Sarah Smith

Team: Rushup

After completing an internship within the Consumer Insights team at Unilever UK and graduating from Liverpool John Moores University with a First Class BA (Hons) Degree in Business Studies, Sarah began her research career at Conquest Research in London where she gained significant experience across a range of markets and methodologies, working with clients such as L’Oréal, Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee, LV= and Thomas Cook. Here, she was commended for her work which focused more specifically on New Product Development, Brand Health and Category Strategy research within consumer markets.  

In 2010 Sarah re-located to the North West and joined DJS Research. Here, Sarah was able to build and expand her research experience and skillset through the opportunities that working with a wide range of sectors and clients presented. As a Research Manager, Sarah was responsible for delivering bespoke research projects, managing the complete process, end-to-end. As a Research Manager Sarah was passionate about delivering insightful, engaging, and actionable insight for clients, whilst being sure to deliver on budget and to time.  

Having taken a career break to focus on raising a family, in 2021 Sarah returned to DJS Research as a Project Assistant, before being appointed Training Lead for our Junior Research Executive Programme. Sarah went on to develop and redefine our approach to training at DJS Research and moved into the position of Training Manager, with responsibility for the delivery of all internal training as well as supporting partners to access and explore external training programmes.

Sarah's unwavering passion for research underpinned her approach to training, where she both inspired and actively supported colleagues to realise their full potential. This passion has taken Sarah back to her research roots and in May 2025 we were absolutely delighted to support her move into team Rushup as Senior Research Manager - a role which is truly well-deserved. Sarah leaves a fantastic training framework for our HR team to drive forward and we, like her, are excited about her return to research which we believe will be hugely beneficial for our clients.