Director, Insights

Agri-Mark, Inc./Cabot Creamery Cooperative•Waitsfield, VT

38d•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced, strategically-minded leader to serve as our Director, Insights, overseeing Category, Consumer, and Shopper Insights. In this role you will be responsible for transforming data, research, and trends into the strategic intelligence that guides brand building, innovation, channel strategy, customer engagement, and key business decisions. The ideal candidate has CPG experience and combines analytical rigor with storytelling excellence — someone who can simplify complex data into actionable insights impossible to ignore and essential to decision‑making across the organization, at retail, and with external partners. You will report to our VP, Marketing. Direct Reports: Manager, Category Insights, Manager, Consumer Insights.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or related field; MBA preferred.
15+ years of progressive leadership in Consumer Insights, Market Research, or Analytics, preferably within CPG
Strong business acumen and a passion for understanding human behavior and marketplace dynamics.
Passion for purpose-driven brands and an innovative/curious mindset.
Advanced knowledge of insights methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, syndicated data (e.g., Nielsen, Circana), analytics, and emerging research approaches.
Experience managing research partners and designing primary research (qual & quant).
Exceptional storytelling skills, ability to simplify complexity and influence senior stakeholders both visually and through dialogue, Customer-facing experience a plus
Proven ability to build cross-functional relationships and lead insights across departments.
Experience developing and growing insights teams.
Experience managing insights budgets, agencies, and analytics platforms.
Willingness to travel as needed.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing insights team across category, consumer, and shopper.
Foster an insights-led culture across the business. Act as a strategic partner and insight-driven voice of the consumer, category, and shopper to the cross functional Marketing team, New Products/Innovation, Sales, Strategy and Senior Leadership. Synthesize insights into compelling narratives that drive alignment and influence business decisions.
Oversee the full consumer learning plan, coaching and guiding the consumer insights team while informing the design, execution, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative research. Ensure that consumer understanding is translated into actionable insights for the brand, innovation, and communications.
Elevate the brand’s category thought leadership with retailers, developing compelling category stories for retail partners that build beyond syndicated data into category advisor-level mastery. Lead category analysis including market trends, brand performance, competitive dynamics, macro forces, and future outlook.
Own shopper behavior understanding across retail and foodservice channels. Develop shopper-based strategies that inform customer marketing, retail activation, and the path to purchase. Partner with Shopper & Customer Marketing and Sales to build compelling customer‑specific stories that win at retail. Provide insights that improve merchandising, assortment, and retail experience decisions.
Identify emerging consumer, category, macro, and retail trends to inform innovation and long-term strategic planning. Deliver actionable foresight that inspires future product development, brand positioning, and channel strategy. Serve as the organization’s resource for evolving consumer behaviors and marketplace dynamics.
Champion the building of reporting and dashboards that simplify complex information for use across the organization. Establish and track KPIs to monitor marketing and organizational goals and overall marketplace performance. Integrate syndicated data, custom retail analytics, panel insights, loyalty data, and ecommerce performance for a full picture view of brand performance.
Manage the Insights budget, ensuring efficient allocation of resources to support business priorities. Lead and manage insights platform/vendor strategy, ensuring the use of best-in-class methodologies and tools in accordance with the business need while being financially prudent.