Customer Research & Insights Program Manager

About the role

The Manager of Retail Elevation - Research Program Management will have a frontline seat and the opportunity to help shape the evolution of retail experience. Working closely with partners across the Marketing and Growth Organization, Retail Elevation, Visual Merchandising, Retail Marketing, Digital Innovation, Sports Sponsorships, Omnichannel, Research/Analytics; Insights, Agency partners, and Sales/Operations teams, the successful candidate will help turn customer insights into action across the programs that define how shoppers experience in-store. This role is ideal for a curious, organized, and highly collaborative research professional who enjoys managing multiple workstreams, connecting dots across teams, and translating customer feedback into clear recommendations. The contractor will help manage the day-to-day execution of retail research programs that evaluate shopper behavior, creative effectiveness, in-store experience, sponsorship activations, digital-to-retail journeys, merchandising impact, and customer perceptions such as Brand Love, Overall Satisfaction, Likelihood to Recommend, Brand Consideration, and Purchase Motivation.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day research programs across Visual Merchandising, Retail Marketing, Digital Innovation, Sports Sponsorships, Omnichannel, and related Retail Elevation initiatives.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external research vendors to scope research needs, clarify business objectives, align timing, and ensure projects are set up to generate useful, actionable insights.
• Develop and manage research briefs, learning agendas, timelines, status updates, and recap materials that keep cross-functional partners aligned and moving.
• Support ongoing Retail Customer Tracker work, including creative overlays, shopper journey learning, competitive benchmarking, and readout preparation.
• Coordinate qualitative and quantitative research efforts, including tracker studies, creative effectiveness testing, pre/post measurement, shop-alongs, intercepts, focus groups, rep feedback, and exploratory research.
• Help evaluate sponsorship and retail activation performance, including programs tied to sports, cultural moments, local market events, and immersive in-store experiences.
• Partner with analytics resources to connect research findings with traffic, sales, conversion, engagement, and customer behavior data where appropriate.
• Synthesize complex inputs into clear, executive-ready stories that identify what we learned, why it matters, and what the team should do next.
• Maintain research documentation and governance, including project trackers, briefs, readout schedules, vendor outputs, insight repositories, and next-step follow-ups.
• Help identify research gaps and recommend practical approaches when existing data sources do not fully answer the business question.
• Champion the customer voice by ensuring Retail Elevation decisions are grounded in what customers actually see, feel, need, and do in the store experience.

Qualifications

• BA/BS in Marketing, Market Research, Consumer Insights, Business, Communications, Psychology, Statistics, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in market research, consumer insights, shopper insights, retail strategy, customer experience, or marketing program management.
• Hands-on experience supporting or managing research projects from brief development through final readout.
• Familiarity with research methods such as surveys, segmentation, customer journey research, qualitative interviews, shop-alongs, focus groups, intercepts, usability testing, pre/post measurement, and test-and-learn design.
• Ability to work with cross-functional teams and translate business needs into clear research plans.
• Strong PowerPoint storytelling skills and experience creating concise, executive-ready summaries.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience with retail, telecom, omnichannel experiences, sports/cultural sponsorships, or in-store merchandising is a plus.
• Experience with syndicated or custom research platforms, dashboards, survey tools, social listening, or data visualization platforms is a plus.
• Comfort using AI tools to improve speed, synthesis, organization, and communication is a plus.
• Be a customer-first research enthusiast who is energized by using insights to improve the retail experience.
• Be highly organized and comfortable managing several projects, partners, and deadlines at the same time.
• Be able to translate business questions into researchable objectives and practical methodologies.
• Have experience working with both quantitative and qualitative research approaches.
• Be comfortable reviewing survey data, qualitative findings, dashboards, creative testing, and performance metrics.
• Have strong communication skills and the ability to turn detailed findings into concise, actionable business stories.
• Be collaborative, proactive, flexible, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
• Bring curiosity, sound judgment, and a healthy sense of "why behind the what."
• Be comfortable working in the Microsoft 365 environment, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, and Copilot/AI-enabled tools.
• Have experience with research vendors, agency partners, or cross-functional marketing teams.
• Have experience in retail, shopper insights, customer experience, brand strategy, advertising, merchandising, digital/omnichannel, or sponsorship measurement preferred.

Preferred Industry Background

Service-based retail industries such as restaurants and convenience stores. This experience is preferred over telecommunications experience.

Benefits

• Healthcare Insurance: Synectics offers eligible employees and their dependents healthcare coverage through BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. Eligibility begins on the 1st day of the calendar month following 60 days of continuous full time employment with Synectics. Premiums are subsidized by Synectics.
• Dental Insurance: Synectics offers eligible employees and their dependents a dental plan through MetLife. Eligibility begins on the 1st day of the calendar month following 60 days of continuous full time employment with Synectics.
• Vision Insurance: Synectics offers eligible employees vision insurance through VSP. Eligibility begins on the 1st day of the calendar month following 60 days of continuous full time employment with Synectics.
• 401(k) Plan: The Synectics Inc. Investment Savings Retirement Plan. Synectics offers all employees who are 21 years of age or older the opportunity to invest in the 401(k) Plan on the first of the month following at least 1 calendar year after employment begins.