Research Director, Software Development

IDC

Requisition Number 2017-1168
Functional Area Research
Location US - MA - Framingham
# of Openings 1

Overview

IDC is the most respected global technology market research firm operating in over 110 countries worldwide. Our collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial culture is the perfect place for you to discover your future.

We are seeking a Research Director is responsible for researching, writing and advising clients on the changing field of software development. IDC's focus on developer research is oriented around the daily activities developers engage in, the types of products they use, and how their jobs are changing as the industry pivots around cloud native applications, DevOps practices and cloud-based deployments. The successful candidate will be able to speak broadly about developer activities, the languages, tools and practices they apply to development, challenges developers face, and how the developer landscape is shifting in the face of cloud native application development.

Responsibilities

• Technology Analysis: Serves as IDC's subject matter expert as it pertains to software development, with a focus on forecasting the activities of developers, the tools they use, the languages and the processes they embrace. Creation of developer market models with an emphasis on developer demographics, gender, location, and other dimensions, is a key activity. The intent of this research is to use the behaviors and developer activities to predict future requirements for infrastructure and deployment environments.
• Thought-leadership: Provides leadership thinking around how the developer community is changing, how the surrounding products and open source solutions are being used (and abandoned); and what the impacts of these shifts mean both to vendors delivering tools and services to developers, and to the organizations that employ developers. The right candidate will confidently take a position about how the industry is changing, and how change will unfold over the next 5 years.
• Consulting: Develops and/or customizes software developer research and consulting projects to meet the specific needs of the external customers. Consulting projects can come in the form of customized surveys, white papers, webcasts, on-site strategy sessions, customized forecasts, videos or presentations at events.
• Verbal, Quantitative & Written Communications: Both verbal and written analysis is key to a successful analyst at IDC. This position carries the expectation for approximately 25 solo or lead-authored research documents per year, including a mix of shorter industry-event reactive pieces and longer, thought-leadership documents that provide deeper insight into the changing nature of the market. The ability to build relationships with vendors and to proactively connect with industry representatives is critical. Excellent telephone and interpersonal skills must compliment strong organizational skills, and the ability to develop and defend market forecasts and share analysis is crucial. Frequent telephone interactions with clients, prospects and vendors is expected. The successful candidate will be able to juggle multiple projects simultaneously and work independently to support a range of publishing, consulting, forecasting, market modeling, and thought leadership activities simultaneously, often with strict deadlines. Ability to consistently produce written deliverables discussing the evolving developer ecosystem, meet document count and production deadlines is essential for success in this position.
• Business Development: Utilizes existing and new relationships, in conjunction with technical and market knowledge, to develop and grow business relationships for CIS subscriptions and custom consulting work. Proactively develops relationships with internal IDC sales teams and acts as advocate for the research service and custom consulting projects as a subject matter expert during sales calls.

Qualifications

• The successful candidate must be a strong self-starter requiring minimal direct oversight.
• Candidate will have excellent collaboration skills, be able to professionally insert herself/himself into projects in a positive and additive manner.
• Candidate must have a minimum of 5 years of directly applicable industry experience, and be able to demonstrate a proven track record of written deliverables; examples of professional presentations of the nature required to fulfill this position, and a track record of successful business development with vendors in the industry.
• Bachelor degree required; advanced degrees a plus.
• Ability to travel 1 to 3 times a month during peak spring and fall periods (travel varies considerably, but heaviest travel periods will be between March and July, then again in September and October).

IDC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants and employees are considered for positions and are evaluated without regard to mental or physical disability, handicap, race, color, religion, gender, gender identity and expression, ancestry, national origin, age, genetic information, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, marital status or other categories protected by law.

PM17

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PI97158568