£29k–£30k IC1 Insights | London (office-based, ~4 days per week)

native has been building for 10 years, but we’re still very much a startup: fast-moving, ambitious, and building with intent. We’re creating the infrastructure that connects students, Students’ Unions, universities, and advertisers through a managed marketplace.

Our goal is to increase student engagement while enabling Students’ Unions to secure sustainable funding. For advertisers, we offer meaningful, measurable routes to student audiences. The more aligned these incentives are, the more defensible and scalable our business becomes.

We’re looking for graduates who can do two things well: write properly, and run things properly. The writing side means survey questions that land, emails that get opened, and findings written up so a sales team can actually sell with them. The coordination side means recruitment, scheduling, response monitoring, consent records, and all the operational scaffolding that keeps research moving on time and to standard.

What we’re looking for We value clarity of thought, good judgement under pressure, the ability to create structure where none exists, and writing that does work rather than decorates it.

You might be right for this if:

• You think in first principles, not borrowed answers, solving problems from the ground up
• You write the way you think: clearly, precisely, and without padding
• You’re organised by instinct, the kind of person who notices when a tracker is out of date and fixes it without being asked
• You thrive in ambiguity, comfortable making decisions when there isn’t a map
• You do the work, not for applause, but because it matters to you that things are done well
• You’ve got range, you’re not just smart on paper, you’ve done things that demanded resilience, judgement, or initiative

We are open to a wide range of degree backgrounds, but we look for intellectual sharpness, structured thinking, and a track record of writing well. That often shows up in disciplines like English, History, Philosophy, Classics, Languages, Journalism or Linguistics, but not always. If you’ve written a thesis, edited a student paper, run a newsletter, ghostwritten for a startup, or built any kind of body of work in prose, we want to hear about it. If your academic path is less typical, help us understand how your thinking and your writing have been shaped and why they stand up.

What you’ll be working on This is a hybrid role. Roughly half writing, half coordination, with the balance shifting week to week depending on what’s in flight.

On the writing side, you’ll be:

• Writing and refining survey questions, ensuring every item is clear, unbiased, and earns its place in the instrument
• Drafting recruitment emails, reminders, and follow-up sequences that actually get students to respond, with attention to subject lines, opening hooks, length, and call to action
• Turning raw survey responses into narratives, briefs, and sales-ready outputs that commercial teams can take into client conversations
• Editing and improving copy across research touchpoints, from participant-facing comms to internal write-ups, holding a consistent voice and standard
• Providing support for ad-hoc research requests and reports

On the coordination side, you’ll be:

• Running end-to-end logistics for qualitative and quantitative research, including participant recruitment, scheduling interviews, and organising focus groups and prizes
• Deploying surveys, monitoring response rates, and ensuring accurate sampling and timely completion
• Maintaining meticulous records of participants, consent documentation, and survey responses, with full compliance to data protection standards
• Keeping trackers, schedules, and project documentation accurate and up to date so nothing slips
• Collaborating closely with the insights team to ensure insights are accurately captured, well written, and actionable

This role provides practical experience in structured, high-quality research, the writing craft that surrounds it, and the operational discipline that makes both possible. It will quickly develop your end-to-end expertise in a fast-paced research environment.

Required Skills You’ll be right for this role if:

• You’ve studied a discipline that demands a lot of writing, such as English, History, Philosophy, Classics, Languages, Journalism, Linguistics, or similar
• You can show us writing you’re proud of, whether published, academic, student journalism, a substack, a newsletter, or work done on the side
• You have an instinct for email copy: you understand why some subject lines get opened and others get ignored, why some messages get a reply and others get ignored
• You have practical exposure to designing or critiquing survey instruments and understand the basics of question types, ordering effects, and writing for clarity rather than ambiguity
• You’re familiar with survey software like Qualtrics, Typeform, or similar, and with email tools (Mailchimp, Customer.io, Klaviyo, or equivalent) at least at the level of someone who has used them in a serious context
• You’re highly organised, able to manage multiple projects, timelines, datasets, and writing deadlines accurately, and you take pride in keeping things tidy
• You enjoy applying rigorous research methods practically and you see writing not as decoration but as the thing that makes the insight usable
• You’re comfortable writing for a variety of audiences, adjusting tone and framing while maintaining clarity and precision

Location and ways of working You’ll be based in our London office, working in person at least four days a week, with one optional day remote. We believe in high-bandwidth collaboration and fast decision-making, so most of the work happens face-to-face.

How to apply We don’t want a cover letter. Instead, answer a few questions we have which will help us understand how you think and how you write:

• A trade-off you’ve had to make and how you decided
• A problem you tackled without much guidance
• A piece of writing (yours or someone else’s) you think is genuinely good, and why
• A time you had to choose what not to do, and why

Please also include a recent CV, or a link to your LinkedIn profile or equivalent, and ideally one or two short samples of your writing (a published piece, an essay extract, a newsletter, anything that gives us a feel for your voice on the page).

And if you’re reading this and thinking, I really want to do this, but I probably won’t get picked, apply anyway. We care far more about how you think, how you write, and how you show up than whether you tick every imagined box. Don’t rule yourself out.

We’re hiring on a rolling basis. If this sounds like the kind of challenge you’re ready for, get in touch.

Equal Opportunity Statement We are actively creating an equitable environment for everyone at native to thrive. Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we are making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at native. At native, we embrace diversity in all of its forms and foster an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us.