Senior Research Director

Knit is the AI-native consumer research platform helping brands automate and accelerate primary research. With our Researcher-Driven AI, we’ve condensed the entire quant + qual research process from weeks into days (sometimes hours!) for 50+ enterprise brands — including Amazon, T-Mobile, Mars, NASCAR, and more. We’re on a mission to scale and democratize world-class research.

About the role

The Senior Research Director leads a pod of researchers to deliver exceptional client outcomes while directly owning and executing high-impact, complex research engagements. As both a people leader and hands-on research leader, this role ensures successful delivery across their pod’s portfolio of accounts and serves as the first point of escalation for client and project challenges. The role is measured by customer satisfaction, growth, retention, and supporting the GTM team in landing new clients.

The research function contributes to Knit's shared business objective of growing Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue (CARR) through customer retention, upsells (measured by Net Revenue Retention), and successful Pilot to Subscription Conversions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the ultimate accountable party for research project success across a pod of Research Directors and Managers, acting as the primary escalation point.
• Manage and develop team members, driving performance, clarity, accountability, hiring, onboarding, upskilling, performance management, conflict resolution, and morale building.
• Drive and document in-depth project scoping to uncover research objectives and project context, including building the client’s Research Context Library (RCL) to align outputs with client-ready deliverables.
• Act as the strategic problem solver, research subject matter expert, and solutions architect for high-potential prospects and customers, collaborating with Sales to educate and propose solutions.
• Participate in continuous product innovation by providing feedback to Knit’s product team, surfacing gaps between AI output and human-researcher quality, and documenting "last mile" needs.
• Partner with the sales team on new business conversations, including scoping calls, capabilities presentations, and proposal input to support Pilot to Subscription Conversions.

Requirements

• 10+ years of market research experience, with at least 3 years of team management experience, primarily on the supplier side in a market research agency environment.
• Experience leading discovery and scoping calls, writing and editing quant and qual questionnaires, drafting analysis plans, and creating stakeholder-ready insights reports.
• Ability to drive initiatives in ambiguous environments, balancing complex customer needs and internal business changes.
• Proven track record in early-stage startups (<50 employees) is a plus.
• Experience owning client relationships with Enterprise or Fortune 500 US-based companies, driving customer retention and growth.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, multiple research projects, and simultaneous internal demands.
• Strong people management skills, including hiring, onboarding, performance management, conflict resolution, and morale building.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity options.
• Comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) and additional coverage.
• Company laptop and one-time onboarding technology stipend.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Flexible time-off and hybrid working policy.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $140,000 - $160,000, with final compensation determined based on the candidate’s level, experience, and qualifications.

Schedule

Standard operating hours are Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm EST, with actual work schedules adjusted based on the candidate’s time zone and client requirements. Occasional travel is expected for customer requests, internal working sessions, and an annual US All Team Summit.

Location

Remote with flexibility to work from pods in NYC, Chicago, or D.C. Candidates must be located in the US.