Senior Director, Purchasing Science

Coca-Cola•Atlanta, GA

12d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Director, Purchasing Science is a new global role, created to build and lead a science‑based capability that decodes purchasing behavior, turns insights into commercial advantage and embeds science‑based decision‑making into how we create value with our retail and channel partners. This role integrates advanced analytics, experimentation, behavioral science with omnichannel shop floor behavior and outlet understanding to enable best‑in‑class commercial execution and drive profitable growth across the Coca‑Cola system by learning, optimizing, and influencing purchasing decisions. The role focuses on explaining how shoppers notice, evaluate, and choose in real purchase contexts, grounding activation in behavioral and decision sciences rather than just commercial metrics. SCOPE & IMPACT Enterprise scope : Leads the translation, integration and scaling of shopper, channel and purchasing insights into shopper decision frameworks, combining behavioral insights and analytics to understand and influence how shoppers notice, choose, and buy beverages. Decision scope : Drives adoption through tools, playbooks, and capability building. Defines measurement approaches for value realization. Stakeholder scope : Interfaces with Commercial, RGM, customer teams, and HI OUs for the activation of insights, ensuring shopper science is integrated across pricing, assortment, promotions, and trade investment decisions. Operating model : Supports markets and system through training, routines, and toolkits.

Requirements

10–15 years in Shopper Insights, Commercial insights Strategy and /or Insights Activation roles.
Proven experience operationalizing insights into frontline tools and routines.
Experience engaging customer teams and market leadership.
Experience applying shopper or behavioral insights into scalable decision tools and routines.
Ability to build toolkits/playbooks and embed them into operating routines.
Change leadership and capability-building expertise.
Measurement discipline: linking actions to outcomes and ROI.
Behavioral Insights
Category Insights
Channel Marketing Strategy
Commercial Marketing
Consumer Decision Journey
Consumer Insight Analysis
Decision Sciences
Shopper Analytics
Shopper Marketing
Commercially oriented insights leader who can transform science into scalable tools and routines, drive enterprise‑wide adoption, and demonstrate impact through clear, measurable business results.
Functional Skills: Data-and-Digital (using performance and activation data to optimize execution)
Functional Skills: Channel strategy and execution principles (Commercial activation and customer storytelling grounded in insights)
Functional Skills: Shopper missions & mindset (why shopper is in the store: quick trip, stock‑up, discovery, deal‑seeking, destination, impulse)
Functional Skills: Shopper decision psychology and behavioral effects (value perception, pack effects, availability, attention).
Functional Skills: Path-to-purchase behavior (how shoppers navigate physical & digital stores, decision points).
Functional Skills: Shelf & assortment dynamics (range, pack sizes, substitution behavior, trade up/down).
Functional Skills: Visibility & attention drivers (shelf placement, facings, signage, secondary displays, labels).
Functional Skills: Price & promo response (interpretation of value, discount sensitivity, magic price points).
Functional Skills: Behavioral biases (shopper habits, shortcuts, choice overload, decision nudges).
Functional Skills: In-store triggers & context (basket size, store format & layout, seasonality, time of day).
Functional Skills: Omnichannel interaction (channel interdependence, in-store digitalization).
Functional Skills: Shopper behavior measurement (messages, layouts, promos, eye-tracking, heat maps).
Leadership Skills: Influence Across the Network (driving adoption through partnership) including through scientific credibility and shared learning forums.
Leadership Skills: Develop Talent (capability uplift across the system).
Leadership Skills: Make Courageous Choices (simplifying and standardizing where needed).
Leadership Skills: Shape Narratives for Impact (storytelling, persuasion, customer-ready narratives).
Leadership Skills: Change Management (adoption, capability building, scaling routines).
Leadership Skills: System Acumen (navigating OU/market/bottler complexity).

Responsibilities

Build and lead the global Shopper Activation Science capability, integrating shopper insights, analytical modeling, experimentation frameworks, and decision science to elevate category and commercial plans across channels, markets and categories, integrating shopper insights, experimentation, and behavioral decision science.
Develop a comprehensive understanding of omnichannel shopper behavior, using advanced analytics, qualitative and quantitative research, behavioral science, and shopper usage and penetration data to decode motivations, drivers, missions and barriers that ultimately influence choice.
Create global guidance on shopper segmentation, targets, journeys, and path-to-purchase frameworks that enable segmented execution strategies with flexibility to adapt to local realities and market contexts.
Build scalable activation assets (decision trees, guardrails, opportunity maps) and drive their adoption including category growth narratives and decision frameworks designed for system alignment.
Embed shopper and purchasing insights into RGM routines (pricing, promotion, pack/architecture decision support) through tools and playbooks, providing shopper decision inputs into RGM routines (pricing, promotion, pack architecture), rather than owning commercial models.
Own measurement frameworks linking activation to commercial impact and ROI.
Collaborate with digital, technology, and data teams to enhance data sources, strengthen analytical capabilities and advance the use of AI and predictive tools in shopper analysis.
Lead experimentation and in-market testing (pricing, promotions, in store stimuli, retail media, digital shelf, pack design & architecture) to improve decisions and performance prediction.
Translate insights and science into commercial narratives, business cases and customer selling stories that position Coca‑Cola as a strategic, insights‑led partner.
Co-develop advanced tools and capability plans to embed shopper science into daily commercial routines (forecasting models, scenario planning, decision dashboards).
Establish and lead global routines, including a Shopper Science community with OU shopper leads, to share learning and standardize practices.
Establish global routines, communities of best practices, and capability-building programs to elevate shopper science expertise across the Coca Cola system.