Associate Researcher, Research

Spotlight's Research & Intelligence team provides unparalleled insights, analysis, and perspective to Spotlight's clients and client teams. The Associate Researcher role is critical in supporting the creation and maintenance of deliverables focused on industry analysts, analyst firms, technology market trends, and B2B technology buyer reviews.

The ultimate goal of your day is to assist in providing research-focused context for client requests, support the monitoring of analyst research channels, help build and maintain Spotlight's encyclopedia of analyst information, track technology markets to help create contextual analysis of trends, utilize B2B customer review sources (G2, Gartner Peer Insights) to discover vendor or market trends, and execute research tasks required for successful projects and deliverables. This position is a great opportunity to learn fundamental research methodologies in a fast-paced environment.

What You'll Be Expected To Do

• Possess a strong eagerness to learn, along with foundational organizational and clear writing skills.
• Assist team members with organizing and packaging information for client delivery.
• Collect and organize data points from industry analyst thought leadership content under guidance.
• Execute basic data collection and organization tasks for customer review sources, utilizing spreadsheets and other basic data tools.
• Discover and record insights available in publicly available industry sources
• Execute a variety of short-term, long-term, and on-demand research tasks, strictly adhering to provided timelines.
• Show a proactive interest in learning about a specific technology market or trend (e.g., security, cloud computing, digital marketing, data and insights, etc.).
• Assist team members in preparing materials and tracking communications for outreach to analysts and firms.
• Collaborate effectively with Spotlight colleagues by taking clear direction and being proactive in asking questions.

Specific Responsibilities

Primary Responsibilities:

• Accurately perform data entry and ongoing maintenance for Spotlight's core library of data for analysts, firms, and market research content.
• Conducting foundational searches to identify and organize initial lists of key analysts and market experts for given topics.
• Searching for and drafting initial summaries of market expert perspectives on key trends.
• Collecting and organizing data and source materials required for building market-level overviews.

Supporting Contributions:

• Assisting with preparing general client deliverables and audits.
• Helping to organize data for analyst report breakdowns and summaries.
• Assisting with data collection and preliminary organization for deliverables analyzing analyst, customer, and buyer data.
• Providing general operational support to the Research & Intelligence team as needed.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Recent College Graduate (Bachelor's Degree required) OR final-year student seeking a post-graduation role.
• Preference for degrees in fields that require heavy research and writing, such as Journalism, Strategic Communications, Marketing Research, Business, or Liberal Arts.
• An upbeat, fun, and engaging attitude is essential for our team environment.
• Strong academic performance and a proven ability to conduct research and write clearly.
• Willingness to learn basic data analysis concepts (e.g., using Excel functions).
• Excellent communication, organization, and a strong desire to master new processes and tools.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and other basic office productivity tools is a must.
• Candidates must have a strong degree of curiosity and a genuine interest in technology markets, technology trends, and digital business.
• Any academic experience or internships related to consulting, communications, public relations, market research, or data organization are a plus.

We are a fun, smart, rapidly growing firm based in the Crossroads, who has consecutively been named KC Business Journal's Best Place to Work. Learn more about Spotlight at

Expected start date is Q1 2026.

Spotlight is an equal opportunity employer.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.