Associate Director, Category Insights

Lee Kum Kee International Holdings Ltd; California (MO); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Life Insurance coverage

401(k) Retirement Plan

Paid Vacation Days

Paid Holidays

Sick Days

Birthday Time Off

Job summary

Lee Kum Kee International Holdings Ltd is seeking an Associate Director, Category Insights to drive category growth and strategy through consumer insights. This role will partner with marketing and R&D, translating market trends into actionable insights.

The ideal candidate boasts over 10 years of experience in the food industry, especially in flavors and sauces. Responsibilities include managing insights-driven projects and leading cross-functional teams to enhance product strategies.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in category insights within the food industry.
• Proven experience building insights methodology from scratch.
• Strong project management skills with agency partners.

Responsibilities

• Drive category growth and strategy based on consumer insights.
• Lead insights-driven projects and analyze market trends.
• Manage research projects from design to actionable insights.

Skills

Consumer insights methodology

Project management

Collaboration

Business acumen

Qualitative and quantitative analysis

Job description

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Life Insurance coverage
• 401(k) Retirement Plan through Principal
• Paid Vacation Days
• Ten (10) Paid Holidays
• Five (5) Sick Days
• Annual (1 Day) Birthday Time Off

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Category Insights, will partner with our Americas Zone Marketing, Americas Zone R&D, and related Business Unit to unlock category growth. This person will drive category and portfolio strategy, innovation, and brand communication by translating market trends, consumer behavior, culinary insights, and competitive intelligence into clear, actionable direction. The Director, Category Insights, will also play a key role on our global business analytics and insights team—contributing to shared knowledge, best practices, methodologies, and frameworks that elevate how we work across the organization.

Essential Functions

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Serve as the consumer advocate, ensuring that category-level insights are the foundation of marketing strategy and execution.
• Lead an insights-driven "where to play" journey—from cross-category landscape mapping (market, category, and competitiveness) to identify white space opportunities, consumer trends, and taste/flavor/cooking preferences that inform portfolio priorities and innovation direction.
• Lead insights throughout the innovation development process—from concept through product, packaging, pricing, and go-to-market qualification.
• Support product value proposition development and marketing storytelling by providing consumer-backed insights and communication assets.
• Contribute to post-launch reviews, delivering insights-driven recommendations to optimize products, messaging, and go-to-market execution.
• Champion product superiority by partnering with the business analytics team to define benchmarks, align cross-functional teams (Marketing, R&D, and Business) on product performance, and help identify pathways to differentiation through formula refinement, communication sharpening, and value equation clarity.
• Manage ad hoc research projects end-to-end: framing the business question, designing the learning plan, managing agencies, synthesizing findings, and delivering actionable recommendations at both global and regional levels.
• Any other insights and analytical projects and initiatives as assigned.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in category, portfolio, and consumer insights within the food and beverage industry is required. Experience in flavors, sauces, or foodservice/restaurant menu is a strong plus.
• Proven, hands‑on experience building consumer and category insights methodology and capability in retail business from scratch is non‑negotiable. Additional experience in restaurant menu/flavor innovation or digital commerce is a plus.
• Deep expertise in human, innovation, and product insights across both qualitative and quantitative methodologies; strong project management skills including writing briefs, managing agency partners, and delivering on time and within budget.
• Solid working knowledge of syndicated and continuous data sources (retail scan data, consumer panels, brand tracking, media measurement, demand generation analytics, etc.).
• Strong business acumen with the ability to navigate across business units and functions effectively. Able to facilitate multi‑functional teams on consensus building and driving results.
• Collaborative team player who is self‑motivated, organized, and comfortable working across time zones and cross‑functional teams.
• Well‑organized and with proven experience in project management.
• Detail‑oriented without losing sight of the big picture.
• "CAN-DO" attitude. Pursuing innovation and change with a mindset of continuous improvement.
• Ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines and be flexible in work schedule.
• A genuine passion for food—curiosity and enthusiasm for flavor, menu trends, textures, and what drives everyday cooking and eating decisions is essential.

It is Lee Kum Kee’s policy to seek and employ the most qualified persons in all jobs in a manner which will ensure equal employment opportunity as well as administer personnel actions in a manner as to not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability or protected veteran status. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.