Research Manager Jobs in Michigan
Research Manager jobs in Michigan are in consistent demand, concentrated in university research institutions, automotive and mobility R&D, healthcare systems, and public policy organizations, with openings ranging from early-career research associates stepping into management through senior principal research managers. Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids anchor most of the hiring, where employers like University of Michigan, Henry Ford Health, and General Motors maintain active research operations. The most sought-after specialties in Michigan include clinical research management, social science and policy research, and applied automotive or manufacturing research. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 14+ Research Manager jobs
Job Description
Hybrid. This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Warren, Michigan three times per week, at minimum or other frequency dictated by the business.
The Role
General Motors is seeking a Customer Research Manager to lead a team of researchers and/or analysts within Global Customer Research (GCR) Product Research. The team supports the Core Experience and Occupant Experience software product teams within Vehicle Product Management, bringing the voice of the customer to the decisions that shape key in-vehicle experiences.
The role partners closely with product teams and their cross-functional stakeholders from early requirements development through launch and in-market performance. The supported portfolio includes comfort controls, displays, infotainment, connectivity, entertainment, user-interface generations and releases, AI assistants, user profiles, and related digital vehicle experiences.
The successful candidate is a customer-centered people leader who combines strong research execution, strategic judgment, and consultative partnership. They will guide a portfolio of bespoke research, develop team capability, and translate complex customer learning into timely, clear product direction.
What You’ll Do
Partner with product teams and stakeholders
- Serve as a trusted, consultative research partner to Core Experience and Occupant Experience product teams and their key cross-functional stakeholders.
- Proactively learn stakeholders’ business priorities, product plans, decision timelines, and customer-learning needs.
- Translate business priorities into persuasive research plans and proposals that align to product-development milestones and the GCR research roadmap.
- Facilitate research framing that defines the business decision, target customer, learning objectives, scope, timing, resource needs, and intended use of findings.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to develop research stimuli that create a clear connection between product intent and customer feedback.
- Represent the customer perspective in cross-functional forums through clear, persuasive, evidence-based storytelling.
Lead customer research that informs product decisions
- Plan, design, and execute fit-for-purpose qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research that provides timely, actionable insight for Core Experience and Occupant Experience product teams.
- Synthesize findings into concise, decision-ready deliverables that communicate customer needs, implications, opportunities, and recommended actions.
- Identify opportunities to connect learning across studies, customer themes, product areas, and technology domains, and ensure relevant read-across is communicated to stakeholders.
Lead people, projects, and resources
- Directly lead, coach, and develop researchers and/or analysts; set clear goals and expectations, provide timely feedback, and support professional growth.
- Build a high-performance, customer-centered culture characterized by intellectual curiosity, collaboration, accountability, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.
- Manage an assigned portfolio, including priorities, work plans, milestones, budget, supplier support, and stakeholder expectations.
- Direct study materials, suppliers, logistics, fieldwork, analysis, reporting, and stakeholder follow-through to meet agreed scope, timing, quality, and budget expectations.
- Provide clear status communication to leadership and stakeholders; surface risks and negotiate scope, timing, and resource trade-offs early. Manage research suppliers, budgets, schedules, tools, and facilities in accordance with GM processes and policies.
Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s degree.
- 7+ years of relevant experience.
- Working knowledge of vehicle or product-development processes and the role of customer research in product decision-making.
- Experience leading or using primary research to inform product decisions.
- Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including setting goals, coaching, performance management, and developing team members.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, schedules, and stakeholders in a complex, changing environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create clear, concise, and actionable research deliverables.
- Strong presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and persuasive storytelling skills; able to communicate effectively with technical, business, program, and leadership audiences.
- Proficiency using AI-enabled tools to improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of research and day-to-day work.
- High degree of creativity, resourcefulness, and sound critical thinking, with strong problem-solving, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role.
What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience in automotive, mobility, connected services, consumer technology, digital products, or other complex hardware-software ecosystems.
- Software product development experience.
- Post-graduate degree.
