Director, Consumer Insights

About the role

This role is not available for any form of immigration sponsorship or support, including completion of the Form I-983 training plan required for STEM OPT.

Responsibilities

• Generate foundational consumer, shopper, category, brand, innovation, and go-to-market learning that fuels category growth, brand strategy, innovation choices, and go-to-market decisions.
• Translate insight into clear strategic recommendations that balance consumer needs, commercial realities, financial implications, operational feasibility, and brand priorities.
• Own priority insights initiatives from initial business question through final recommendation. Ensure every project has a clear learning plan, decision to be enabled, methodology, KPIs, milestones, owners, stakeholders, and communication path before work begins.
• Proactively manage timelines, risks, trade-offs, and stakeholder alignment without requiring late-stage escalation.
• Translate complex data, research findings, and market signals into concise, executive-ready narratives that clearly answer the business question, identify the “so what,” clarify implications, articulate trade-offs, and recommend action.
• Build trusted partnerships with Marketing, Sales, Innovation, Commercial, Category, and Executive stakeholders by proactively aligning on business questions, decision needs, research approach, timing, and success criteria.
• Create and drive go-to-market insights strategies that address shopper behavior, retail dynamics, channel performance, and consumer engagement.
• Leverage POS, panel, shopper, and category data to derive actionable recommendations for commercial and retail strategies.
• Guide the definition and assessment of brand equity using advanced market research tools, brand health tracking, advertising/communication testing, and consumer understanding.
• Identify trends and implications that inform brand strategy, positioning, messaging, and investment choices.
• Co-create and qualify the innovation pipeline by developing decision-oriented learning plans, defining innovation territories, assessing concepts, and identifying consumer, category, and cultural shifts.
• Track innovation performance to improve future initiatives and explore new business models.
• Set a clear vision and operating cadence for the Consumer Insights team. Provide active coaching through early project framing, in-flight guidance, synthesis reviews, and feedback on stakeholder-ready materials.
• Build team capability by identifying emerging insights methods, tools, and industry best practices and translating them into practical, scalable ways of working.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Consumer Insights leader in the CPG or consumer-led industry.
• Demonstrated ability to translate research, data, and market signals into business strategy, not just research outputs.
• Track record of advising senior leaders and shaping decisions in brand strategy, innovation, shopper, commercial, and go-to-market forums.
• Strong expertise in brand equity tracking, foundational consumer insights, foresight, innovation testing, shopper insights, and go-to-market strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to build decision-oriented learning plans and manage complex cross-functional insights agendas.
• Proven ability to create executive-ready narratives that clarify implications, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Strong people leadership experience, including coaching senior talent, improving team output quality, and building new capabilities.
• Deep understanding of consumer behavior, shopper behavior, brand equity, advertising research, innovation testing, go-to-market insights, and foundational consumer learning.
• Proficiency designing and conducting qualitative and quantitative research, including the ability to translate ambiguous business questions into clear learning agendas.
• Skilled in leveraging POS, panel, brand health, shopper, category, and syndicated data to generate actionable recommendations.
• Expertise in building decision-oriented learning plans that define the business question, decision to be enabled, hypotheses, methodology, KPIs, stakeholders, timing, risks, and expected actions from the research.
• Strong project ownership discipline, including proactive milestone management, risk identification, stakeholder communication, and follow-through.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to present to and advise VP/SVP-level stakeholders in executive forums.
• Strategic and enterprise thinking ability to integrate consumer, shopper, commercial, financial, operational, and brand considerations when making recommendations.
• Curiosity and capability advancement ability to stay current with emerging research methods, AI-enabled tools, industry best practices, cultural trends, and consumer behavior shifts.

Skills

• Consumer Insights
• Market Research
• Brand Strategy
• Shopper Insights
• Innovation Testing
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Brand Equity Tracking
• Advanced Market Research Tools
• Brand Health Tracking
• Advertising/Communication Testing
• Consumer Understanding
• POS Data Analysis
• Panel Data Analysis
• Category Data Analysis
• Shopper Data Analysis
• Syndicated Data Analysis

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) match, and other wellness benefits. National target base pay range: $169,000-281,000. For candidates in California and the New York metro, the target base pay range is $187,000-311,000.

Pay

National target base pay range: $169,000-281,000. For candidates in California and the New York metro, the target base pay range is $187,000-311,000.

Schedule

Flexible schedule to accommodate the needs of the role and the employee.