Research Manager (Nectar Research)
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Nectar 360 Ltd
Closing date: 22 March 2026
Requisition ID: 400051767
We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Everything our Nectar team does is powered and fuelled by data — and by great relationships with some of the UK’s favourite brands. The Nectar 360 team focuses on developing loyalty programmes, turning amazing data into something that makes a difference, traditional media and digital. It’s like an agency-within-a-retailer, and retail media is crucial. The culture might not be what you expect either, because there’s no set-up quite like this one. The team is a real priority because it’s connected to everything the business does and drives profitability. It’s where you can take risks, learn from them and be recognised.
About the team
Join Nectar Research—the in‑house, full‑service research team powering insight across Sainsbury’s and Nectar360. We turn the voice of over 8 million contactable customers into clear, commercial recommendations for our stakeholders and brand partners, using a broad toolkit that spans media evaluation to purchase‑driver analysis. Sitting at the heart of Insights/Marketing, we combine rich first‑party data with smart research design to push beyond ‘traditional’ approaches, partnering closely with Nectar360 subject‑matter experts to innovate and influence decisions across the retail landscape.
About the role
As an Insight Executive – Nectar Research, you’ll help design and deliver rigorous research that explains customer behaviour and drives action. You’ll support end‑to‑end projects—from shaping briefs and drafting questionnaires through to quality checking fieldwork, analysing results, and building clear, client‑ready debriefs. You’ll have the wider Nectar Research team alongside you, with access to market‑leading tools and analyst colleagues who help connect behavioural (sales and customer) data with research findings.
Day to day, you’ll contribute to proposal development, manage timelines and suppliers, uphold best‑practice quality standards, and translate data into compelling stories that move stakeholders from the ‘what’ to the ‘so what’. You’ll work across varied methodologies (quant, qual and implicit where appropriate), learn from experienced teammates, and grow your capability through a dedicated training budget—balancing ‘agency‑side’ client work with ‘client‑side’ projects for Nectar Brand stakeholders. The role is based from our London Store Support Centre with hybrid/remote flexibility. Microsoft Office suite—especially Excel and PowerPoint—every day. Experience with Qualtrics and/or Tableau is a bonus, as is prior exposure to a research agency, but we’re open‑minded about how you’ve built your skills.
Essential criteria
- End‑to‑end delivery: Scoping and designing studies (including questionnaires/discussion guides), managing delivery partners, running data quality checks, analysing results, and producing client‑ready outputs in line with documented standards and best practice.
- Method selection: Choosing and justifying appropriate quantitative, qualitative, and/or implicit techniques for a given brief, then explaining implications and trade‑offs clearly to non‑specialist audiences.
- Insight translation: Building debriefs that turn findings into specific, evidence‑backed recommendations that stakeholders can action.
- Tools proficiency: Using Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint to manipulate data and craft insight‑led presentations; familiarity with Qualtrics and/or Tableau (or comparable platforms) is advantageous.
- Storytelling the ‘so what’: Running multiple concurrent projects and updating stakeholders/clients, following quality guidance and process documentation, and have an ambition for best-in-class (over)delivery.
If you’re excited to grow your craft in a team that blends robust research with unique loyalty data to shape decisions seen on shelves and screens across the UK, we’d love to hear from you
#LI-DN1
We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:
Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related target bonus of up to 10% of salary (which may vary for Nectar360), depending on how we perform.
Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.
Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.
Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).
