Head of Labs

Grant Thornton UK LLP

About The Position

GT Labs is Grant Thornton UK’s research and AI innovation function. It captures and validates ideas at the edge of current practice, scans the horizon for strategic signals, and places research bets against the firm’s hardest analytical problems. GT Labs is a pre-product, pre-discovery function focused on research, validation, and handing off findings to product and engineering capabilities. The role involves expanding this capability across all three service lines (audit, tax, and advisory) and establishing the function on a mature, high-performing footing. The Head of Labs will report to the Director of Labs, who reports into the Chief Digital Officer, and will deputize for the Director of Labs, representing the function to senior stakeholders. This is an opportunity to potentially grow into a future digital leader within the firm.

Requirements

Experience leading or managing a research, analytics, or advanced data science function.
Understanding of what good research looks like and the ability to assess and own quality without doing the work yourself.
Track record of communicating complex research and analytical work to senior stakeholders in a professional or regulated environment.
Strong instinct for research quality management: ability to set standards, review work, and hold a team accountable.
Management instinct to absorb complexity upward and protect team focus.
Credibility with senior practitioners across more than one discipline.
Clear point of view on building high-performance research teams (psychological safety, research culture, conducive conditions) and experience putting it into practice.
Ambition and appetite to grow into a future digital leader.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with advanced data science, machine learning, or quantitative methods applied to high-stakes professional judgment.
Experience building a function or team from an early stage, including operational and cultural groundwork.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the service line labs, setting them up on a mature, high-performing footing across audit, tax, and advisory.
Own the research portfolio, including prioritizing, progressing, and closing down research initiatives.
Own research quality across the portfolio, setting standards, reviewing outputs, and ensuring findings are trustworthy before they are handed off.
Oversee research programme managers and research teams, shielding researchers from non-research tasks.
Manage milestone reviews across the portfolio, maintaining a portfolio posture rather than evaluating individual bets in isolation.
Drive applied research delivery by overseeing applied research commissions (bespoke models and analytical frameworks) for high-value engagements.
Use applied delivery in tax and advisory to build appetite for the lab and demonstrate its value to service line leads.
Own the relationship with the firm’s Engineering and Product leads, building trusting relationships and processes for idea flow.
Ensure research findings are delivered to product and engineering in an actionable format.
Own senior stakeholder relationships, representing GT Labs to service line leads, methodology teams, digital colleagues, and the firm’s digital leadership.
Ensure stakeholders understand the lab's work, its purpose, and expected outcomes, managing expectations for uncertain timelines.
Deputize for the Director of Labs in various forums.
Build the team culture, fostering psychological safety, welcoming experimentation, and treating failure as a learning opportunity.
Create conditions for researchers to do their best work, including protected time, clear priorities, and a management layer that absorbs complexity.
Champion an inclusive environment where people are trusted and encouraged to bring their whole selves to work.