Research Unit Manager

1. JOB PURPOSE

To lead deep consumer and market research initiatives that enable Bajaj Finance Limited to design, validate and launch customer-centric financial products across Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and rural markets. The role is responsible for uncovering latent customer needs through:
· Rigorous primary and secondary research,
· Validating product concepts through structured testing,
· Delivering actionable insights that guide product ideation, prioritisation and first-time-right launches, while fully leveraging technology and data.

2.PRINCIPAL

ACCOUNTABILITIES

A
- Minimum required Accountabilities for this role
1. Conduct end-to-end exploratory and evaluative research to deeply understand customer behaviour, unmet needs and pain points across customer segments and geographies.
2. Design and execute primary research including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, ethnographic studies, usability testing and concept validation.
3. Conduct quantitative research including surveys, concept testing, A/B testing and hypothesis validation.
4. Synthesize research findings into clear, actionable insights to guide product ideation and roadmap decisions.
5. Create and maintain customer personas, journey maps, jobs-to-be-done frameworks and opportunity areas.
6. Partner closely with Product, Design, Business, Risk and Technology teams during design thinking sprints and product development cycles.
7. Ensure a strong consumer-first mindset and bias for rigorous testing before product launches.
8. Leverage research tools, analytics platforms and digital technologies to improve speed, accuracy and scalability of insights. A
- Additional Accountabilities pertaining to the role
1. Conduct secondary research on industry trends, fintech innovations, regulatory developments and competitive benchmarking.
2. Support leadership in identifying new product opportunities and adjacent business models.
3. Build institutional research knowledge through documentation, repositories and insight dashboards.
4. Enable first-time-right product launches by proactively identifying risks, adoption barriers and trust concerns.
5. Mentor junior researchers or cross-functional teams on research best practices (as the unit scales).

3.SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Educational Qualifications
a) Qualifications
· Post Graduates with relevant sales experience of 3-5 years (also graduates with experience of 5-7 years may apply) o Post Graduate degree in Management / Design / Human-Centred Design / Psychology / Sociology / Economics o Graduates with relevant experience may be considered
b) Work Experience

· 3-5 years of experience in product research, consumer insights, UX research or design research.

· Prior and relevant experience in Financial Services / NBFC / Banking / Fintech preferred.

· Strong exposure to multi-market and multi-geography research, including Tier 2, Tier 3 or rural markets.

· Demonstrated ability to uncover latent customer needs and influence product decisions.

· Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

· Strong analytical and synthesis capabilities.

· High bias for action and commitment to research excellence.

· Self-starter with high ownership and curiosity.