Associate Director, Account Lead

NielsenIQ•Illinois, IL

1d•$98,000 - $181,500•Remote

About The Position

As an Associate Client Director in Account Development, you’ll serve as a trusted growth partner to a portfolio of clients within the U.S. Fresh, Pantry & Naturals (FPN) vertical. This is a high‑impact sales position designed for someone who loves building relationships, uncovering opportunities, and shaping strategic conversations that lead to real business results. You’ll bring curiosity and commercial instinct to every interaction—learning your clients’ priorities, identifying where NIQ can help them win, and leading the charge to turn insights into action. Your goal: drive measurable growth, strengthen long‑term partnerships, and exceed revenue commitments. You will be the central point of contact for your clients and the connector across NIQ’s full portfolio—Strategic Analytics & Insights, Omni-Commerce, Retail Collaboration, Technology, Service Lines, and more. Through collaboration and leadership, you’ll ensure that your cross‑functional support team consistently delivers proactive, high‑value service.

Requirements

6-8+ years of relevant experience in CPG, sales, account management, category management, or market research/analytics
A track record of exceeding sales targets and managing profitable growth
Experience managing both short‑cycle and long‑cycle selling motions
Proven ability to develop strategic account plans and engage & present to stakeholders at all levels
Strong pipeline management skills
Familiarity with syndicated POS data, panel data, analytics platforms, or related technologies
Passionate about the CPG industry, hungry to learn more and self-motivated
Exceptional presentation, proposal development, and communication skills
Bachelor’s degree required

Nice To Haves

Industry experience across CPG, SaaS, analytics, consulting, big data and AI is strongly preferred
Master’s degree is a plus

Responsibilities

Grow and deepen client relationships with key decision makers, elevating NIQ’s presence and expanding solution adoption
Drive revenue growth through consultative selling, strategic account planning, and opportunity identification
Enable growth through the full sales cycle – from opportunity identification to cross-functional sales storytelling, compelling commercial propositions, successful negotiations and licensing, through ultimately renewal of services
This person is the key NIQ contact for the client across all NIQ services, solutions, and partners.
At times this role will drive home commercial success through individual execution, but equally important is orchestrating across NIQ specialists.
Close collaboration with clients to understand their business challenges, spotting NIQ commercial opportunities and spotlighting them for NIQ Sales Specialists, and articulating the voice of the client during sales visioning, storytelling, proposal, and successful negotiation
Collaborate cross-functionally—POS, Panel, BASES/Innovation, Analytics, Technology, Consumer Insights, and others—to deliver cohesive, compelling solutions
Guide NIQ specialty sales partners and service teams to ensure proposals and insights lead to client action and measurable value
Manage your sales pipeline with discipline, leveraging the NIQ Enterprise Sales Process and maintaining accurate tracking in Microsoft Dynamics
Lead efforts to continually increase client satisfaction and strengthen NIQ’s reputation as a trusted, innovative partner
Contribute to ongoing sales process improvements and communications within the greater FPN Vertical team

Benefits

Flexible working environment
Comprehensive healthcare plan (medical, Rx, dental, and vision)
Flexible spending accounts and a Health Savings Account (including company contributions)
Life and AD&D insurance
401(k) retirement plan including company matching contributions
Disability insurance
Tuition Reimbursement
Discretionary paid time off program and 11 paid holidays
Volunteer time off
LinkedIn Learning
Employee-Assistance-Program (EAP)