Senior Communications Research and Impact Advisor

Chevron•Washington, DC

4d•$158,600 - $237,800

About The Position

The Senior Communications Research and Impact Advisor is the senior research and evaluation lead in Chevron Global Communications. The role sets research priorities, develops the function’s approach to evaluating impact, and establishes a regular assessment of changing narratives. It begins with research most relevant to the business and expands across earned media, paid media, advocacy, and internal and leadership communications. This is a hands-on individual contributor position involving instrument development, direct data analysis, and direction of specialist partners when additional expertise or fieldwork capacity is needed. The position is part of the AI, Data & Insights team within Global Communications. The team brings together research, intelligence, measurement, and insights to help communicators set priorities, sharpen strategy, anticipate issues, and understand how their work contributes to Corporate Affairs objectives. The advisor will ground communications strategy in audience and issue understanding, assess communications effectiveness, and help teams make informed decisions about where to focus their efforts.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in communications, market research, social or behavioral sciences, statistics, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
At least 8 years in communications research, public opinion research, measurement and evaluation, or strategic intelligence, including leading complex programs from design to recommendation and directing external research partners.
Experience supporting corporate communications or public affairs, in-house or at an agency or research firm, and a clear understanding of how communications strategies are developed and executed.
Strong research skills across methods, including survey design, sampling, weighting, bias, and statistical uncertainty, and the design or critical review of interviews, focus groups, and open-ended responses.
Hands-on experience with research platforms and providers such as Qualtrics, Morning Consult, and RepTrak, and ability to analyze data directly.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate communications contribution by defining audience outcomes, choosing feasible evaluation designs, and judging what the evidence supports.
Experience using media and social intelligence to interpret narratives and emerging issues, including assessing query relevance, source coverage, automated classification, and limits of audience inference; sound news and public affairs judgment.
Experience using AI tools in research and analysis, such as coding open-ended responses, synthesizing findings, or analyzing media coverage, with appropriate validation and human review.
Experience building or significantly improving a research, insights, or evaluation practice, with evidence of adoption by other teams.
Executive-ready writing and presentation skills, with a track record of research that influenced senior leaders’ decisions.

Nice To Haves

In-house Corporate Affairs or Corporate Communications experience at a large company, including responsibility for developing or executing communications strategies or programs.
Graduate degree in a research-intensive discipline.
Research experience across several disciplines, such as earned media, paid media, advocacy, internal communications, or corporate reputation.
Experience in energy or another industry with complex public policy and reputational issues.
Experience working with legal, compliance, and privacy teams on research and intelligence activities.
Established relationships with third-party research and media intelligence providers.

Responsibilities

Establish and manage a prioritized research and intelligence portfolio, recommending scope, sequencing, and tradeoffs based on leaders’ decision needs.
Lead quantitative and qualitative studies from research questions through design, fieldwork, analysis, and recommendations.
Set standards for external research, evaluation, and intelligence partners, including briefs, methodology, confidentiality, timelines, and budgets; resolve delivery issues and manage scope changes with contract owners.
Develop a consistent approach to measuring audience outcomes against communication objectives before priority work launches, including baselines, data sources, comparison groups, and timing.
Build and refine methods for assessing the contribution of campaigns, programs, and channels within Chevron’s communications measurement framework, working with analytics specialists to address attribution and comparability gaps.
Produce evidence-based assessments that distinguish observed change, association, and causal evidence; communicate uncertainty, alternative explanations, and limitations.
Guide prelaunch message and creative testing and in-market effectiveness research with paid media and agency partners.
Guide issue research, public opinion studies, and message testing in priority jurisdictions, interpreting results in light of policy and stakeholder dynamics.
Lead research on employee understanding of enterprise priorities, leadership messages, and change, distinguishing awareness, perceived understanding, and demonstrated comprehension.
Direct media and social analysis that connects audience research, competitive intelligence, and business context to identify narrative and stakeholder-perception shifts; advise on responses and escalate significant findings to issue owners.
Create reusable survey instruments, media monitoring queries, measures, and review practices for teams across Global Communications.
Apply AI across research activities, including instrument design, qualitative coding, synthesis, and media analysis, with validation and human review.
Improve research methods, workflows, and tools as needs evolve.
Align data requirements with analytics partners and build communicators’ ability to commission, interpret, and act on research.