Senior Researcher (Complaints and Customer Insight)

About the role

Senior Researcher (Complaints and Customer Insight)

Fixed Term Contract / Secondment Opportunity, 12 months

Full Time, 37 hours per week

£44,952 to £52,884 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing Date: 19th July 2026

We are offering this role as a Secondment or Fixed Term Contract opportunity for a period of 12 months.

Please note that our team are required to work 2 to 3 days a week from an office (County Hall, Market Road, Chelmsford, Essex. CM1 1QH) and travel to other ECC locations when required for partnership working.

An opportunity has arisen to join our Customer Services function in a key Senior Researcher role focused on understanding customer experiences, identifying opportunities for improvement and supporting better outcomes for residents.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape a new approach to organisational learning across the Council. Working across complaints, member enquiries, customer contact, web analytics and wider customer feedback, you will bring together evidence from multiple sources to understand what residents are experiencing, why issues occur and what needs to change.

We are looking for someone who is naturally curious, enjoys solving complex problems and is passionate about improving services. You will be comfortable investigating issues, challenging assumptions, identifying root causes and working collaboratively with services to develop practical, evidence-based solutions.

The role will play a key part in helping the organisation learn from customer experiences, understand what drives demand and dissatisfaction, and ensure insight leads to meaningful action and measurable improvements.

About the Role

As a Senior Researcher, you will lead complex research, problem-solving and customer insight activities to understand resident experiences, service demand and areas for improvement across council services. You will combine qualitative and quantitative evidence from multiple sources to identify patterns, root causes, risks and opportunities, helping senior leaders understand not only what is happening, but why it is happening and what should happen next.

This is not a traditional research role. We are seeking someone who can move beyond describing issues to identifying solutions. You will work alongside managers, operational teams and senior leaders to turn insight into action, support service improvements and help build a culture of continuous learning and evidence-based decision making.

You will manage a Data Analyst and an Intelligence Lead, providing line management, direction, support and quality assurance to ensure delivery of high-quality insight, analysis and reporting.

A significant focus of the role will be understanding what complaints, member enquiries and customer feedback tell us about the experiences of residents. You will help services learn from customer experiences, understand the causes of dissatisfaction, and use customer insight to improve services and outcomes.

You will be responsible for developing customer insight stories, thematic reviews, case studies and regular reports that clearly explain what residents are experiencing, what the evidence shows, what actions are being taken, and what difference this is making. You will use root cause analysis, user research and mixed-method research approaches to support evidence-based recommendations and help senior leaders make informed decisions.

This role will suit someone who is confident working with complex information, skilled at translating insight into clear narratives, and passionate about using customer feedback to drive organisational learning and service improvement.

Accountabilities

Facilitate structured problem-solving, root cause analysis and learning reviews with services to identify underlying causes of customer issues, complaints and avoidable demand.
Work with service teams to identify, prioritise and track improvement opportunities, ensuring learning from customer experiences is translated into meaningful action.
Challenge existing assumptions and approaches through evidence-led analysis, helping services explore alternative solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Challenge existing assumptions and approaches through evidence-led analysis, helping services explore alternative solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Provide line management, leadership, coaching and professional support to a Data Analyst and an Intelligence Lead, ensuring effective workload management, professional development and delivery of shared and individual objectives.
Lead complex research and customer insight activity to understand resident experiences, customer behaviours, service demand and emerging issues across council services.
Bring together evidence from complaints, member enquiries, customer contact data, web analytics, customer feedback and wider research sources to develop an integrated understanding of customer experiences and service performance.
Support the identification and development of customer insight themes, stories and evidence-based recommendations that support strategic and operational decision-making.
Lead root cause analysis sessions, to understand the underlying reasons for customer dissatisfaction, avoidable contact, service issues and emerging patterns in complaints and feedback.
Design and deliver qualitative and mixed-method research activities to explore customer needs, experiences, behaviours and priorities.
Work collaboratively with service managers, senior leaders and stakeholders to understand issues from multiple perspectives, identify opportunities for improvement and support evidence-led action.
Lead the production of regular customer insight reporting, including emerging issue updates, thematic reviews, case studies and more comprehensive reports for senior leaders, management groups and governance forums.
Develop insight stories and case studies that demonstrate what residents have experienced, what has been learned, what action has been taken and how customer feedback is contributing to service improvement.
Translate complex qualitative and quantitative information into clear, compelling narratives, actionable insight and evidence-based recommendations.
Work closely with analytical, performance and complaints colleagues to ensure customer insight is supported by robust evidence, data and research.
Support services to identify, implement and monitor improvement actions arising from customer feedback, complaints and insight activity. Maintaining a log of overarching actions and reporting on progress.
Promote a culture of learning from complaints, customer feedback and lived experience, helping services understand what residents are telling us and how this can be used to improve outcomes.
Present findings, recommendations and impactful customer insight stories to varied audiences.

The Experience You Will Bring

Experience of leading research, customer insight, service improvement, business intelligence or performance programmes.
Experience of leading, coaching and developing staff, managing workloads and supporting high-quality team performance.
Experience of qualitative and mixed-method research, with the ability to understand customer needs, behaviours and experiences.
Experience of analysing information from multiple sources to identify themes, root causes, risks, opportunities and evidence-based solutions.
Experience of facilitating workshops, root cause analysis, learning reviews or problem-solving activities.
Experience of translating evidence, customer feedback and research findings into practical recommendations, service improvements and organisational learning.
Experience of influencing senior stakeholders and decision-makers through insight, evidence and recommendations.
Excellent communication, presentation and report-writing skills, with experience of producing high-quality outputs for senior leaders.
Strong analytical, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work with ambiguity and investigate complex issues.
Ability to build effective relationships and work collaboratively across a complex organisation.
Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver high-quality outcomes at pace.
Experience of customer insight, complaints, service improvement, performance, business intelligence or local government would be advantageous.

To apply for this role, please ensure you submit an up-to-date CV and complete the personal statement section of the application, evidencing how your experience meets the criteria above.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Place and Customer

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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