Head of Research, Banking & Payments

• Share options: we offer all employees share options over a 4-year vesting period

• Holidays: 28 days of holiday + public bank holidays

• Flexible working: 3-4 days per week in our Central London office, 1-2 days remote

• Pension

• Private health insurance

Evident is an intelligence platform that benchmarks and tracks AI adoption across the financial services sector. Since the launch of our flagship product in January 2023, the Evident AI Index has rapidly become the global standard benchmark for AI maturity across financial services.

Over the past year, Evident has expanded the scope of our benchmarking efforts beyond Banking to include Payments, Insurance, and Asset Management. As our coverage continues to expand, we are staffing both Content & Client Services teams with senior subject matter experts that demonstrate deep, industry-specific expertise.

To that end, we are searching for a Head of Research (Banking & Payments) to execute and deliver research insights tailored to a sector-specific audience.

Leveraging the data produced by the Evident AI Index (as well as private surveys), this role will be responsible for end-to-end production of original research insights - spanning ideation, research design, hypothesis testing, analysis, authorship, and delivery of key insights.

The ideal candidate will combine proficiency in research with technical expertise acquired through past work with leading global banks (either directly or on a consulting basis). Ultimately, the Head of Research will be expected to define the changing parameters of "frontier" AI applications and pace of deployment within the enterprise - by building out a supporting team of junior analysts to go deeper into individual lines of business.

Successful candidates will demonstrate equal comfort with quantitative (data) and qualitative (interview) methods and sources. Most of all, we're looking for candidates that exhibit intense intellectual curiosity and a passion for data-driven storytelling.

• Research Content

  • On a quarterly basis, author a Key Findings Report in tandem with an updated ranking release, including: Banking, Payments, and Regional perspectives (MEA, LATAM)

  • Maintain a State of AI x Banking briefing deck that includes: hypothesis-based trends, latest overview of use case landscape, recent examples of "frontier" use cases, and curated topics of critical enablers (previewing future inputs into the next ranking release)

• Analyst Coverage

  • Partner closely with client strategists to define and iterate Evident's current point-of-view, expanding our library of Analyst Briefing materials to better address incoming customer questions on trending topics

  • Regularly interact and interview subject matter experts and industry practitioners across our client base to validate our point-of-view and stay ahead of emerging trends (filtering those insights back into our knowledge base and research outputs)

• Coordination & Alignment

  • Partner with Outcomes team to ensure our LoB-specific taxonomy remains up-to-date and maturity models for discrete use cases reflect "best-in-class" implementation

  • Liaise with cross-sector Research Analysts focused on our thematic research (Talent, Innovation, Leadership, Responsible AI, Outcomes) to hone sector-specific messaging and key takeaways

• 8-12 years of research and/or consulting experience

• Direct experience covering the Banking & Payments industry

• Proficiency across both insight generation and insight delivery to customers

• History of cross-team collaboration / orchestration (especially in regards to Data, Engineering, and Marketing teams)

• Understanding of key issues facing leadership teams in global banks on topics related to artificial intelligence and/or other emerging technologies

• Experience adapting and publishing primary or secondary research in different form factors (written reports, presentations, social media posts, webinars/podcasts)

• Experience working with data scientists, engineers, and design teams to create supporting interactive visualization and/or rich media assets

• Intellectual curiosity about AI topics, trends, and tech impacting the banking industry