Director, Consumer Insights - Taste Elevation

The Kraft Heinz Company; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 190,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus eligibility

Long-Term Incentive (LTI)

Healthcare benefits

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

The Kraft Heinz Company in Chicago seeks a Director of Taste Elevation to lead insights for growth brands, shaping brand strategy, packaging, and innovation. You will partner with marketing and guide a team of 11 insights strategists, reporting to the VP of Marketing in Taste Elevation.

This senior role demands a strategic, data-driven leader with 10+ years in strategic insights, strong storytelling, and the ability to influence across cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree preferred and extensive strategy/insights background.
• 10–15 years in strategic insights/consumer research with leadership experience.
• Proven ability to distill insights and drive business impact.
• Experience with Nielsen/Circana, Panel, and social listening platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead 11-person insights team and coach talent.
• Partner with BU Marketing to drive brand positioning, packaging, and innovation.
• Develop holistic research plans across key Ps of marketing (Communication, Product/Claims, Packaging).
• Influence senior leadership and drive enterprise transformation across the function.
• Shape 3-year Growth Strategy and align with annual marketing plans.

Skills

Strategic partner

Leadership

Storytelling

Influence

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Education

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Nielsen/Circana

Panel

Social listening

MTA

Mix

Conjoint

Job description

Job Description

The Director of Taste Elevation is the Insights leader of the growth brands within Kraft Heinz, which includes iconic brands like Heinz, Kraft, Philadelphia, Miracle Whip, Classico and many more. This is not a solely market research role. The Director is a strategist with strong research expertise — this person must have a holistic understanding of how brands and businesses grow, alongside a keen command of the data and tools available to build a strong consumer foundation on which to build future strategy. As the consumer expert for iconic brands in the Taste Elevation portfolio, this leader will be a crucial partner to drive brand positioning, packaging, communication and innovation agendas.

This is a senior leadership-facing role in which relationships and leadership presence will be key to influence, and the individual must operate with an enterprise business performance mindset. In addition to this, you will be leading a team of 11 strong insights strategists, coaching them to success and guiding their careers. While you will report directly into the VP of Marketing in the Taste Elevation BU, you will also be a key leader of the North America insights leadership team driving a vision for the function. This role is one where you need to thrive in ambiguous situations, have a strong voice and perspective and drives influence through relationships.

Key Skills:

• Strategic: Be a key strategic business partner & thought leader to the BU Marketing team. Leverage your understanding of the consumer, research methodologies/techniques, best practices and experience to drive the business forward

• Analytical: Crucial analytic experience to understand both how to create appropriate analytic plans/models for the business and how to apply them strategically to different business scenarios. Ability to see through data and recognize patterns to inform brand actions better

• Influential: Influence at all levels of organization (above & below) and work seamlessly with cross-functional teams.

• Impactful: Drive the “so-what’s” by making actionable recommendations routed in deep understanding of marketing, business and consumer

• Flexible: Be adaptable and creative to adjust to changing priorities and business challenges. Tackle ambiguity, while showing strong drive for results and project leadership skills

• Strong Communicator: Showcase strong communication skills through distilled clean/concise insights that drive empathy and storytelling behaviors though the organization Self-motivated: Juggle multiple workstreams & competing priorities, and distill a plan that can be implemented for the team

• Collaborator: Team player, works well in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment

• Coach & People Leader: Drive to share knowledge and develop a high-performing team

• Curiosity & Action: High degree of intellectual curiosity and creative insight, coupled with a drive for actionable, tangible results

• Influence: Ability to influence at senior levels of an organization and drive impact. Key responsibilities

• Key Point of Contact for Business Unit – key lead to unlock strategic initiatives across platform

• Unearth genuine consumer insights / pain points across platform and help identify growth opportunities for brands that help improve our long-term equity & innovation efforts

• Leverage strategic work to identify dig sites for innovation, partner with marketing and R&D to identify, develop and size a multi-year pipeline of new products

• Develop and lead holistic, comprehensive research plans across key Ps of marketing (Communication test, Product/Claim tests, Packaging tests et al for both existing products and new products)

• Help shape the 3-year Growth Strategy and assist teams in pulling through to brand’s annual marketing plans, including strategy, creative development and optimization

• Evaluate sales impact of campaigns and help optimize media and channel mix to improve efficiency, effectiveness and ROI

• Drive Enterprise Transformation Agenda - Help develop consumer insights best practices and center of excellence initiatives

• Develop the 2 direct reports of this role and coach them to drive the junior talent with the right skills and behaviors throughout the BU Qualifications

Experience

• Advanced Degree preferred; 10-15 years in strategic insights/consumer research role

• A minimum ten (10+) years of solid Market Research / Insights experience is required - experience working across a portfolio of products highly preferred

• Leadership credentials in driving vision - prior people management experience required

• Proficiency with different qualitative & quantitative research tools across advertising, innovation, & syndicated services

• Proven ability to distill insights and drive impact into an organization – bringing the consumer to forefront

• High level of tolerance for working in ambiguity, managing change and driving change management/transformation

• Experience and comfort in POS (Nielsen/Circana), Panel, and social listening is required

• High level of experience and comfort in analytical tools (e.g. MTA, Mix, Conjoint, etc) is required

• Proficient at storytelling in creative, influential & impactful ways - excellent communication, organization and presentation skills (written, oral, and across Microsoft Office Suite

Our Total Rewards philosophy is to provide a meaningful and flexible spectrum of programs that equitably support our diverse workforce and their families and complement Kraft Heinz’ strategy and values.

New Hire Base Salary Range:

$190,300.00 - $237,900.00

Bonus: This position is eligible for a performance-based bonus as provided by the plan terms and governing documents.

The compensation offered will take into account internal equity and may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors

Long-Term Incentive (LTI): In addition to base salary and bonus, this role is eligible for additional compensation in the form of equity.

Benefits: Coverage for employees (and their eligible dependents) through affordable access to healthcare, protection, and savingfor the future, we offer plans tailored to meet you and your family’s needs. Coveragefor benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.

Wellbeing: We offer events, resources, and learning opportunities that inspire aphysical, social, emotional, and financial well-being lifestyle for our employees and their families.

You’ll be able to participate in a variety of benefits and wellbeing programs that may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors, for example:

• Physical - Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, Vision, Screenings/Assessments

• Social - Paid Time Off, Company Holidays, Leave of Absence, Flexible Work Arrangements, Recognition, Training

• Emotional – Employee Assistance Program, Wellbeing Programs, Family Support Programs

• Financial – 401k,Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Disability

Location(s)

Chicago/Aon Center

Kraft Heinz is an Equal Opportunity Employer that prohibits discrimination or harassment of any type. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants who require an accommodation to participate in the job application or hiring process should contact [e-mail] .