We are TRADER, a Canadian leader in digital automotive solutions. Our flagship brands — AutoTrader.ca, AutoSync, Dealertrack Canada and CMS — help Canadians buy, sell, and finance vehicles with confidence.

AutoTrader.ca is Canada’s largest automotive marketplace, with over 25 million monthly visits. Through AutoSync, we provide software solutions to 3,500+ dealers, streamlining their operations, marketing, and sales. Dealertrack Canada is the country’s top automotive financing portal, processing more than 6.5 million credit applications each year. Collateral Management (CMS) is a national tech solution that boosts lien and registration services, recovery services, and insolvency management solutions for Canadian Lenders.

As part of AutoScout24 group, Europe’s largest online car marketplace, we’re shaping the future of automotive retail in Canada and beyond.

Learn more at tradercorporation.com.

Summary of Job:

The Director of Research will lead an innovative research function that converts market intelligence into actionable insights, driving strategic decision-making and thought leadership both within the organization and externally. This role plays a pivotal part in decoding evolving automotive market dynamics - such as shifts in consumer behavior, electrification trends, and macroeconomic forces like tariffs and interest rates - and transforming them into data-driven guidance for OEMs, dealerships, financial institutions, and consumers.

The scope of the position includes:

• Own end-to-end research design and execution, leveraging third-party partners, primary surveys, focus groups, and behavioral analytics to assess market sentiment, purchase intent, and other emerging trends.
• Represent the company at major industry events, delivering data-driven keynotes and panel contributions.
• Manage and optimize the annual research budget, ensuring ROI through rigorous evaluation of vendor performance and methodology effectiveness.
• Champion mixed-method approaches - blending quantitative data (e.g., AutoTrader analytics, StatsCan and other 3rd party data points) with qualitative insights (e.g., dealer interviews, consumer surveys and panels, third party reports and analyses).
• Deliver timely, audience-specific research briefs to executive leadership, product teams, and sales stakeholders.
• Develop a centralized, searchable research repository to enable self-serve access and reduce duplication.
• Serve as a media spokesperson on automotive trends, ensuring consistent, evidence-based messaging across TV, print, and digital outlets.
• Build trusted relationships with OEM strategy teams and national dealership groups through tailored research briefings.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

1. Market Research: Lead an integrated research program combining desk analysis, proprietary data, and commissioned studies to uncover market dynamics shaping consumers, dealerships, OEMs, and financial institutions. Requires deep expertise in market research theories, methodologies, and practical execution.

2. Thought Leadership: Translate research findings into clear insights and narratives for internal teams and external audiences through conferences, webinars, podcasts, media engagements, and industry panels.

3. Strategic Influence: Build strong internal and external demand for research-based insights by developing partnerships across business units, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), financial institutions, and policy groups.

4. Insight Generation: Work with internal analytics and business intelligence teams to combine research and quantitative reporting into complete market stories that guide strategy and support data informed decisions.

5. Practice Expansion: Grow the company’s Industry Research and Insights practice across all parts of the business and all regions, ensuring consistent methods, quality standards, and direct alignment with strategic goals.

Job Requirements:

Education, Experience, and Technical Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Quantitative Studies, Research, or a related discipline. An MBA or other graduate degree is considered a strong asset.
• Demonstrated passion for data exploration and curiosity about uncovering insights. An interest in the automotive industry is welcome, but a deep desire to ask proactive questions and dig into data is much more important.
• At least five years of experience in market research, competitive intelligence, or related analytical fields.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects at once, set clear priorities, and adjust focus as business needs evolve.

Strong technical and analytical mindset, with the ability to translate complex data into meaningful business narratives.

Required Soft Skills and Competencies

Initiative and autonomy: Works effectively with cross functional teams such as Product, Sales, Marketing, and Finance to ensure insights reach the right audiences and improve decision making.

Vendor and stakeholder management: Skilled at managing external research partners and influencing internal teams to support intelligence initiatives.

Communication excellence: Comfortable in both technical and business settings, able to communicate findings clearly across departments including Marketing, Sales, Product, Finance, as well as Executives.

Analytical integration: Capable of gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing information from a variety of data sources such as product, customer, financial, and competitive data.

Professional presence: Demonstrates confidence and professionalism in interactions across all levels of the organization and with external stakeholders.

What’s in it for you…

• We understand that there is life at work and life outside of work. Here are a few benefits we all benefit from that support us to be our creative best.

Benefits from Day 1

• Gym discounts
• Employee and Family Assistance program
• Virtual wellness events
• Conferences & training budget
• Regular internal training programs

Financial planning

• Let us help you invest in your future with 3% matching towards your pension and multiple forms of income protection.

Competitive salary

• Annual bonus structure
• 3% CPP matching