Sector Lead, Financial Services – Primary/Channel Research

About the Team:

Channel & Customer Research (CCR) delivers scalable primary research that provides real-time insight into company performance and industry conditions. Through structured interviews with distributors, resellers, suppliers, consultants, and other channel partners, CCR captures the perspectives of professionals directly involved in how products and services move through the market. Leveraging AlphaSense’s AI Interviewer technology, CCR is able to conduct and scale structured expert interviews continuously, expanding coverage while maintaining consistency and analytical rigor. Covering hundreds of companies across major sectors, CCR provides investors and corporate users with channel research that offers a continuous view of demand trends, competitive dynamics, and market conditions as they develop.

About the Role: 

As the Sector Lead for Financial Services on the Channel & Customer Research (CCR) team, you will play a pivotal role in building and maintaining AlphaSense’s channel research coverage across financial services companies, including insurance, banking, and fintech. Reporting to the Head of Channel & Customer Research, you will oversee the development and execution of CCR projects, ensuring questionnaires, expert sourcebases, and research outputs meet the firm’s standards for quality, consistency, and end-user value.

You will combine sector expertise with research leadership to guide a team of analysts responsible for conducting structured channel checks across a diverse set of financial services companies and value chains. Leveraging AlphaSense’s AI interviewer technology, you will help design and scale primary research workflows that generate consistent, trackable insights from industry participants, including brokers, agents, lenders, payment processors, technology vendors, and other ecosystem participants. Your responsibilities will include project setup, questionnaire development, expert sourcebase guidance, and research quality oversight. Acting as the connective layer between research strategy and day-to-day execution, you will help expand coverage while maintaining a strong understanding of industry dynamics, regulatory considerations, and key market debates.

You will also serve as a key stakeholder in refining research frameworks, improving workflows, and partnering with cross-functional teams to strengthen CCR’s Financial Services coverage and ensure consistent delivery of high-quality research.

What You’ll Do: 

• Develop and maintain the CCR coverage roadmap for Financial Services equities, translating sector priorities into a structured pipeline of channel check projects aligned with investor demand, client engagement trends, and key debates across banking, insurance, and fintech.
• Lead the development of high-quality channel check frameworks, including expert sourcebase strategy and structured questionnaires that generate consistent, trackable insights across quarters and across companies under coverage.
• Serve as the primary domain expert for Financial Services, maintaining a strong understanding of business models, distribution channels, and key investment debates across areas such as lending, deposits, payments, insurance underwriting, and financial technology to guide project design and ensure research relevance.
• Collaborate closely with Operations Managers and analysts responsible for project execution, providing guidance on expert targeting, feasibility, and project structure to ensure channel checks generate actionable, differentiated insights from industry participants.
• Continuously identify new companies, sub-sectors, and channel check opportunities within the Financial Services ecosystem, expanding CCR coverage by mapping value chains (e.g., brokers, agents, lenders, ISVs, payments ecosystems) and identifying expert networks capable of supporting ongoing research.

Who You Are:

• You have 5–8 years of experience in equity research, market intelligence, consulting, or a related analytical role, with exposure to Financial Services, including banking, insurance, fintech, or adjacent sectors.
• You bring strong domain knowledge of Financial Services, including familiarity with key companies, business models, distribution channels, and the core investment debates across areas such as lending, deposits, payments, underwriting, and financial technology.
• You have experience designing primary research frameworks and questionnaires that translate industry knowledge into structured, repeatable insights, ideally within a channel check or expert interview context.
• You are highly analytical and intellectually curious, capable of quickly developing expertise across new companies and subsectors while identifying where channel checks can generate differentiated, investable insights.
• You are comfortable working cross-functionally with research leadership, operations teams, and analysts to ensure projects are well-structured, feasible, and executed to a consistently high standard.