Manager - Consumer Intelligence & Market Insights

The Wendy's Company•Columbus, OH

23h•$105,000 - $184,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Consumer Intelligence & Market Insights Manager plays a critical role in translating consumer, category, and competitive intelligence into actionable business insights that drive growth. This leader will oversee the development and optimization of key consumer intelligence capabilities, including behavioral purchase data, macroeconomic and consumer sentiment indicators, competitive performance tracking, and consumer segmentation. The role will partner with Brand Marketing, Finance, Analytics, Operations, and Investor Relations to identify business opportunities, diagnose performance drivers, forecast emerging trends, and provide fact-based recommendations that influence strategic decision-making. The ideal candidate combines strong analytical expertise with business acumen, storytelling, and supplier management skills, and is passionate about building scalable, automated insight solutions to help the organization better understand consumers, competitors, and category dynamics. This position sits at the intersection of consumer behavior, brand strategy, competitive intelligence, and business performance. The role provides broad visibility within Marketing and across departments while offering ownership of several high-impact capabilities that directly influence strategic decisions. It is an opportunity to shape the future of consumer intelligence at Wendy's by building scalable capabilities, optimizing analytical approaches, and becoming the organization's expert on consumer behavior and market dynamics.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Analytics, Business, Finance, Economics, or related field; MBA preferred
5+ years of experience in Consumer Insights, Business Intelligence, Analytics, Category Insights, Market Research, or related disciplines.
Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to translate data into business recommendations.
Experience working with large-scale consumer and market datasets, including behavioral, transaction, syndicated, panel, or credit card data (e.g., Circana, Numerator, consumer purchase panels).
Advanced proficiency in data analysis and visualization tools, such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Alteryx, or similar platforms.
Experience developing and communicating insights to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders, with strong written, verbal, and presentation skills.
Experience leading external suppliers, research partners, or analytics vendors, including project prioritization, performance management, and delivery oversight.
Demonstrated ability to build scalable analytics capabilities, including reporting automation, dashboard development, segmentation, and consumer insight frameworks.
Strong understanding of consumer behavior, category dynamics, and competitive intelligence, with ability to identify growth opportunities and emerging business risks.

Responsibilities

Lead analysis of longitudinal consumer behavioral data to evaluate key customer metrics including traffic, frequency, share of wallet, source of volume, trial, repeat and buyer segment performance.
Optimize standardized and automated reporting solutions that support weekly business reviews, executive reporting, promotion evaluations, test market analyses, and local performance assessments.
Connect consumer behavioral metrics with sales, transaction, and financial outcomes to diagnose performance opportunities and risks.
Translate complex consumer data into clear business recommendations that inform strategic decisions.
Serve as a trusted advisor to Marketing, Finance, Operations, Investor Relations, and senior leadership teams.
Influence business decisions by providing objective, fact-based insights and recommendations.
Present findings and business implications to executive audiences, including Senior Leadership Team reviews.
Establish strong cross-functional partnerships to align priorities and drive organizational impact.
Lead complex analytical projects that support brand, operational, financial, and strategic initiatives.
Monitor and evaluate QSR, burger, fast casual, convenience store, and broader foodservice industry performance to provide context for Wendy's business results.
Track weekly, monthly, and quarterly competitive performance trends and identify emerging opportunities or threats.
Analyze competitor marketing, pricing, menu innovation, media activity, and customer behavior to develop performance hypotheses and business implications.
Assess the impact of competitive initiatives on Wendy's consumer segments, traffic performance, and share of category demand.
Deliver actionable category intelligence that supports strategic planning and performance forecasting.
Manage measurement, tracking, and ongoing evolution of consumer segmentation frameworks, including behavioral buyer groups and need-based segments.
Evaluate performance trends across key demographic, behavioral, and purchase-based cohorts, including age, generation, income, ethnicity, households with children, daypart, channel.
Identify growth opportunities through segment-level performance analysis and size-of-prize assessments.
Integrate segmentation insights with behavioral data to track segment impact to financials and monitor migration, acquisition, and churn.
Recommend actionable strategies to grow priority consumer groups.
Monitor consumer sentiment, inflation, employment, gas prices, consumer spending, and other macroeconomic indicators that may influence customer behavior and restaurant performance.
Assess implications of economic and consumer trends on category and Wendy's performance.
Develop forward-looking analyses and forecast scenarios that help stakeholders anticipate changing market conditions.
Synthesize multiple external data sources into a cohesive view of consumer health, industry performance, and business outlook.
Communicate emerging trends and risks to senior leadership in timely and actionable manner.
Lead relationships with external syndicated data and custom analytics partners.
Prioritize supplier workstreams, manage project delivery, and ensure high-quality insights are delivered on time and aligned to business needs.
Partner with suppliers and internal analysts to enhance reporting automation, data integration, and analytical capabilities.
Identify opportunities to improve processes, reporting efficiency, and scalability across consumer intelligence programs.