- Direct market research experience across qualitative, quantitative, formative, generative, and evaluative methodologies.
About GM
Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.
Why Join Us
We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.
Benefits Overview
From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources .
Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)
General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.
All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.
We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire .
Accommodations
General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.
Job Description
Hybrid. This role is categorized as hybrid. This means the successful candidate is expected to report to Warren, Michigan three times per week, at minimum or other frequency dictated by the business.
The Role
General Motors is seeking a Customer Research Manager to lead a team of researchers and/or analysts within Global Customer Research (GCR) Product Research. The team supports the Core Experience and Occupant Experience software product teams within Vehicle Product Management, bringing the voice of the customer to the decisions that shape key in-vehicle experiences.
The role partners closely with product teams and their cross-functional stakeholders from early requirements development through launch and in-market performance. The supported portfolio includes comfort controls, displays, infotainment, connectivity, entertainment, user-interface generations and releases, AI assistants, user profiles, and related digital vehicle experiences.
The successful candidate is a customer-centered people leader who combines strong research execution, strategic judgment, and consultative partnership. They will guide a portfolio of bespoke research, develop team capability, and translate complex customer learning into timely, clear product direction.
What You’ll Do
Partner with product teams and stakeholders
- Serve as a trusted, consultative research partner to Core Experience and Occupant Experience product teams and their key cross-functional stakeholders.
- Proactively learn stakeholders’ business priorities, product plans, decision timelines, and customer-learning needs.
- Translate business priorities into persuasive research plans and proposals that align to product-development milestones and the GCR research roadmap.
- Facilitate research framing that defines the business decision, target customer, learning objectives, scope, timing, resource needs, and intended use of findings.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to develop research stimuli that create a clear connection between product intent and customer feedback.
- Represent the customer perspective in cross-functional forums through clear, persuasive, evidence-based storytelling.
Lead customer research that informs product decisions
- Plan, design, and execute fit-for-purpose qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research that provides timely, actionable insight for Core Experience and Occupant Experience product teams.
- Synthesize findings into concise, decision-ready deliverables that communicate customer needs, implications, opportunities, and recommended actions.
- Identify opportunities to connect learning across studies, customer themes, product areas, and technology domains, and ensure relevant read-across is communicated to stakeholders.
Lead people, projects, and resources
- Directly lead, coach, and develop researchers and/or analysts; set clear goals and expectations, provide timely feedback, and support professional growth.
- Build a high-performance, customer-centered culture characterized by intellectual curiosity, collaboration, accountability, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.
- Manage an assigned portfolio, including priorities, work plans, milestones, budget, supplier support, and stakeholder expectations.
- Direct study materials, suppliers, logistics, fieldwork, analysis, reporting, and stakeholder follow-through to meet agreed scope, timing, quality, and budget expectations.
- Provide clear status communication to leadership and stakeholders; surface risks and negotiate scope, timing, and resource trade-offs early. Manage research suppliers, budgets, schedules, tools, and facilities in accordance with GM processes and policies.
Your Skills & Abilities (Required Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s degree.
- 7+ years of relevant experience.
- Working knowledge of vehicle or product-development processes and the role of customer research in product decision-making.
- Experience leading or using primary research to inform product decisions.
- Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including setting goals, coaching, performance management, and developing team members.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, schedules, and stakeholders in a complex, changing environment.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to create clear, concise, and actionable research deliverables.
- Strong presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and persuasive storytelling skills; able to communicate effectively with technical, business, program, and leadership audiences.
- Proficiency using AI-enabled tools to improve the speed, quality, and effectiveness of research and day-to-day work.
- High degree of creativity, resourcefulness, and sound critical thinking, with strong problem-solving, organizational, and stakeholder-management skills.
- Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States. GM does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role.
What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience in automotive, mobility, connected services, consumer technology, digital products, or other complex hardware-software ecosystems.
- Software product development experience.
- Post-graduate degree.
- Direct market research experience across qualitative, quantitative, formative, generative, and evaluative methodologies.
