DIRECTOR CONSUMER & CULTURAL INSIGHTS

Jack In The Box•San Diego, TX

2d•$140,000 - $200,000

About The Position

The Director Consumer & Cultural Insights leads Jack in the Box’s Consumer Insights function and learning agenda. The role translates understanding of consumer needs, behaviors, motivations, and barriers into actionable insights that bring the consumer voice into cross-functional decisions across brand, communications, menu, innovation, value, digital experience, and the restaurant experience to drive brand and business growth. The director leads consumer learning and research, including qualitative and quantitative studies, foundational learning, segmentation, and research across brand, communications, menu, innovation, value, digital, loyalty, and customer experience. The role synthesizes research and other information into clear recommendations, compelling consumer narratives, and executive-ready presentations. It partners with teams across Marketing, Culinary, Digital, Operations, Technology, Analytics, and agencies to connect consumer understanding with decisions and business performance. The position sets research quality standards, leads external research and technology partners, and works with Marketing Operations on scopes, budgets, contracts, procurement, and vendor performance. It also ensures that research meets ethical, privacy, legal, and data-governance requirements, and performs other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Market Research, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Statistics, Business Administration, or a related field.
At least 10 years of progressive experience in consumer insights, market research, customer insights, brand insights, innovation research, or a related discipline, including leadership responsibility.
Experience leading both qualitative and quantitative research and influencing senior stakeholders.
Experience managing complex research portfolios, budgets, and external technology and research partners.
Deep expertise in qualitative and quantitative consumer research methodologies.
Strong experience with segmentation, usage and attitudes, concept testing, product testing, creative evaluation, brand research, customer journeys, and foundational learning.
Strong understanding of consumer behavior, decision making, occasions, need states, cultural trends, and category dynamics.
Ability to translate business questions into focused learning plans and appropriate research designs; synthesize multiple research and data sources into a clear point of view.
Strong knowledge of research quality, sampling, questionnaire design, analysis, privacy, and ethical standards.
Strong organizational and project leadership capabilities.
Proficient knowledge of personal computers and Microsoft Office 365, including Word and Excel, as well as modern research, survey, community, analytics, and visualization platforms.
Ability to communicate clearly in person and by telephone, operate a computer keyboard, and travel approximately 20–25% of the time as business needs require.
Demonstrated integrity and ethical behavior.
Ability to champion the consumer voice while maintaining objectivity and commercial judgment; build partnerships across Marketing, Culinary, Digital, Operations, Technology, Analytics, and agency teams; communicate learning persuasively to senior leadership; and develop teams through coaching, accountability, engagement, and talent development.
Ability to transform complexity into clear insights and recommendations, challenge assumptions constructively, and balance research rigor with business speed, cost, and decision risk.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in a relevant field.
Experience in the Restaurant, Consumer Products, Retail, Hospitality, or another consumer-driven industry.

Responsibilities

Lead development and ongoing management of the enterprise consumer learning agenda, aligned with important business and Marketing decisions.
Partner with Marketing and cross-functional leaders to identify knowledge gaps, frame learning objectives, prioritize research investments, and build connected consumer knowledge across projects.
Champion the consumer voice and strengthen consumer-centered decision making across the organization.
Lead qualitative and quantitative research across brand, communications, menu, innovation, value, digital, loyalty, and restaurant experience; translate findings into recommendations.
Oversee research methodologies such as segmentation, usage and attitudes, focus groups, ethnography, communities, surveys, concept testing, product testing, creative evaluation, and customer journey research.
Develop understanding of consumer needs, motivations, attitudes, occasions, behaviors, trade-offs, and barriers, including differences across segments, markets, generations, usage levels, and occasions.
Synthesize information into clear insights and compelling consumer stories, distinguishing observations from insights and translating learning into business implications and recommendations.
Partner with Brand Marketing and Integrated Communications on brand perceptions, positioning, messaging, campaign development, creative evaluation, and brand experience decisions.
Identify cultural shifts, category behaviors, and emerging consumer attitudes that may influence the brand and future demand; connect attitudinal research with brand health, customer behavior, and business performance.
Partner with Product Marketing and Culinary teams throughout menu and innovation development, including research on consumer needs, opportunity spaces, concepts, naming, pricing, value perceptions, product experience, and commercialization readiness.
Design consumer validation appropriate to the decision stage, identify unmet needs and category opportunities, and connect stated consumer response with product, menu, and sales performance.
Partner with Digital & Growth, Operations, and Technology to understand customer journeys across restaurant, drive-thru, app, web, delivery, loyalty, and customer care touchpoints.
Identify customer friction points and opportunities to improve convenience, engagement, frequency, and experience; lead research supporting loyalty, personalization, digital adoption, ordering behavior, and experience improvements.
Connect attitudinal insights with behavioral, customer, transactional, and media analytics to deepen understanding and support consistent use of practical segmentation frameworks.
Transform complex research into concise narratives, executive-ready presentations, accessible tools, summaries, and repositories that enable teams to find and use consumer knowledge.
Establish standards for research design, sampling, methodology, analysis, interpretation, and reporting; evaluate emerging research approaches, technologies, communities, behavioral methods, and AI-enabled tools.
Lead relationships with research agencies, panels, platforms, and specialized partners; partner with Marketing Operations on scopes, budgets, contracts, procurement, and vendor performance.
Ensure research complies with privacy, legal, ethical, and data-governance requirements.
Perform other related duties, tasks, and responsibilities as required, assigned, and directed.