Research, Data & Insights Business Partner Manager

Sky New Zealand; Auckland; Hybrid; NZD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free Sky, Sky Sport Now, and Neon

Flexible, supportive culture

Career development opportunities

Discounted health insurance

Discounted YMCA gym membership

Job summary

Sky New Zealand seeks an experienced business partner and people leader to head the newly formed Research, Data & Insights (RDI) Business Partnering team. You’ll set vision, prioritise work and coach the team to deliver customer- and commercial-focused insights.

You will translate complex data into clear recommendations, influence decisions at multiple levels, and partner with leaders to drive measurable outcomes in a fast-paced media environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in insights, research, analytics or data-driven business partnering.
• Strong track record translating complex evidence into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication and storytelling skills.
• Strong commercial acumen and understanding of how insights create customer and business value.
• Experience leading, coaching and prioritising a team.

Responsibilities

• Partner with business units to understand vision, goals, behaviours, challenges and opportunities, and translate insights into practical recommendations.
• Provide timely, accurate insights that improve decision-making, customer understanding and business performance.
• Build stakeholder capability to interpret and apply insights, supporting stronger data literacy and commercial acumen.
• Identify gaps in insight use and embed data, measurement and insight-led practices into workflows.
• Apply behavioural science principles to customer and crew experiences, and support experiments, testing and measurement.
• Use modern research methods, analytics tools, AI and experimentation frameworks, with validation.
• Collaborate with analytics and data engineering teams to ensure insights are accessible and well-supported.
• Identify opportunities for performance improvement, customer growth and value creation, and communicate impact of insight-led initiatives.
• Lead the team’s contribution to business cases, strategy development, sales and collateral, and continuous improvement.
• Assign business units across the team, manage workflow, and ensure stakeholder insight needs are understood.
• Provide effective people leadership, strengthen team capability, and promote standards for insight quality and storytelling.

Skills

Insights leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Storytelling

Commercial acumen

People leadership

Job description

TE TŪRANGA I THE ROLE

We’re looking for an experienced business partner and people leader to lead our newly created Research, Data & Insights (RDI) Business Partnering team. With day-to-day accountability for the team, you’ll set a clear vision and direction, create shared goals, prioritise work and coach people to perform at their best. You’ll build an inclusive, high-performing environment where people can work through challenges, grow their capability and thrive, while ensuring the team remains focused on the areas of greatest customer and commercial impact.

Alongside your leadership, governance and stakeholder management skills, you bring proven business partnering experience and a deep understanding of how research, data and behavioural insights can shape business decisions. Work collaboratively with leaders to understand their goals, challenges and opportunities, ask the right questions and connect them with the most relevant RDI capabilities. By drawing together multiple sources of evidence, identifying the story behind the data and translating complexity into clear recommendations, you’ll help teams move from insight to action and deliver measurable commercial outcomes – sharing stories, possibilities, and a bit of joy along the way.

NGĀ HAEPAPA | ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Partner with business units to understand their vision, goals, behaviours, challenges and opportunities, and translate research, segmentation and behavioural insights into practical recommendations.
• Provide timely, accurate and relevant insights that improve decision-making, customer understanding and business performance.
• Build stakeholder capability to interpret and apply insights, supporting stronger data literacy and commercial acumen.
• Identify gaps in insight use and embed data, measurement and insight-led practices into everyday workflows.
• Apply behavioural science principles to customer and crew experiences, and support experiments, testing and measurement.
• Use modern research methods, analytics tools, AI and experimentation frameworks, with appropriate validation, to generate robust insights.
• Work with analytics and data engineering teams to ensure insights are accessible, reliable and supported by appropriate tools and technology.
• Identify opportunities for performance improvement, customer growth and value creation, and communicate the impact of insight-led initiatives.
• Lead the team’s contribution to business cases, strategy development, sales and functional collateral, and continuous improvement.
• Assign business units across the team, manage and prioritise workflow, and ensure stakeholder insight needs are understood and met.
• Provide effective people leadership and management, strengthen team capability, and promote consistent standards for insight quality, storytelling and communication across RDI.

NGĀ PŪKENGA ME NGĀ WHEAKO I WHAT YOU WILL BRING

You’re an influential, commercially minded insights leader who can guide and nurture a team to turn complex research and data into a clear story and practical action. You build trusted relationships, bring people with you and know how to balance strategic priorities with responsive delivery.

What you can bring to the role:

• Proven experience in insights, research, analytics or data-driven business partnering, ideally within a complex, fast-paced organisation.
• A strong track record of translating complex evidence into clear, actionable recommendations and influencing decisions at multiple levels.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication and storytelling skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and drive adoption.
• Strong commercial acumen and an understanding of how insights create customer and business value.
• Experience leading, coaching and prioritising the work of a team while building capability and improving ways of working.
• Familiarity with modern research methods, behavioural science, analytics tools and experimentation approaches.
• Experience in media, subscription, digital or customer-centric environments, and exposure to AI/ML, data governance or enterprise insight transformation, would be an advantage.

KO NGĀ HUANGA I WHATS IN IT FOR YOU?

• Free Sky, Sky Sport Now, and Neon
• A flexible, supportive culture where your ideas matter
• Great career development with real pathways to grow
• Discounted Southern Cross health insurance
• Discounted YMCA gym membership