Head of Customer Insights

What you’ll be responsible for

Reporting to the Chief Strategy & Stakeholder Engagement Officer, the Head of Customer Insight will lead the company’s customer insight Business Unit, ensuring that the voice of the customer is central to decision-making across the organisation. 

This role will be responsible for gathering, analysing and interpreting customer insight to inform business planning and improve service delivery. They will provide evidence-based insight into customer needs, behaviours and experiences, ensuring the voice of the customer shapes strategy, operations, and performance

Key Responsibilities of the role:

• Define and deliver a clear customer insight strategy that aligns with corporate objectives, regulatory commitments.
• Manage all the company's customer and stakeholder research requirements to understand attitudes, expectations, priorities and acceptability to inform long and short-term decision-making, strategy and associated business plan development. Responsible for commissioning and undertaking research to provide independent evidence to inform corporate strategy.
• Analyse relevant customer data to identify trends, risks and emerging issues across the customer base for the purposes of strategic and business planning. 
• Develop insight into the behavioural drivers and barriers influencing customer actions, using behavioural science and evidence-based approaches. Informs the design of effective strategies (and maintains oversight of their effective delivery) to enable sustainable behaviours to meet key business requirements and long-term outcomes.
• Provide high-quality insight and analysis to inform corporate strategy, business planning, investment decisions and service improvement.
• Lead customer segmentation, trend analysis and predictive insight to anticipate future customer needs and risks.
• Work closely with Customer, Operations, Finance, Regulation and Digital teams to ensure insight informs performance management, customer experience and regulatory submissions.
• Develop and maintain effective governance, standards and assurance for customer insight, ensuring consistency, quality and ethical research practice.
• Lead, develop and motivate a high-performing customer insight team, building capability, professionalism and a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement.
• Act as a senior advocate for the customer voice, representing customer insight at Executive, Board and external stakeholder forums as required.
• Oversee the company’s development and use of Consumer Panels as well as managing the needs and requirements required by external panels (e.g. CCW) 
• Oversee and ensure adherence to the company’s obligations to adhere with Ofwat’s Customer Involvement Rule
• Oversee the company’s Independent Challenge Group (or any such successor)

About you

The following are essential requirements for the recruitment of the role:

Qualifications

• Degree (or equivalent experience) in a relevant discipline such as market research, social science, behavioural science, data/analytics, economics, or a related field.
• Relevant professional accreditation is desirable but not essential.

Experience

• Significant senior-level experience leading customer insight, analytics, or research activities, ideally within a customer-facing and/or regulated environment
• Proven track record of designing, commissioning, and delivering customer and stakeholder research (qualitative and quantitative) to produce independent, evidence-based insight.
• Demonstrable experience analysing customer and operational data to identify trends, risks, and emerging issues and translating findings into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• Experience using customer insight to shape strategy, business planning, service delivery improvements, and performance measures.
• Practical experience applying behavioural insight approaches to understand drivers and barriers to customer action, informing the design and evaluation of effective interventions.
• Experience managing external research/insight partners and suppliers, including budgets, procurement, and quality assurance.

Knowledge & Skills

• Strong understanding of customer needs, behaviours, and experiences, and how to embed the “voice of the customer” in decision-making.
• Excellent analytical capability, with confidence interpreting and challenging data and research outputs to draw meaningful conclusions.
• Familiarity with behavioural science principles and evidence-based approaches to influencing behaviour (desirable).
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to present complex insight clearly to executive and board-level audiences.
• Strong planning and organisational skills, able to prioritise across multiple workstreams and deliver to deadlines.

Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business.

Benefits

As well as a market competitive salary, 36 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:

• Option to buy additional annual leave up to 5 days per year
• Enhanced employer pension contributions – Up to 11% employer contributions
• Free Mortgage Brokering Services 
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes
• Gym and fitness discounts as well as high street shopping
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discount off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops
• Car-leasing scheme and free on-site parking at all sites
• Health CashBack scheme and access to an online GP service
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family
• Many more can be found on our website.