research and development manager

Research and development managers coordinate the efforts of scientists, academical researchers, product developers, and market researchers towards the creation of new products, the improvement of current ones or other research activities, including scientific research. They manage and plan research and development activities of an organisation, specify goals and budget requirements and manage the staff.

The most in-demand skills for this role include product life-cycle, design management, socio-economic trends in your sector, market research, industrial research and development, combine business technology with user experience. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Our AI-durability model gives research and development manager a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.