Odgers

Researcher Brief 2025 - Gov and Housing

Researcher | Government & Housing Practice 

About the Role

​Our researchers are at the heart of everything we do at Odgers. ​They play a pivotal role in identifying and attracting exceptional talent for senior-level positions, underpinning the success of every search assignment. Through rigorous market research, they develop a deep understanding of industry trends, organisational structures, and key individuals. Their ability to absorb, analyse, and synthesise complex information enables them to build detailed candidate profiles that help our teams assess alignment with client needs.

​Researchers support the search process by sourcing candidates across a wide range of platforms and networks, verifying credentials, and ensuring accuracy at every stage. Once the initial identification phase is complete, they engage directly with candidates and sources, often over the phone, to gather nuanced insights. The quality of these conversations is critical in forming a clear and accurate picture of each candidate’s suitability.

​By offering valuable perspectives on the broader public sector landscape and providing detailed intelligence on potential candidates, our researchers empower consultants to make informed decisions and deliver high-calibre placements.
​While prior public sector experience isn’t required, a genuine interest and foundational understanding of its significance is essential.
​This role is for someone with a minimum of two years experience, either in a contingent recruitment firm, or as a researcher in an executive search firm.

​At Odgers, we’re committed to investing in our people. If you're looking for a role that offers development, support, and the opportunity to grow, we’d love to hear from you.

​We’re looking for researchers who are curious, organised, self-starters, and eager to learn. You’ll play a key role in supporting search projects by gathering market intelligence, identifying potential candidates, and helping to manage the search process from start to finish.

Ideal candidates will bring:

• A natural curiosity that drives deep and thorough research in all search projects
• The ability to think creatively, finding talent beyond the obvious
• A strong ability to manage information and stay organised across multiple projects
• Strong interpersonal skills and confidence in communicating with people from a wide range of backgrounds
• Excellent written communication and attention to detail, especially in preparing reports and documentation
• A proactive, transparent approach to teamwork and communication
• The ability to work at pace, prioritise effectively, and stay calm under pressure
• A commitment to inclusion and diversity, both in how we work internally and how we approach candidate searches
• An entrepreneurial mind-set, with a high level of self-starting energy
• An ability to work autonomously, in a flat, non-hierarchical team structure with a culture of unity and collaboration.

Odgers is one of the world’s leading Global Executive Search firms. Our reputation for excellence and integrity has been established over 60 years and we are a partnership-driven by the client, candidate, and employee experience. We function as trusted advisors to our clients and candidates and engage with a diverse range of leaders for the most influential roles across a wide variety of industries. The service we deliver is creative, insightful, and most importantly, in partnership; we pride ourselves on maintaining personal relationships.

At Odgers, we are proud of our progressive, diverse, meritocratic, and collaborative culture where you will find support, training and career development working with colleagues striving for excellence in all they do. We are UK headquartered with colleagues across 58 Offices in 32 countries specialising in over 50 sectors and functions. 

Hybrid Working

Our Hybrid working policy is based on the principles of empowerment, mutual trust and flexibility, recognising that we work best when we make choices about when, where and how we work.  At the same time, we are reminded that time together is so important.  We are a client-service business in which our relationships and our culture provide a significant advantage. Our offices remain critical to how we work; they are a place for collaboration, learning, and support and an anchor for the culture of which we are so proud.

We operate a hybrid working model which would typically see you spending 2 days working from one of our UK offices (to include a minimum of 1 day every fortnight in the London office), and the rest remotely. Your work pattern will be reliant on business demands, and we would expect you to manage your time accordingly.

At Odgers, we are committed to fostering a work environment that is safe and respectful of all individuals. We have and will always stand with and support the inclusion and equity of our colleagues, candidates and clients and are committed to improving diversity in all its forms within Odgers.

Unlimited embodies this philosophy and our commitment to inclusion.

We have several initiatives that ensure equity is practised at all levels of our organisation, including our Allies programme, an equitable recruitment process designed to ensure opportunity, our Next Generation council and a meritocratic promotion process.

Sustainability

Modern businesses have a duty to be environmentally responsible and operate sustainably. We believe this represents not only sound commercial sense but also recognises our ethical responsibility to minimise the impact of our activities on the environment and to leave a positive legacy for future generations.

We have committed to, and set, science-based decarbonisation targets, and have received verification of these goals from the Science Based Targets initiative  (SBTi). These targets will hold us accountable to our sustainability strategy while enabling us to measure our progress. This is complemented by us continuing to provide sustainability insight to our clients and cultivating a track record within sustainable businesses and in placing sustainability leaders.

Corporate Social Responsibility

We take Charity seriously – but like to have fun too. Our CSR team are always thinking up new events and activities to get involved in and raise funds for our chosen charity British Heart Foundation. 

We also have a variety of social clubs and learning opportunities to suit everyone such as the Brunch and Learn Session, Odgers choir, the book club or one of the many sports clubs

Whats on offer?

A competitive base salary, supplemented by our benefits package and discretionary bonus

• 25 days Annual leave + 3 gift days for the Christmas closure + bank holidays
• Private Medical Insurance with Bupa and cash plan with Simply Health
• Group Company Pension
• Season Ticket Loan & Cycle to work scheme
• Give As You Earn
• Group Income Protection
• Group Life Assurance
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Charity Day
• Wellbeing Programmes, support and speakers
• On-boarding, induction training and ongoing professional development
• Corporate member discounts and benefits available through Bupa and Simply Health including Gyms Discounts 

Applications

We are committed to ensuring everyone can access our website and application processes. This includes people with sight loss, hearing, mobility and cognitive impairments. Should you require access to these documents in alternative formats, need to apply in a different format or need any reasonable adjustments made for any interview please contact our Talent Team at careers@odgers.com 

If you have any comments and/or suggestions about improving access to our application processes, please don't hesitate to contact us at careers@odgers.com

Eligibility

You must be eligible to live and work in the UK