The posting
Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at accenture.com.
The Design Research Lead collects, processes, and analyzes user, stakeholder, and market data and translates it into actionable insights that shape product and service decisions. As a Lead, you organize and direct a research team and collaborate across disciplines to validate concepts, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities to improve user experiences. You operate with a high level of independence and are accountable for end-to-end research ownership, including research quality, stakeholder alignment, and delivery outcomes.
Scope & Complexity
In this role, you are expected to demonstrate lead-level fluency across research execution, team leadership, and strategic influence, including:
- Research leadership & ownership: define and manage research workstreams, articulate objectives and approaches, and oversee delivery from planning through readout.
- Advanced end-to-end execution: lead recruiting, protocols, moderation, analysis, and delivery of high-quality research outputs.
- Mixed-method expertise: apply qualitative and quantitative approaches, with advanced qualitative depth and strong triangulation practices.
- Service design & applied methods: connect insights to experience strategy through artifacts such as journeys, blueprints, design principles, and opportunity mapping.
- Client partnership & influence: act as the primary research point of view with stakeholders, guiding decisions and aligning teams.
- Research practice scaling: contribute to building scalable research practices through standards, templates, and operational clarity.
- Ethical and inclusive research: ensure participant protection, representation, and bias mitigation across the research lifecycle.
- Responsible use of AI: leverage AI tools to accelerate workflows while ensuring validation, transparency, and ethical compliance.
- Delivery rigor: ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and aligned to business priorities.
Key Responsibilities
1) Research Leadership & Delivery
- Lead research planning and define clear objectives aligned with business and product decisions.
- Own recruitment strategy and execution, ensuring balanced representation and appropriate sampling methodologies.
- Design and execute research using mixed methods, including advanced qualitative techniques and quantitative usability testing.
- Lead research sessions (including virtual) ensuring strong moderation, consistency, and data quality.
- Analyze and synthesize data into insights, themes, frameworks, and strategic recommendations.
- Produce and oversee key deliverables such as reports, narratives, and experience artifacts (journeys, blueprints, design principles, opportunity maps).
- Ensure insights are communicated effectively through clear, compelling, and actionable storytelling tailored to stakeholders.
2) Cross-Functional Collaboration & Client Influence
- Collaborate with design, product, engineering, and business stakeholders to integrate research into decision-making.
- Own and manage research-facing client relationships, providing expert guidance and influencing outcomes.
- Lead stakeholder engagements such as workshops, readouts, and alignment sessions.
3) Workshops, Applied Methods & Ways of Working
- Design and facilitate workshops using structured approaches for problem framing, ideation, synthesis, and prioritization.
- Apply design thinking and service design methodologies to connect research insights with solution development.
- Support agile ways of working by delivering iterative insights aligned with project timelines.
4) Ethics, Inclusion, Data Governance & Quality
- Ensure research is conducted ethically, including informed consent, participant privacy, and secure data handling.
- Promote inclusive research practices by representing diverse participants and mitigating bias throughout the research process.
- Maintain and improve research documentation, repositories, and standards.
- Ensure compliance with governance frameworks and quality standards across all research outputs.
5) Team Leadership, Coaching & Practice Building
- Guide and mentor researchers, supporting skill development and improving overall research quality.
- Establish and reinforce best practices, frameworks, and methodologies across the team.
- Conduct quality reviews and provide feedback to ensure consistency and excellence.
- Contribute to building and scaling the research practice through operational improvements.
6) Outreach & Business Support
- Develop case studies, presentations, and training materials to promote research as a key business capability.
- Participate in internal and external events as a research ambassador.
- Support business development efforts by contributing research expertise to proposals and client engagements.
Job-Specific Experience, Education & Skills
- Bachelor’s degree completed or advanced degree in a relevant field (e.g., Human Factors, Psychology, HCI, Design, or related discipline).
- 5–7 years of relevant experience, including 3–5 years of research experience and experience leading research efforts or teams.
- Advanced proficiency in research planning, recruiting, qualitative methods, moderation, and synthesis.
- Strong experience developing strategic research outputs such as journeys, blueprints, and design principles.
- Advanced storytelling and presentation skills, including strong verbal and written communication.
- Strong project management skills including time, scope, risk, and resource management.
- Demonstrated leadership capability, including coaching and guiding team members.
- Strong strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making ability.
- English proficiency: C1 / C1+.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities.
Visit us at www.accenture.com
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, military veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by applicable law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.
