Manager, Research and Insights | Product Development and Design

At Qatar Airways, decisions about the future of the passenger experience — from a new cabin interior to an IFEC platform, an onboard amenity to a food and beverage concept — need to be grounded in the best possible intelligence. Our Product Development and Design division is responsible for the design, development, and standards of all onboard product areas, and the Research and Insights function ensures that every strategic decision we make is informed by rigorous, current, and commercially relevant evidence.

Join our Strategy, Planning and Insights team and play a central role in building the intelligence that shapes the future of Qatar Airways' onboard experience.

About the Role
As Manager, Research and Insights, you will lead the delivery of customer research, market intelligence, and competitive benchmarking that underpins the Product Development and Design division's ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Research and Strategy, you will be the division's primary producer of research and insight — translating complex, multi-source data into clear, actionable intelligence that directly supports product investment decisions, strategic planning, and cross-functional alignment across PDD.
Your work will serve the entire division. You will provide the research and intelligence foundation that enables the Senior Manager, Research and Strategy to develop the divisional strategy. You will supply the CX team with the passenger insight and competitive benchmarking they need to design and maintain world-class service standards and journey alignment frameworks. You will support product teams across aircraft interiors, IFEC, food and beverage, and equipment development with the market intelligence and customer insight they need to make confident product decisions. You will be the person the division turns to when it needs to understand what passengers want, what the competition is doing, and what the market is telling us.
This is a research and insights leadership role with meaningful strategic contribution. You will not own the divisional strategy — that sits with the Senior Manager, Research and Strategy — but your outputs will be the evidential foundation on which that strategy is built. Strong strategic thinking and commercial awareness are therefore essential alongside deep research and analytical capability.

As part of your role, your responsibilities will be inclusive of, but not limited to the following:

Customer Research and Passenger Insight

• Lead the design and delivery of Qatar Airways' passenger research programme within PDD, including qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, ensuring outputs are rigorous, actionable, and directly relevant to the division's product and service priorities

• Synthesise passenger feedback, satisfaction data, and behavioural research into clear insight narratives that inform product development, service standards, and CX strategy across the division

• Manage the mystery shopping programme outputs in collaboration with the CX team, ensuring research findings are structured to support both service standards improvement and broader journey alignment work

• Commission and manage external research agencies and insight partners, ensuring quality, methodological rigour, timeliness, and value for money across all externally produced research

Market Intelligence and Competitive Benchmarking

• Maintain a current, structured, and accessible view of the competitive landscape across all PDD product categories — cabin interiors,

• IFEC, food and beverage, amenities, and onboard service — ensuring the division is never caught off-guard by competitor developments

• Develop and deliver regular competitive benchmarking reports that give product teams and senior leadership a clear, honest assessment of Qatar Airways' position relative to peers and best-in-class operators globally

• Monitor industry trends, emerging technologies, and shifting passenger expectations across all relevant product and experience categories, translating horizon scanning into structured intelligence that feeds the division's strategic planning process

• Build and maintain a network of industry intelligence sources — including Skytrax, IATA, OAG, APEX, and relevant academic and commercial research — ensuring the division's intelligence base is comprehensive, current, and credible

Insight Delivery and Cross-functional Support

• Act as the division's primary insight partner, providing structured, evidence-based intelligence to cross-functional teams across PDD — including CX, aircraft interiors, IFEC, design and branding, equipment development, and food and beverage — in response to both planned and ad hoc intelligence needs

• Develop and maintain insight frameworks and research tools that enable the division to answer recurring strategic and commercial questions efficiently and consistently

• Prepare clear, compelling insight reports, executive briefings, and strategic presentations that enable the Senior Manager, Research and Strategy and divisional leadership to engage confidently with complex product and investment decisions

• Ensure all insight outputs are communicated in a format and at a level of clarity that is accessible and actionable for the specific audience — whether a product team, a senior leader, or a cross-functional steering committee

Performance Tracking and Analytical Frameworks

• Develop and maintain the division's research and insight performance frameworks, including KPIs, data sources, and reporting structures that give leadership a consistent and reliable view of product performance, passenger satisfaction, and market position

• Monitor divisional KPIs and performance metrics, producing regular, accurate reports that enable leadership to assess progress, identify risks, and take timely corrective action

• Proficient in data visualisation and analytics tools including Power BI, Tableau, and equivalent platforms, using these to produce clear, well-structured dashboards and performance reports that make complex data accessible to non-specialist audiences

Strategic Contribution

• Support the Senior Manager, Research and Strategy in the development and ongoing evolution of the divisional strategy, providing the evidential foundation and analytical rigour that enables strategy to be built on current, credible intelligence rather than assumption

• Contribute to business case development and investment prioritisation by providing the research and data inputs that enable the Senior

• Manager and divisional leadership to evaluate product initiatives with commercial confidence

• Identify emerging opportunities and risks in the competitive and passenger landscape, proactively bringing these to the attention of the Senior Manager with structured, evidence-based analysis

Be part of an extraordinary story

Your skills. Your imagination. Your ambition. Here, there are no boundaries to your potential and the impact you can make. You’ll find infinite opportunities to grow and work on the biggest, most rewarding challenges that will build your skills and experience. You have the chance to be a part of our future, and build the life you want while being part of an international community.
Our best is here and still to come. To us, impossible is only a challenge. Join us as we dare to achieve what’s never been done before.
Together, everything is possible.