Academic by training. Industry by practice.

I blend research, strategy and applied product knowledge to combine academic rigour with five years of industry judgement.

Aug 2020 -Sept 2026

User Experience Researcher Meta

Delivered research informing strategy, and directly improving products across Meta's Customer Support and Integrity spaces. Research lead across multi-researcher projects.

Hybrid role moving seamlessly between researcher, data scientist, product manager and operations to lead teams of 10+ cross-functional partners to build company wide measurement. Experience developing with LLMs for both measurement, and user-facing experiences.

Provided mentoring to 30+ mentees and delivering training to groups of up to 40.

Sept 2019 -Aug 2020

Senior Research Officer ISER, University of Essex

Helped design and deliver nationally significant methodological research for the Innovation Panel of Understanding Society, spanning planning, procurement, fieldwork, data processing and analysis. Developed and tested survey instruments, co-taught MSc survey design and supervised junior researchers.

Sept 2017 -Dec 2018

Graduate Teaching Assistant Dept. of Sociology, University of Essex

Taught practical quantitative analysis labs for MSc students, covering statistical methods, data cleaning and survey analysis in Stata. Also delivered BA/BSc seminars, assessment and office hours across research design, ethics, data collection and qualitative and quantitative methods.

Jan 2017 -Sept 2019

Research Consultant Independent

Delivered around 25 end-to-end research and business strategy projects for around 15 clients across publishing, finance, education and local government.

Jul 2020

PhD Survey Methodology University of Essex

Pass with minor corrections

Thesis title: Opportunities and challenges in new survey data collection methods using apps and images.

Sept 2016

MSc Survey Methods for Social Research University of Essex

Pass with distinction

Thesis title: An examination of panel conditioning, dependent on respondent characteristics.

Awards: Fuller Postgraduate Prize. Highest weighted mark in the Sociology department, 2015-2016.

Jul 2015

BA Sociology University of Essex

First Class Honours

Awards: Dean's list. Faculty of Social Sciences 2014. Academic Excellence Scholarship, 2012-2015.

Peer
reviewed

Wenz, A., Jäckle, A., Burton, J., Couper, M. and Read, B., 2025. Quality of expenditure data collected with a mobile receipt scanning app in a probability household panel. Survey Research Methods, Vol. 19, No. 2.
Read, B., 2019. Respondent burden in a mobile app: Evidence from a shopping receipt scanning study. Survey Research Methods, Vol. 13, No. 1.

Selected
other

Benzeval, M., Burton, J., Crossley, T.F., Fisher, P., Jäckle, A., Low, H. and Read, B., 2020. The idiosyncratic impact of an aggregate shock: the distributional consequences of COVID-19. University of Oxford Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series, No. 911.
Benzeval, M., Borkowska, M., Burton, J., Crossley, T.F., Fumagalli, L., Jäckle, A., Rabe, B. and Read, B., 2020. Understanding Society COVID-19 survey - April briefing note: Home schooling. Understanding Society Working Paper Series, Vol. 2020, No. 12.
Benzeval, M., Booker, C., Burton, J., Crossley, T.F., Jäckle, A., Kumari, M. and Read, B., 2020. Understanding Society COVID-19 survey - April briefing note: Health and Caring. Understanding Society Working Paper Series, Vol. 2020, No. 11.
Read, B., 2019. The influence of device characteristics on data collection using a mobile app. Understanding Society Working Paper Series, Vol. 2019, No. 1.