Director of Consumer & Product Insights

Fora•New York, NY

1d•$210,000 - $270,000•Onsite

About The Position

Fora is seeking a Director of Consumer & Product Insights to establish a modern, AI-native consumer research and market intelligence capability from the ground up. This is a hands-on role requiring strong quantitative and methodological expertise with a focus on action, experimentation, and continuous customer learning. Reporting to the Marketing organization, this individual will define how research is planned, executed, shared, and applied across Marketing, Product, and commercial initiatives. The role involves building a research practice optimized for speed, enabling frequent customer engagement, rapid hypothesis testing, and the use of AI to transform feedback into actionable insights. As the first dedicated insights hire, this role offers significant ownership in shaping the function's development. The Director will collaborate with Product, Marketing, Business Development, Analytics, and other teams to address key business questions using a blend of qualitative research, quantitative analysis, rapid experimentation, and AI-enabled research methods. This is an opportunity for a curious, entrepreneurial researcher to build a foundational capability and define the future of insights at Fora.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in consumer insights, market research, UX research, and/or product research, ideally within a high growth technology or consumer business.
Experience building and managing a research team.
Strong grounding in qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including study design, survey design, interviewing, analysis, and synthesis.
High level of comfort with AI tools and a track record of incorporating AI tooling into day to day research workflows.
Strong quantitative reasoning with the ability to evaluate evidence critically, understand methodological tradeoffs, and distinguish meaningful signals from noise.
A bias toward experimentation and iteration, with enthusiasm for testing ideas quickly and learning without waiting for perfect information.
Genuine curiosity about customers and a desire to engage with them frequently and directly.
Demonstrated ability to translate research and data into clear insights and practical recommendations that inform business decisions.
Comfort operating in an ambiguous, evolving environment where processes, tools, and ways of working are still being created.
Strong analytical, problem solving, and communication skills.
Ability to collaborate effectively across functions and influence decisions through evidence and insight.

Nice To Haves

Experience building a research organization from the ground up
Experience in a startup or similarly fast moving environment, particularly building new processes, capabilities, or approaches from scratch.
Experience in the travel industry is welcome but not required.

Responsibilities

Build Fora’s insights and UX research capabilities from the ground up, developing practical processes, tools, and standards that enable fast, high quality learning across the organization.
Create a culture of continuous customer learning by developing scalable ways for teams to hear from and learn from customers frequently.
Design and run rapid research experiments that help teams test hypotheses, understand customer behavior, and make informed decisions quickly.
Lead research across consumer segmentation, brand and product positioning, creative testing, customer needs, competitive intelligence, brand tracking, and new product or market opportunities.
Design and execute rigorous qualitative and quantitative research, selecting the appropriate methodology and level of rigor for each business question and decision.
Develop research approaches that combine established methodologies with AI native tools and emerging platforms to increase the speed and scale of customer learning.
Experiment with new research technologies, including AI powered interviewing, synthesis, survey, and customer feedback tools, and determine where they can improve research quality or accelerate time to insight.
Partner across Product, Marketing, Business Development, Analytics, and other teams to identify high priority questions and translate them into practical research and experimentation plans.
Translate research findings into clear, concise insights and recommendations that teams can act on quickly.
Create simple systems for capturing, organizing, and sharing customer insights so existing knowledge is accessible across the organization.
Partner with internal data teams to connect stated customer attitudes and needs with behavioral and operational data.
Manage external research partners when appropriate while developing strong judgment around when research can be conducted more quickly and effectively internally.