — Lead research that helps Discover Durham understand the size, characteristics and economic value of Durham’s visitor economy. 

  • Manage visitor research studies from scoping and vendor selection through fielding, quality review and delivery. 

  • Analyze visitor profiles, visitation volume, expenditure data and other measures of tourism activity. 

  • Identify trends and insights that can inform destination strategy, marketing and partner priorities. 

  • Translate findings into clear, compelling outputs for leadership, partners, media and the public. 

• Triangle & County-Wide Economic Impact Studies — Support major economic impact research that demonstrates the broader value of tourism and sports to Durham and the Triangle. 

  • Support the commissioned county-wide economic impact study. 

  • Support research examining the Triangle sports ecosystem and its effects on Durham County. 

  • Translate findings into useful insights for leadership, partners, policymakers and the public. 

• Resident & Stakeholder Sentiment Survey — Lead research that measures how Durham residents and stakeholders view tourism and its impact on the community. 

  • Develop research objectives, core question banks and rotating modules that address emerging priorities. 

  • Build or commission surveys using appropriate sampling and conditional logic. 

  • Develop rollout and engagement strategies that generate meaningful year-over-year insights across a diverse cross-section of residents and stakeholders. 

  • Incorporate project-specific questions from Durham Next, the Durham Sports Commission and other organizational partners. 

  • Translate findings into an advocacy baseline that feeds talking points, board and leadership materials and insights for Durham Next, the Durham Sports Commission and other partners who contributed questions. 

Additional Ongoing Responsibilities: 

Alongside those projects, the Research Manager carries a steady set of ongoing responsibilities: 

• Economic Impact Analysis  

  • Serve as a practitioner and power user of the organization’s Event Impact Calculator. Complete approximately three to four venue-level studies each year. As economic impact work is distributed across the organization and some economic impact reports will be completed by an outside contractor or vendor, serve as the methodology steward and technical resource, providing templates, best practices, training, question banks and quality review to ensure results are consistent and defensible across the Discover Durham family of brands.  

• Vendor and Calendar Management  

  • Manage day-to-day relationships with research vendors, including Longwoods International, Tourism Economics, Destinations International and studies contracted through the Visit NC cooperative. Manage scopes of work, timelines, deliverable review and invoicing with Finance. Maintain a multi-year research calendar that aligns studies with Blueprint milestones, budget cycles and brand development phases. 

• Insight and Translation 

  • Turn research findings into useful, accessible outputs for audiences without a research background, including talking points, fact sheets, presentations, press-ready data, Board materials and web content. Partner with the Content & PR team to identify data-driven story opportunities and increase the use of research in public-facing reports, press releases and web content. Supply data and talking points to public affairs supporting advocacy priorities. Fact-check data and claims across owned, earned and paid media. 

• Reporting  

  • Lead research and visitation data collection for the annual Tourism Impact Report. Produce recurring performance reporting for leadership, the Board, hospitality partners and other public stakeholders on a predictable schedule. 

• Partner Value and Industry Engagement 

  • Deliver research-based value to external partners, including hospitality businesses, attractions, municipal and county agencies and Durham Next stakeholders. Contribute to and represent Discover Durham in industry research communities, including Destinations International, bringing emerging practices and ideas back to the organization. 

• Emerging Methodology Pilots  

  • Explore new ways to measure areas where traditional research and economic impact methodologies may not provide a complete picture. 

Experience Requirements and Expectations: 

We’re looking for a curious, analytical and highly organized researcher who can move comfortably between data, strategy and storytelling. 

• High school diploma, or equivalent, required. 

• 5-8 years of experience in research, market research, economic analysis or a closely related field. 

• Demonstrated experience designing or managing studies end to end — scoping, vendor selection, fielding, quality review and delivery. 

• Hands-on experience producing economic impact analysis, or comparable applied quantitative analysis, with the ability to explain and defend methodology to a skeptical audience. 

• Strong quantitative skills and fluency in Excel; comfort working with survey data, third-party datasets and analytics platforms. 

• Survey design experience, including question construction and sampling considerations. 

• Experience facilitating qualitative research — focus groups, stakeholder interviews and community listening sessions — including the ability to run a room of partners or residents, draw out candid input and synthesize what's said into clear findings. 

• Strong writing and presentation skills, with the ability to make complex findings clear and compelling to audiences without a research background. 

• Sound judgment about data integrity — knowing what a number can and cannot support and saying so. 

• Excellent project management skills and the ability to manage multiple studies, vendors and deadlines simultaneously. 

• Must have a valid N.C. driver’s license. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in market research, economics, statistics, public policy, geography, marketing, hospitality or a related field. 

• Destination marketing, tourism, economic development or hospitality experience. 

• Familiarity with IMPLAN or comparable input-output economic modeling. 

• Experience supporting brand research, including positioning studies, persona development, concept testing or brand lift measurement. 

• Data visualization skills and experience building recurring dashboards or reports. 

• Familiarity with Durham and/or experience working with a destination or tourism organization. 

Why Discover Durham: 

Discover Durham offers exceptional benefits, including employer-paid insurance premiums for staff; employer contributions to an HSA; generous retirement contributions to the NC pension program; a flexible hybrid work schedule; generous vacation and holiday allowances; paid parental leave; a wellness stipend; a monthly mobile device stipend; paid downtown parking; and a great team of coworkers. 

This is a hybrid position, with employees expected to work in the office at least three days per week. Our office is located on Main Street in the heart of downtown Durham. 

As the Senior Research Manager, you can expect to work 40 hours per week and earn a salary between $75,000.00 and $80,000.00. 

Discover Durham is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran.

PLEASE, NO PHONE CALLS, EMAILS, OR WALK-INS REGARDING THIS POSITION.