Staff Manager Marketing Primary Research

Qualcomm•San Diego, CA

10d

About The Position

As a Staff Manager in Market Intelligence Research & Analytics team (MIRA), you will serve as an internal, cross functional research leader in Qualcomm’s OneMarketing organization. This role goes beyond tactical research execution and focuses on strategic insight generation, operational rigor, and cross functional influence. You will lead high impact global primary market research programs end-to-end and ensure research investments translate into clear business impact. In this role, you will scope ambiguous business questions, design and lead custom research programs, triangulate multiple data sources, and deliver audience ready insights to inform product strategy, go-to-market decisions, brand positioning, creative development, and executive planning. You will partner closely with stakeholders across Marketing, Product Management, Sales, Business Development, Corporate Strategy, Finance, and Engineering, and manage multiple external research vendors. This role is ideal for a senior research leader who is comfortable operating in ambiguity, influencing without authority, and translating complex data into strategic narratives for senior leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of Strategy & Analysis or related work experience.
OR
Associate's degree and 10+ years of Strategy & Analysis or related work experience.
Completed advanced degrees in a relevant field may be substituted for up to two years (Master’s = one year, Doctorate = two years) of work experience.

Nice To Haves

Deep experience in market research and consumer and/or B2B insights in technology / semiconductor industry.
Minimum 10 years of experience designing and executing product, brand and creative development research, user journeys, and global tracking programs.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable presenting to senior leadership.
Demonstrated ability to scope ambiguous business questions and structure research from problem definition through executive readout.
Proven ability to synthesize complex data into executive ready narratives and influence senior stakeholders.
Strong experience managing research budgets, vendors, and complex research portfolios.
Experience partnering closely with marketing analytics and user experience research teams.
Demonstrated leadership in crossfunctional, matrixed environments and comfort operating in ambiguity.
Experience working in both client and supplier sides of market research.
Experience with AI tools for research synthesis, creative testing, persona development and/or use-case discovery.

Responsibilities

Research Strategy & Insight Leadership
Define and lead primary market research programs, including brand tracking, segmentation, campaign measurement, and customer decisionmaker research, aligned to Qualcomm’s business priorities.
Translate complex research findings into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership and cross functional teams.
Connect market, customer, and competitive insights to product positioning, go-to-market strategy, and investment decisions.
Act as the primary research point of contact for ongoing analytics workflows, proactively identifying opportunities to improve data usability, automation, and longitudinal comparability across studies.
Cross Functional Partnership & Influence
Act as a trusted thought partner to stakeholders, influencing decisions through insights.
Ensure research initiatives are integrated across regions, business units, and marketing functions, consistent with Qualcomm’s global operating model.
Guide stakeholders to appropriate research methodologies and analytical approaches for their business questions.
Ensure alignment between research measurement frameworks and digital KPIs, enabling cross channel performance analysis and a unified view of brand, campaign, and customer outcomes.
Provide regular, structured data feeds from multiple primary and syndicated research studies (e.g., brand tracking, campaign measurement, segmentation, customer decisionmaker research) to the Digital Analytics team, enabling integrated analysis across survey based and behavioral data sources.
Operational & Budget Ownership
Own research planning, prioritization, and budget management, ensuring efficient use of research spend and strong return on investment.
Identify opportunities to improve research efficiency, scalability, and rigor, including methodology optimization and tool adoption.
Track and communicate research impact and outcomes to leadership, reinforcing the value of insights investments.
Vendor Management & Deliverables
Lead and manage relationships with external research vendors, setting quality standards and challenging methodologies and assumptions as needed.
Synthesize third-party and custom research into Qualcomm specific, decision ready perspectives.
Team Enablement & Capability Building
Create clear frameworks, processes, and best practices to enable consistent, high quality research outputs.
Contribute to capability building across the marketing and insights organization, including testing innovative approaches and research tools.