Director, Consumer Insights - Taste Elevation

The Kraft Heinz Company•Chicago, IL

12d•$190,300 - $237,900•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Taste Elevation is the Insights leader of the growth brands within Kraft Heinz, which includes iconic brands like Heinz, Kraft, Philadelphia, Miracle Whip, Classico and many more. This is not a solely market research role. The Director is a strategist with strong research expertise — this person must have a holistic understanding of how brands and businesses grow, alongside a keen command of the data and tools available to build a strong consumer foundation on which to build future strategy. As the consumer expert for iconic brands in the Taste Elevation portfolio, this leader will be a crucial partner to drive brand positioning, packaging, communication and innovation agendas. This is a senior leadership-facing role in which relationships and leadership presence will be key to influence, and the individual must operate with an enterprise business performance mindset. In addition to this, you will be leading a team of 11 strong insights strategists, coaching them to success and guiding their careers. While you will report directly into the VP of Marketing in the Taste Elevation BU, you will also be a key leader of the North America insights leadership team driving a vision for the function. This role is one where you need to thrive in ambiguous situations, have a strong voice and perspective and drives influence through relationships.

Requirements

Advanced Degree preferred; 10-15 years in strategic insights/consumer research role
A minimum ten (10+) years of solid Market Research / Insights experience is required - experience working across a portfolio of products highly preferred
Leadership credentials in driving vision - prior people management experience required
Proficiency with different qualitative & quantitative research tools across advertising, innovation, & syndicated services
Proven ability to distill insights and drive impact into an organization – bringing the consumer to forefront
High level of tolerance for working in ambiguity, managing change and driving change management/transformation
Experience and comfort in POS (Nielsen/Circana), Panel, and social listening is required
High level of experience and comfort in analytical tools (e.g. MTA, Mix, Conjoint, etc) is required
Proficient at storytelling in creative, influential & impactful ways - excellent communication, organization and presentation skills (written, oral, and across Microsoft Office Suite

Responsibilities

Key Point of Contact for Business Unit – key lead to unlock strategic initiatives across platform
Unearth genuine consumer insights / pain points across platform and help identify growth opportunities for brands that help improve our long-term equity & innovation efforts
Leverage strategic work to identify dig sites for innovation, partner with marketing and R&D to identify, develop and size a multi-year pipeline of new products
Develop and lead holistic, comprehensive research plans across key Ps of marketing (Communication test, Product/Claim tests, Packaging tests et al for both existing products and new products)
Help shape the 3-year Growth Strategy and assist teams in pulling through to brand’s annual marketing plans, including strategy, creative development and optimization
Evaluate sales impact of campaigns and help optimize media and channel mix to improve efficiency, effectiveness and ROI
Drive Enterprise Transformation Agenda - Help develop consumer insights best practices and center of excellence initiatives
Develop the 2 direct reports of this role and coach them to drive the junior talent with the right skills and behaviors throughout the BU