Senior Research Manager

Part of M&C Saatchi, this specialist division partners with governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector, to work on the critical issues of our time, including, conflict prevention and sustainable development. We provide a fully integrated, end to end service, combining multi-disciplinary communications teams with subject matter experts, across the world. Our work is domestic and global, often affecting the most vulnerable in society, with international activity orientated towards conflict affected or developing countries.

We are looking for a proactive, creative, and analytically minded Senior Research Manager to join our team in Singapore. This is a management based role that requires someone who is culturally aware, savvy, and highly organised, with strong experience high-quality research and evaluation across multiple communications programs.

The role supports the Senior Research Director & Head of Indo-Pacific in the day-to-day running of the Singapore research function, combining hands-on research delivery with people management, partner coordination, and continuous improvement of research standards and processes. The Senior Research Manager ensures research is embedded across the full communications lifecycle, from formative insight and message development through to evaluation, learning, and optimisation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Research delivery (end-to-end)

• Lead and oversee research across the full communications lifecycle, including formative research, pre-testing, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

• Design and implement evaluation strategies aligned to behaviour change objectives, logframes, and Theories of Change.

• Oversee the use of qualitative, quantitative, and digital methods, ensuring methodological rigour and consistency.

• Analyse, synthesise, and sense-check data and analysis produced by the team to ensure accuracy, insight quality, and relevance.

• Own the production of high-quality client-facing reports (baseline, midline, endline), demonstrating excellent writing, synthesis, and storytelling skills to translate complex analysis into clear, compelling, and actionable insight.

• Act as a point of escalation for project-level delivery issues and represent the research team in internal discussions with Accounts, Strategy, and Production teams.

Team management

• Hold formal line management responsibility for Research Managers, (Senior) Analysts, and interns, including objectives, appraisals, and performance feedback.

• Coach and develop team members across analysis, writing, storytelling, and project delivery.

• Support onboarding and contribute to internal training, identifying skills gaps and supporting targeted capability development.

• Foster a collaborative, high-quality research culture within the Singapore office.

• Provide regular upward reporting to the Senior Research Director on delivery, quality, resourcing, and risks.

Managing research partner relationships

• Manage relationships with external research partners delivering primary research.

• Oversee quality, timelines, and scope adherence across outsourced work.

• Resolve delivery challenges or methodological issues in collaboration with partners.

• Coordinate inputs from partners and internal teams to ensure coherent and timely reporting.

AI, innovation, and process improvement

• Use AI tools to support desk research, synthesis, analysis, and reporting where appropriate.

• Encourage responsible adoption of AI-enabled research practices across the team.

• Contribute to improving research efficiency, consistency, and quality through better tools, templates, and workflows.

ABOUT YOU

• Highly organised, able to manage multiple projects and deadlines

• Creative thinker with strong problem-solving capabilities

• Comfortable presenting ideas, strategies, and reports to clients or internal teams

• Ability to work independently and collaborate across teams

Skills and experience

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in research, monitoring, and evaluation, ideally within communications, behaviour change, or social impact contexts.

• Strong experience designing and delivering qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research.

• Proven ability to manage research projects end-to-end, from design through to client-ready reporting.

• Excellent writing and storytelling skills, with experience producing clear, structured, and compelling insight reports.

• Experience line managing or mentoring junior and mid-level researchers, including training and capability development.

• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver to deadlines.

• Experience working with behaviour change frameworks, Theories of Change, logframes, and evaluation strategies.

• Experience or strong interest in geopolitics, social research, and information environments.

• Experience working in complex or international contexts, globally and across Asia-pacific.

• Experience using, or strong interest in, AI tools across the research lifecycle.

• Monitoring and OSINT experience is desirable.

WHAT YOU WILL GET

For the right candidate, we will offer a competitive salary and benefits package along with all the necessary personal development required to set someone up for success.

ABOUT M&C SAATCHI GROUP

M&C Saatchi Group is a creative company that connects specialist expertise, fuelled by data, technology, and culture, to help clients navigate, create, and lead meaningful change. The Group operates across five core divisions: Connected Creativity; Passion Marketing; Global & Social Issues; Brand, Experience & Innovation; and Performance Media. Headquartered in London, operations span 23 countries with major hubs in the UK, Europe, US, Middle East & Africa, Asia and Australia.

M&C Saatchi Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer which does not discriminate, celebrates diversity and bases all hiring and promotion decisions solely on talent and capability, without regard for any personal characteristics.

All employee information is kept confidential according to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

APPLICATIONS CLOSE FRIDAY, 6 MARCH 2026. NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES.