Associate Director-Research And Thought Leadership

Associate Director – Research And Thought Leadership**

Role Overview

The Associate Director – Research & Thought Leadership is a senior strategic role responsible for shaping EY’s market narrative, guiding enterprise-level insight programs, and building signature thought leadership that strengthens EY’s brand, reputation, and competitive positioning. This role integrates deep research excellence, strategic advisory capability, and high-impact communication leadership. The Associate Director partners extensively with senior executives, service line leaders, global teams, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver differentiated, insight-led content programs that influence clients and the wider market ecosystem.

• Define and lead the organization’s thought leadership agenda in partnership with leadership, ensuring alignment with EY’s strategic priorities and market themes.
• Identify white-space opportunities, emerging macro trends, and industry disruptions that can fuel signature content programs.
• Drive multi-year content planning and ensure a consistent, enterprise-wide approach to insights and narrative development.

Research Leadership And Insight Stewardship

• Lead sophisticated research efforts including primary research, surveys, trend mapping, competitive intelligence, and macroeconomic analysis.
• Oversee development of insight frameworks, hypothesis models, and data-driven narratives.
• Ensure research rigor, methodological consistency, and alignment with global EY knowledge systems.

Executive Advisory And Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior partners and business leaders on content framing, narrative positioning, and thought leadership opportunities.
• Facilitate high-level discussions, SME councils, and expert workgroups to shape compelling viewpoints.
• Build strong relationships across service lines, markets, and global teams to drive adoption and amplification of insights.

Signature Content Creation And Editorial Direction

• Lead the development of flagship reports, whitepapers, executive POVs, sector outlooks, and insight-led narratives.
• Oversee editorial quality, structure, messaging discipline, and brand alignment.
• Guide transformation of research into high-impact storytelling across formats including reports, videos, presentations, digital experiences, and leadership talks.

Amplification, Influence And Market Impact

• Partner with media, PR, brand, and digital teams to ensure thought leadership achieves broad visibility and resonance.
• Shape messaging packs, leader briefs, executive speeches, and event content to extend reach and influence.
• Ensure thought leadership is activated across client conversations, leadership forums, signature events, and external platforms.

Governance, Measurement And Capability Building

• Establish standards, templates, processes, and quality frameworks for research and content development.
• Build dashboards to track impact, reach, engagement metrics, and business influence.
• Mentor, upskill, and guide content specialists, researchers, and analysts across the function.

Strategic And Leadership Skills

• Strong enterprise thinking with ability to connect insights to business strategy.
• Proven ability to influence and partner at senior leadership levels.
• Capability to lead complex, multi-country, multi-stakeholder content programs.

Research And Analytical Expertise

• Expertise in research design, market analysis, data interpretation, and insight development.
• Ability to translate large, complex datasets into actionable business insights.
• Comfort with frameworks, models, and structured insight generation.

Communication And Storytelling Excellence

• Outstanding writing, editing, and narrative-structuring capabilities.
• Ability to elevate technical content into accessible, high-impact thought leadership.
• Strong presentation and messaging skills suitable for senior audiences.

Execution And Project Leadership

• Mastery in project planning, stakeholder alignment, and program governance.
• Ability to navigate large, matrixed environments while maintaining quality and pace.
• High ownership, accountability, and ability to work under ambiguity.

• Master’s/Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics, Public Policy, Communications, Journalism, or related field.
• 12–16+ years' experience in research, insights, consulting, strategy, or thought leadership.
• Experience in professional services, advisory, or enterprise-level insight functions is highly preferred.
• Proven track record of leading major research or thought leadership initiatives at scale.