Job Title: Market Research Specialist
Division: Supervision, Policy and Competition (SPC)
Department: Cross-cutting Response, Research and Contracts
Salary: National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £74,900 to £86,370 and London from £82,300 to £95,000 (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)
This role is graded as: Technical Specialist, Regulatory
Your external recruitment contact is Shafika via Shafika.shaikh@fca.org.uk. Applications must be submitted through our online portal.
Your internal recruitment contact is Katherine via Katherine.whipps@fca.org.uk
A covering letter is mandatory: please explain, in up to around 300 words, why you are suitable for this position. You should include links to research reports you have authored or co-authored. Applications without a covering letter may not be accepted.
About the FCA and team
We regulate financial services firms in the UK, to keep financial markets fair, thriving and effective. By joining us, you’ll play a key part in protecting consumers, driving economic growth, and shaping the future of UK finance services.
SPC oversees firms and individuals (supervision), creates and reviews the rules by which they operate (policy) and identifies and remedies ineffective competition in markets (competition).
The FCA’s Market Research Team (MRT) provides vital consumer insights that support regulatory decisions. They deliver the Financial Lives survey – a key, nationally representative study tracking UK consumer attitudes, behaviours and financial experiences. They also deliver other data‑driven consumer, firm and stakeholder insights, through bespoke market research and collaboration with third‑party data providers. The team embeds evidence across the FCA to inform policy, identify emerging issues and keep consumer and firm voices central to regulation.
Role responsibilities
The holder will be a subject matter expert, who can bring market research best practice and insights and new ideas into the team, and be able to challenge suppliers on the methodologies and designs they offer
You will be expected to advise the team on research design, sampling, weighting and analysis, and to take ownership of changes and innovation. This will include helping to improve the Financial Lives survey (FLS) where necessary. Primarily, it will involve designing other research and working with our suppliers and their statisticians so that they design and deliver top-quality research
You will co-author/ take on lead authorship of our FLS main report, from producing the outline, to taking the report through governance for its publication. You will be responsible for a series of smaller FLS spotlight reports (which may, for example, dig into a particular topic, or may look at results more widely for a specific cohort), authoring some and supporting others in the team to do so
You will also take responsibility for creating and managing a new Consumer Research series on the FCA’s website, which provides a single point of access to the consumer research we conduct other than FLS
You will be responsible for one or two of the retail financial sectors or topics covered by the FLS, meaning you deliver the questionnaire, the tabspec and the slides-based report for these sections of the survey. It will be important you take on this work for at least one wave of FLS, so that you understand well the way we manage FLS and what is expected of those working on the survey
You will manage or contribute to other complex financial services research projects, from clarifying business/research objectives and writing the Statement of Requirements (SoRs), through assessing bids, and working with winning agencies to deliver high quality outputs, to seeing their reports through to publication
You will manage multiple stakeholder relationships, including colleagues across the FCA who commission or use research, suppliers, and external stakeholders. Economics will be a key stakeholder. We want to work more with them on the design and weighting of consumer and firm research. We are looking to provide more qualitative market research to support the large-scale behavioural experiments they run in house
The holder will support the team manager and two lead associates (who, respectively manage the FLS and our other work) to manage the work of the team and provide some on-the-job training
Skills required
Minimum:
Proven experience in financial services research and reporting, with proven experience of designing high-calibre quantitative and qualitative research market research, and of authoring high-quality research reports and technical reports for publication
Demonstrated ability to support innovation within the team, in terms of improving our understanding of recent developments in market research data collection and design
Demonstrable experience in leadership; coaching, mentoring and supporting less experienced team members on research design and analysis
Essential:
Strong data analytical capability with a proven ability to quickly, clearly and efficiently draw out key and meaningful implications from a broad and varied range of information
Strong technical abilities, including survey sampling, segmentations, weighting, advanced analytical skills and high-quality data visual representation
Expertise in managing research requests, drawing out business and research objectives, and producing clear, fit‑for‑purpose Statements of Requirements for a range of research briefs (i.e. from open briefs (seeking design ideas from agencies) to highly developed research plans)
Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the credibility to effectively engage with FCA senior management, and confident in leading stakeholder engagement
Applies a risk‑based approach to decision‑making, delivering sound and well‑justified judgements
Able to work autonomously, to prioritise and to co-ordinate/ deliver to schedule work for FLS and for a wide range of non-FLS work
Demonstrable understanding of the demands on the team to deliver high-quality research and actionable insights
Benefits
28 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
Hybrid model with up to 50% remote work
Non-contributory pension (8–12% depending on age) and life assurance at eight times your salary
Private healthcare with Bupa, income protection, and 24/7 Employee Assistance
35 hours of paid volunteering annually
A flexible benefits scheme designed around your lifestyle
For a full list of our benefits, and our recruitment process as a whole visit our benefits page.
Our values and culture
Our colleagues are the key to our success as a regulator. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture: one that’s free from discrimination and bias, celebrates difference, and supports colleagues to deliver at their best. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
If you require any adjustments due to a disability or condition, your recruiter is here to help - reach out for tailored support.
We welcome diverse working styles and aim to find flexible solutions that suit both the role and individual needs, including options like part-time and job sharing where applicable.
Disability Confident: our hiring approach
We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes, we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role’s key requirements.
Useful information and timeline
Job advert close: Midnight 17 May 2026
CV Review/Shortlist for first-round interview: 25 May 2026
First-round competency-based interview: w/c 8 and 15 June 2026
Short-list for the second-round interview: w/c 22 June 2026
Second-round interview and presentation: w/c 6 and 13 July
There may be case study at or after the second round
Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time