Director - Insights Transformation & Excellence

In this role, you will lead the consumer and market insights agenda across a portfolio of iconic brands in North America. This role builds a high-performing team that generates consumer empathy, shapes growth opportunities, and strengthens brand relevance through best-in-class consumer research. You'll partner closely with marketing, brand, and innovation leaders to ensure consumer understanding is embedded in key decisions-and you'll modernize insights capabilities by advancing new methodologies, including AI-enabled approaches.

Key responsibilities

• Set the operating model for how the insights team supports brand teams (intake, prioritization, standards, and ways of working)
• Synthesize learning across the North America portfolio to identify themes, implications, and opportunities for action
• Advance AI-enabled and next-generation research methods to improve speed, scale, and quality of learning
• Connect insights to the marketing workflow so learning informs idea development, optimization, and measurement
• Build tight integration with marketing and innovation teams to ensure research is aligned to business priorities
• Improve decision velocity by streamlining processes, reducing low-value work, and scaling repeatable approaches
• Serve as the primary point of contact for external research partners and industry forums/conferences
• Optimize investment in external research by focusing on the highest-impact work and building collaborative partnerships
• Continuously scan the market for emerging partners and tools that can accelerate insights transformation

Team scope:

• Core & Innovation Insights:Lead insights strategy that fuels a consumer-centered pipeline of core improvements and breakthrough innovation
• Brand Equity & Remarkable Experiences:Define and run the research agenda to assess brand strength and identify opportunities to differentiate
• Insights Transformation & Innovation (including AI):Drive modernization of tools, methods, and capabilities to deliver deeper insights at scale
• Consumer 360 / Empathy:Build and evolve a holistic view of target consumers to strengthen empathy and decision-making
• Creative Effectiveness:Inspire, test, and optimize creative to ensure it resonates with consumers and culture

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Market Research, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Analytics, Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, or a related field
• 10+ years of progressive experience in consumer insights, market research, or strategic planning, including significant people leadership experience
• Demonstrated experience leading transformation at scale (process, capability, and change management) with measurable impact
• Strong understanding of digital research methods and their application to data-informed marketing
• Experience applying AI to insights workflows and/or research capabilities
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders through clear storytelling and data-to-decision communication
• Experience navigating complex, matrixed organizations and leading through ambiguity
• Experience delivering insights across innovation, brand renovation, communications, and/or marketing effectiveness
• Experience building and managing external partnerships (vendors, agencies, solution providers)

Preferred qualifications

• MBA or Master's degree in a related field
• 15+ years of experience in Consumer Insights, ideally within CPG (consumer packaged goods)