Want to work for an award-winning agency with industry-leading approaches to flexible working, a holistic benefits package and a creative culture? Keen to progress quickly ? And influence world-class products before they hit the shelves?

Welcome to Blue Yonder!

We’re looking for an Associate Director to join our specialist Qualitative team. You’ll have several years’ qualitative experience and be a capable moderator and manager. If you haven’t worked in R&D research before, that’s not a problem as we’ll give you all the training you need. Whatever your background, you’ll be commercially focused, adept at building strong relationships with clients by understanding their needs and transforming them into top class research methods and outcomes. The work we do lies behind the taste, look, formulation packaging and promotion of brands we all use and buy every day.

You’ll develop relationships with new and existing clients, win business and lead multiple projects, working alongside our team, with overall accountability for your own targets. You’ll coach and mentor junior team members, adding value at key stages, while also conducting fieldwork, which may involve travel as we work across the UK and internationally.

The Associate Director will:

• Have a key commercial role, and financial targets
• Be accountable for key client relationships and high-quality outputs of multiple complex projects
• Oversee and conduct qualitative moderation, workshops and co-creation sessions, both in the UK and internationally
• Be a key coach and role model within the team

If you would like to apply for this role, please fill out the application form below. Thank you for your interest.

About you:

You’re fascinated by people and why they behave and think the way they do. You’re curious, creative, keen to learn, and passionate about developing new ideas and running with them. You love a challenge and thrive on working in a fast-paced and innovative environment.

You will have several years’ relevant work experience in qualitative market research, and can demonstrate commercial thinking. Key is your ability to be proactive, personable, tenacious, organised, and detail orientated.

A bit about Blue Yonder:

Blue Yonder was founded by Jonathan Million 20 years ago. Chief Innovation Officer, and lifetime entrepreneur, Jonathan is involved in pioneering innovations day-to-day, with 10% of the company’s net profits being invested into innovation, to create new insight tech and methods to support client needs. For example, our very own research tech button, Clickscape, which was proudly patented in 2023.

Blue Yonder is all about people: our amazing team are key to our success. We value authenticity, partnership, entrepreneurship and positivity, and these values aren’t just stuck up on a wall somewhere – they underpin everything we do, internally and externally. Our culture is key; we’re supportive, learning and solution-focused, and we’re a lovely bunch to work with. But we would say that wouldn’t we? In our 2024 full-team survey, 100% agreed their line manager cared about their learning and development, and the most common words to describe Blue Yonder were ‘friendly’, ‘innovative’ and ‘fun’.

In the last couple of years, we’ve doubled our team size, restructured, and innovated. We were shortlisted for Agency of the Year at the Market Research Society awards in 2024, after winning break-through Agency of the Year in 2020, and we were finalists for Agency of the Year in 2020, 2021, and 2022. And in 2025, we’re still growing, innovating more than ever, and looking for more great people to join our expanding team.

We don’t do ‘off the shelf’ approaches; we work in partnership with our clients, challenge, design solutions, and make them happen. We’re hands-on, regardless of job title, and we work with mixed methods to answer client questions, presented beautifully, using a range of tools including video and interactive deliverables. And while our HQ is in Leeds, we work flexibly, and our clients and projects span the globe.

What we offer:

We don’t do unnecessary fluff but we do offer a competitive salary, company profit share, a bonus holiday for your birthday, regular socials, a bonus day for charity work, DE&I and wellbeing initiatives, and lots of structured training throughout the year. We have a flexible working environment and if there’s something that’s important to you – be it a day you need to pick the kids up, or a specific charity you want to support – let’s talk!

Authenticity is one of our core values, and at Blue Yonder we’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic team with equal opportunities. We want to attract, develop, and promote the very best people from all walks of life, so we actively encourage applications from a range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, as well as others who are underrepresented in our sector, such as disabled or neurodiverse applicants.

Job details:

Please note successful applicants must have the right to work in the UK and will need to bring proof to the interview e.g. a passport or work permit.

Should you be shortlisted in the recruitment process, if you require any reasonable adjustments to be made to accommodate your interview, let us know in confidence.

Job Type: Full-time

Schedule: 40 hours per week (Monday – Friday)

Salary: £49k+ per year (based on experience)

Education: A degree in a relevant field (e.g. social sciences, marketing, business) can be helpful, but is not essential, we’re open to candidates with diverse backgrounds and relevant skills.

Ability to commute/relocate: Leeds, LS15 8GB – reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Reference ID:Qual Associate Director

• Support with work from home needs you may have
• Freedom to dress however makes you comfortable
• 26 days holiday (plus bank holidays) + one after 1 year’s service up to 27 days
• Company pension scheme
• Extra day off on your birthday
• Volunteering day every year
• Fully renovated flexible / hybrid office in 2024
• Bi-annual promotion and salary review windows
• 2 major company parties a year + monthly socials organised by our own social and charity team
• Hybrid working – with a requirement of at least 2-3 days a week in the office