Director Consumer & Marketplace Insights Director Consumer & Marketplace Insights

Nestle Operational Services Worldwide SA•Solon, OH

About The Position

Nestlé USA is seeking a skilled Director of Consumer & Marketplace Insights to lead the identification of consumer and marketplace insights in support of Nestle USA’s corporate growth strategy. This position will lead the development of high-impact insight-based recommendations that drive category and brand strategies for the Frozen Foods division, working with brands like DiGiorno, California Pizza Kitchen, Stouffers, and Hot Pockets. The CMI Director acts as a business co-pilot, synthesizing and driving action around consumer insights across the category using diverse sources. This role requires strong influence and collaboration skills, agility, and flexibility to adapt to shifting business needs and priorities. Nestlé USA is committed to an inclusive workplace that inspires innovation and encourages strategic thinking and creativity.

Requirements

B.A./B.S. in Marketing, Economics, Psychology, or Sociology required.
Minimum of ten (10) years of insights & analytics or marketing research experience in a consumer packaged goods company.
Proven track record of using insights to solve complex business issues and independently managing research in a high performance culture.
Candidate must possess a strong drive for results with a passion for the consumer and marketing.
Cross-Project Insight Integration – Synthesize information from multiple sources, including primary research to syndicated data, to create new insights.
Learning Agenda Development – Identify broad themes or learning gaps for future research based on accumulated knowledge.
External Marketplace Focus – Leading – Identify & Articulate Consumer and Macro trends across the competitive landscape and within the world of Food & Beverage and Frozen Foods specifically.
Communication – Leading – Tailoring content and purposeful communication to diverse audiences.
Influence – Leading – Active listening, negotiation, persuasion and courage, across all levels; ability to be the fierce voice of the consumer, category and shopper with executive audiences.
Enabling Results Through Others - Proven mastery of developing talent and cultivating high‑performing teams that deliver strong business outcomes.
Business Problem Solving – Leading – Diagnosis and framing the problem, business knowledge and acumen, recommendation development.
Consumer Empathy – Leading - Can articulate basic behaviors and motivations of consumers.
Insight Generation – Leading – Inductive reasoning, creativity, risk tolerance, and business judgement.
Strategic Thinking – Leading – Creates short-term marketing tactics that support long-term strategies and brand vision.
Brand Knowledge & Advocacy – Leading - Role-models brand expertise, eagerly engaging real consumers to optimize brand strategy and plans.

Nice To Haves

Relevant Master's degree or MBA strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Compile and synthesize existing knowledge to create new category insights and communicate a holistic view of the consumer and our categories to drive business value.
Proactively collaborate with cross-divisional, cross-functional and external experts to support brands’ innovation strategies, including application of rigorous testing standards.
Collaborate with Marketing and Sales to create and implement a 3-year consumer centric NUSA plan to impact, drive and/or sustain long-term brand health including equity, awareness and engagement.
Ensure integration across the Consumer, Analytics and Shopper Insights functions with the CMI team to drive a holistic view of the consumer, shopper and category, leading with a one team voice.
Define and embed long term (5 year+) vision of macro forces, trends and consumer & category growth drivers; responsible for leading Foresight capability building within the Division, including fluency with modern social intelligence/listening tools.
Redefine medium-value requests and eliminate or outsource low-value requests.
Proactively pursue opportunities for impact by systematically seeking and exploiting opportunities to leverage research/learning on high-value topics unseen or ignored by business partners and use influence to activate those opportunities.
Take a “test-and-learn” approach to innovation and incubate novel and cutting edge market research techniques, including pushing the edge of generative AI for insights.
Create and communicate a horizon view of the category to provide foresight and embed a culture of consumer empathy across cross functional teams.
Create a cohesive and collaborative CMI function across categories and business teams.
Equip team members with the tools they can use to further their own influence while defending resourcing decisions to business partners.
Set clear expectations, create tools and provide ongoing reinforcement for risk-taking and the support of new ideas; drive CMI Co-pilot mindset across all team members.
Evaluate teams’ skills to identify areas for focused training and coaching, from insights skillsets to areas like Budget & Vendor Management.
Develop annual plans and budgets to closely align the efforts of Marketing and Sales to generate optimal demand for our brands.
Leverage strategic assets to create a non-monetary, reciprocally valuable relationship with suppliers, motivating above-and-beyond support and true partnership.