Senior Associate Director, Market Research

University of Chicago • Chicago, IL

7d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Associate Director of Market Research leads the development and enhancement of Chicago Booth's market research infrastructure. This role focuses on strategic initiatives to drive data-driven decision-making and awareness through informing advertising targeting, lead generation, and program evaluation across Marketing and Booth at large. By leveraging a sophisticated market research framework, the Senior Associate Director will support global brand and program strategies while improving efficiency and internal capabilities. The role will work across all teams in Marketing and Communications, the Deans’ office, and Booth’s leadership to create, measure and help implement various elements of marketing research that inform Chicago Booth’s global, brand and program strategies.

Requirements

• Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
• Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
• At least seven years of experience in statistical analysis, survey design, survey fielding, market research and evaluation.
• At least two years of experience using business intelligence software such as Tableau, ability to tell stories through visualization.
• Demonstrated experience in survey design, research design, experimental methods, sampling methods, quantitative and qualitative research methods.
• Advanced statistical programming, data querying and manipulation using R, Python, SQL, or other comparable tools and languages.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Excel, and Tableau programming skills for data mining and to supplement and enhance data analyses.
• Skilled at working with survey applications such as Qualtrics.
• Demonstrated leadership abilities to understand strategic direction, translate it to reasonable market research initiatives and deliver outcomes.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment with strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Work with project management software and project managers for effective work delivery.
• Proven ability to work independently as well as on a team.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, verbal/written communication, and explain technical concepts to business audiences.
• Excellent communication skills for interacting with senior leadership and translating technical concepts to business audiences.
• Effective partnership development skills to build meaningful relationships both internally and externally.

Responsibilities

• Leads strategic market assessments and drives insights and recommendations.
• Leads comprehensive market research projects to help inform brand development, advertising strategies, and lead generation efforts for Chicago Booth’s diverse program offerings.
• Understands and informs marketing objectives, as well as School-wide objectives at large.
• Implements and informs machine learning models to enhance targeting, and psychographic data blending to inform decision making for different parts of the School.
• Generates analytical insights, and creates reports for the marketing team, the Deans, senior leadership, Booth’s staff, among others; ensures alignment with global strategy and program specific strategies and outcomes for new and ongoing initiatives.
• Expands the market research suite by in-housing work currently handled by contractors, enabling scale without increased workloads.
• Implements AI frameworks to automate data analysis, survey distributions, and coding infrastructure to improve operational efficiency.
• Designs and executes solutions to automate redundant tasks and processes within market research initiatives.
• Significantly enhances data collection and analysis practices for higher-level strategic initiatives.
• Strengthens partnerships and collaboration with various teams within Booth, including admissions and external partners, to integrate market research insights with editorial, digital, social media, and advertising strategies in alignment with advanced personalization efforts.
• Develops key performance indicators, reporting metrics, and automated reporting designs.
• Generates analytical insights and reports to guide marketing strategy for the Deans, senior leadership, and other stakeholders.
• Leads research projects, task forces and other initiatives to measure brand and program awareness globally, perception and market share; evaluates outcomes and recommends changes and adjustments in strategy as new trends emerge in the market.
• Conducts independent research and competitive analysis to assess market trends, audience behaviors, and preferences using quantitative and qualitative methods.
• Produces self-service dashboards and simplified tools for the users to be able to answer questions quickly and efficiently.
• Performs in a highly complex data infrastructure that requires agility.
• Manages projects of different scale and complexity including the logistics and respective timelines, and ensures that all milestones are met.
• Works with operations teams, project managers and operational frameworks to deliver work on a timely and integrated manner.
• Leads and develops methods to analyze complex data sets for the purpose of extracting and purposefully using applicable information.
• Develops and maintains infrastructure that connects medium to large complex data sets.
• Provides expertise to staff or faculty members in defining the project and applies principals of data science in manipulation, statistical applications, programming, analysis and modeling.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Benefits

• The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook .

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees