Who we are?

1990 Research Labs is a consumer intelligence lab for India. We are hired by high-growth enterprises - specifically in financial services and consumer tech - to answer their high stake questions: Who is actually using our product? Why are they dropping off? Where do we sit in their minds? What will make paying feel obvious?

We sit in the gap between legacy agencies and DIY survey tools (which are fast but shallow). We combine deep ethnographic qualitative research with scaled quantitative surveys and an AI-powered insights engine to deliver decisions beyond decks.

Our clients include HDFC Bank, Duolingo, Cred, Allen Digital, and Lokal.

The problem we need you to solve

We need an experienced Senior Research Lead who can take a highly ambiguous business problem from a client, convert it into a bulletproof research design, direct a pod of junior researchers and operations staff to execute it, and synthesize the findings into sharp, product-ready recommendations.

You are someone who thrives at the intersection of qualitative depth and quantitative rigour. You believe that the best research doesn't start with a methodology—it starts with the right question. You know how to move seamlessly between a 90-minute ethnographic interview and a 600-person survey, triangulating both to uncover what neither could alone. You are comfortable with ambiguity, obsessed with rigour, and driven by impact rather than academic perfection.

What you own

The engagement. One to two major clients at a time. Quality, timeline, and client satisfaction sit with you from the signed proposal to the final readout.

The design. Vague brief in, sharp objectives out. You choose the method: longitudinal diaries, in-context interviews, scaled surveys, interactive game mechanics. You know when depth beats scale, and when it does not.

The pod. Two to three junior researchers and an ops lead. You allocate the work, hold the 10-day fielding cap, QA the transcripts, and keep the team deployed instead of waiting on you.

The room. Weekly client check-ins are yours. You defend the method when a client pushes on it, hold the line when scope creeps, and present interim findings before they are comfortable.

The synthesis. You triangulate qual and quant into archetypes, mental models, and drop-off points, then turn those into calls on positioning, pricing, and growth.

Who we are looking for

4 to 6 years in user research, consumer insights, or product strategy. A mix of agency and in-house product is the profile that works best here.

Mixed methods for real. You can moderate a 90-minute ethnographic interview in the morning and script a 600-person survey in the afternoon, and you know what neither one can tell you alone.

Bilingual in research and product. You speak churn, activation, and conversion. You know how to make an insight land hard enough that a PM changes the roadmap.

High agency. When a recruitment channel dies mid-field, you bring the risk with two options and a recommendation, not a status update.

Commercially mature. You can say no to a client without losing them. You know the difference between a tweak and a scope change that needs a new invoice.

FMCG, financial services, or Indian consumer tech in your background moves you to the front of the queue.

What this is not

Execution-only. If your best day is receiving a discussion guide, running the interviews, and handing over the notes, you will be unhappy here inside a month. We are hiring someone to help build the operating model, not staff it.

Academic. We optimise for truth, speed, and business impact. Methodological perfection that arrives after the decision has been made is worth nothing.

Pure people management. You will be writing screener logic, reading survey crosstabs, and watching interview footage. Close to the data.

Senior Research Lead, Mixed Methods