About GM
Our vision is a world with Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions and Zero Congestion and we embrace the responsibility to lead the change that will make our world better, safer and more equitable for all.
Why Join Us
We believe we all must make a choice every day – individually and collectively – to drive meaningful change through our words, our deeds and our culture. Every day, we want every employee to feel they belong to one General Motors team.
Benefits Overview
From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions. Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources .
Non-Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunities (U.S.)
General Motors is committed to being a workplace that is not only free of unlawful discrimination, but one that genuinely fosters inclusion and belonging. We strongly believe that providing an inclusive workplace creates an environment in which our employees can thrive and develop better products for our customers.
All employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, pregnancy or maternity status, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran or protected veteran, or any other similarly protected status in accordance with federal, state and local laws.
We encourage interested candidates to review the key responsibilities and qualifications for each role and apply for any positions that match their skills and capabilities. Applicants in the recruitment process may be required, where applicable, to successfully complete a role-related assessment(s) and/or a pre-employment screening prior to beginning employment. To learn more, visit How we Hire .
Accommodations
General Motors offers opportunities to all job seekers including individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, email us or call us at 1-800-865-7580. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.
See All 14 Research Manager Jobs in Michigan
Find roles in Michigan that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Research Manager JobsResearch Manager Jobs by City in Michigan
Where Michigan roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Research Manager Job Market in Michigan
A snapshot from current Michigan openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
What Michigan Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in research manager jobs across Michigan.
- Bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant research discipline required by most Michigan employers
- Proven experience leading research projects and managing teams of analysts or scientists
- Proficiency with research methodology, data analysis tools, and statistical software
- Strong record of grant writing, budget oversight, or sponsored project compliance in Michigan institutions
- Familiarity with IRB protocols and human subjects research regulations where clinical work applies
- Excellent written communication skills for presenting findings to internal stakeholders and external partners
Research Manager Jobs in Michigan: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a research manager in Michigan?
Most research managers in Michigan move into the role after completing a bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant field such as public health, social science, engineering, or life sciences, followed by several years as a research analyst or project coordinator. Michigan does not require a state-issued license specifically for research managers, but those overseeing clinical studies typically need IRB certification, and healthcare-adjacent roles may require credentials aligned with Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services guidelines.
How much do research managers make in Michigan?
Research managers in Michigan earn a median of about $129,070 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $68,380 for the lowest 10% to over $222,030 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire research managers in Michigan?
Employers hiring research managers in Michigan right now include Henry Ford Health, General Motors (GM), and Colliers, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Michigan's concentration of major university systems, auto manufacturers, and regional health networks means research management roles appear across both private industry and nonprofit and public-sector organizations.
Which Michigan cities have the most research manager jobs?
Detroit, Warren, and Michigan account for the largest share of research manager openings in Michigan. Ann Arbor's hiring is driven by the University of Michigan and its affiliated health system, Detroit draws from corporate R&D at automakers and a growing healthcare corridor, and Grand Rapids supports a strong medical device and clinical research sector anchored by Spectrum Health and associated institutions.
Are there remote research manager jobs in Michigan?
Yes, and more than many management roles, since research managers focused on data, policy, or social science analysis can often perform core duties remotely. About 100% of research manager openings tied to Michigan are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, though clinical and laboratory-based roles typically require an on-site presence. Fully remote openings are most common in survey research, health policy, and market research functions.
How can I get hired as a research manager in Michigan with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is to join a Michigan research institution as a research coordinator or junior analyst and work toward a management role from within. Large Michigan employers like University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Henry Ford Health regularly hire new graduates into research assistant and coordinator positions that build the project leadership skills needed for management. Earning an IRB certification or a project management credential strengthens a candidate's profile and signals readiness for oversight responsibilities.
Where can I find and apply to research manager jobs in Michigan?
You can find and apply to research manager jobs in Michigan on Migrate Mate, which lists current Michigan openings across industries and hiring levels. Find roles that fit your background and apply directly to the employers posting them.
See All 14 Research Manager Jobs in Michigan
Find roles in Michigan that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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