Associate Director, Global Business Insights

About the role

The Associate Director, Business Insights is responsible for leading the development, governance, and delivery of enterprise‑wide business intelligence and strategic analytics to support senior leadership. This role oversees a team that transforms financial, operational, market, and macroeconomic data into actionable insights, informing strategic decisions, performance management, and long‑range planning across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary business insights partner to the VP Finance, providing forward‑looking analysis and recommendations on business performance, risks, and opportunities through analytical and quantitative tools.
• Lead the design and execution of a business insights strategy that integrates financial, commercial, and economic indicators to support decision‑making.
• Identify and create new reports and distribution of insights to inform senior business leaders and support the broader FP&A and Investor Relations functions.
• Present insights and recommendations to executive and senior leadership, tailoring messages to different audiences and levels of technical expertise.
• Oversee development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of finance and market intelligence dashboards (e.g., Power BI) that incorporate macroeconomic and industry data such as interest rates, inflation, GDP, housing activity, commodities, and currency trends.
• Integrate external economic and industry data sources (e.g., commodity price indices, housing and construction indicators, trade and tariff data, FX rates) with internal financial and operational data to provide a comprehensive view of performance drivers.
• Perform regression analysis, econometrics, and other quantitative analyses to identify drivers of business performance and predict future outcomes, informing performance expectations, capital deployment, and strategic decision‑making.
• Build and maintain forecasting, scenario, and sensitivity models that link economic drivers (raw material prices, demand cycles, housing starts, currency movements) to company performance and margins.
• Support the development of medium‑ and long‑term strategic plans by providing economic outlooks, industry cycle assessments, and quantitative evaluation of strategic options.
• Translate complex analyses into clear, concise narratives and recommendations that drive action.
• Build the Business Insights function by hiring, training, and developing key personnel and fostering a culture of insight, accountability, and partnership across stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline (required).
• MBA or Master’s in Finance, Economics, or related quantitative discipline (desirable).
• CFA, FRM, or similar designation (desirable).
• 10–12 years of progressive experience in business analysis, FP&A, strategy, or economic/market analysis roles.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft Office products; proficiency in financial quantitative software applications (desirable).
• Experience in manufacturing, chemicals, building products, or other industrial sectors (preferred).

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit; stand; walk; use hands to touch, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel or crouch. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds, and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate, as the role is primarily based in an office setting (e.g., Westlake corporate offices in Houston). Some travel may be required for investor conferences, roadshows, plant/site tours with investors, and internal meetings. Travel is typically up to 15–25%, including domestic and international air and automobile travel.