Research Associate (Contract)

Stax is seeking bright and inquisitive talent to join our team on a contracting basis.  The Research Associate role is a great stepping stone for those interested in gaining exposure to strategy consulting and learning about business operations in a wide range of industries. As a Research Associate, you will be a member of a project team, providing support to consultants and managers.

Stax’s culture is energetic, data-driven, and committed to delivering actionable answers to discerning clients. Our team enjoys learning quickly, solving problems, and working with clients to rapidly develop results-driven solutions. Applying a flexible and nimble project model, we take an intelligent and entrepreneurial approach to our work and believe in creating an environment that challenges our people while supporting a reasonable work/life balance with low travel requirements. The entire staff is encouraged to contribute to the firm’s development and senior leadership is committed to offering opportunities for significant client interaction.

Over more than 25 years, Stax has developed a robust body of project experience and reference material with clients in over 200 high-caliber corporations and private equity firms. Our unique value proposition enables Stax to successfully compete against well-known strategy houses for notable engagements across industries and excellent work has allowed us to retain a strong core of repeat clients. 

• Collect and synthesize market data from a variety of primary sources, primarily telephone conversations with industry experts and personnel.  This could mean talking to CEOs about market trends one week and IT administrators about software choices the next.  These phone calls are unscheduled and require strong communication skills and an adaptable approach to navigate through the gate keepers, engage participants and persuade individuals who may be reluctant to contribute to our research goals.
• Effectively communicate your findings and insights to the project team in verbal and written form.
• You may also participate in the writing/drafting of presentations for clients.
• Bring your expertise in secondary data collection and analysis to the table, especially in finding and communicating with industry experts.  This requires the ability to think creatively in the face of “hard to get data” as well as a solid set of Excel skills in order to clean up, analyze, and present data.
• Learn how to draw meaningful insights from primary and secondary data, working with a Stax manager to structure presentations with clear storylines and conclusions using PowerPoint or Word.

• Undergraduate degree required.
• Minimum 1 year of related experience.  Prior experience in market research, consulting, product development, strategic planning or private equity experience is strongly preferred.
• Excellent communication skills, resourcefulness, willingness to conduct phone-based research, and the ability to interact successfully with a wide range of people.
• The ability to learn quickly about unfamiliar industries and navigate potentially complex topics during interviews.