Director, Insights

Bombas; New York (NY); On-site; USD 168,000 - 178,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental benefits

401k with match

Paid parental leave

Snacks

Socks

Relaxed office environment

Job summary

Bombas is seeking a strategic Director of Insights in New York City to lead consumer research, translate signals into action, and shape product, merchandising, and marketing strategies. You will own the insights function, manage budgets, and partner with analytics to deliver real-time intelligence that informs category priorities and go-to-market decisions.

Ideal candidates bring 8+ years in consumer insights or related fields, a collaboration-first mindset, and strong experience with wear

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Consumer Insights, Commercial Strategy, or Brand Strategy within consumer products or related industries.
• Proven track record of collaborating with Merchandising, Marketing, and Product to translate research into revenue growth.
• Deep methodological expertise across qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.

Responsibilities

• Lead consumer insights shaping go-to-market decisions and category priorities.
• Own insights operations, budgets, and relationships with vendors and agencies.
• Partner with Analytics to deploy real-time consumer signals to Merchandising and Product teams.
• Coach the Insights Manager and ensure high-impact research execution.
• Drive wear-testing, QA standards, and pricing considerations from consumer feedback.

Skills

Consumer Insights

Commercial Strategy

Brand Strategy

Tools

LLM clustering

Job description

Bombas is a comfort focused premium basics brand with a mission to help those in need. The company launched in 2013, after the founders learned that socks are the #1 most requested clothing item at homeless shelters. From there, they set out to solve that problem, donating a pair of socks for every pair they sell. How do you donate a lot of socks? You sell a lot. And how do you sell a lot? You make the most comfortable socks in the history of feet. Millions of pairs sold and donated later, Bombas has continued to innovate within its mission and product, introducing new socks, as well as underwear and t-shirts, the #2 and #3 most requested clothing items at homeless shelters, all while continuing to make a positive impact on the community where we all work and live.

Click here to see what it's like to work inside the Bombas Hive!

The word Bombas is derived from the Latin word for bumblebees. Bees work together to make their hive a better place. At Bombas, we’re inspired by that. We know it’s the collective efforts of our team that keeps the Hive alive and strong - a team that is diverse and inclusive. Different perspectives strengthen our ability to make the most comfortable versions of the products people wear closest to their bodies every day and to serve the communities where we all work and live. We are committed to continuously building a Hive where all are welcomed, seen, and heard regardless of age, color, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, genetics, physical or mental ability, protected veteran status race, religion and sexual orientation. As a team, we will strive to create room for different experiences and empower all voices.

Based on the specific needs and job requirements, this role will be working out of our Bombas HQ in New York City.

About the Job:

We are looking for a strategic, commercially-minded, and highly collaborative team player to join our Insights team as our Director of Insights, reporting directly to ourChief Marketing Officer & GM, eCommerce. The ideal candidate has 8+ years of progressive experience in Consumer Insights, Commercial Strategy, or Brand Strategy within consumer products, retail, footwear, apparel, or adjacent industries.The Director of Insights leads Bombas’ consumer research function, translating qualitative feedback, market signals, and product testing into actionable inputs for our Product, Marketing, and Brand teams.

This is a player-coach role. You will operate ahead of the business, shaping the go-to-market agenda before problems surface, while staying close enough to real-time signal to catch and personally engage on issues that require a faster reaction.You will partner closely with peer leaders across Merchandising, Product Marketing, Acquisition, and Retention as a trusted advisor. Final decisions on category priorities, pivots, and pricing sit with those functions. Your job is to make sure they’re making those decisions with the sharpest possible insight in hand.

What you’ll be responsible for:

Consumer/Product Opportunity Mapping & Enablement

• Build the strategic consumer POV that informs Merchandising and Executive leadership’s decisions on which product areas and customer segments matter most, owning the Opportunity Map as the underlying framework.
• Serve as one of several key voices, alongside Merchandising, Site, and Brand, identifying and framing when consumer and market signals suggest a potential pivot in category or campaign strategy.
• Present the Opportunity Map and category growth levers to peer Directors and leadership, translating research into clear implications for the business.
• Partner with the Director of Product Marketing to represent the consumer point of view across go-to-market, supporting positioning through surveys, wear tests, and other consumer research.
• Build strong senior relationships with the Directors of Merchandising, Product Marketing, Acquisition, and Retention to ensure consumer insight is consistently incorporated into decision-making.
• Serve as a key insight partner to Merchandising’s seasonal line planning POV, providing the consumer and market intelligence that informs the plan without owning the plan itself.
• Determine which concepts or assortments carry enough risk to warrant validation research and direct the team’s research priorities accordingly.
• Partner with Merchandising to identify when pricing or value positioning may need to be re-evaluated and clearly articulate the consumer signals behind that recommendation.
• Oversee wear-testing and QA diagnostic standards in partnership with Sourcing, ensuring the right fit, quality, and product issues surface before mass production.

Insights Operations, Tooling & Real-Time Signal Deployment

• Own the call on when a spike in fit, quality, or sentiment signal needs to jump the queue for reactive research, personally getting hands-on when an issue requires a faster response.
• Own the quarterly competitive narrative and brand health read for leadership.
• Own the Consumer Insights budget and strategic vendor and agency relationships.
• Direct the Insights Manager’s partnership with Analytics to implement LLM clustering across review sentiment and CX tickets, helping ensure relevant consumer signals reach Merchandising and Product teams in real time.
• Coach and develop the Manager, Insights, setting clear priorities and creating the conditions for strong research execution and continued growth.
• Own final vendor and agency relationship decisions, ensuring external partners and investments support the highest‑priority needs of the business.

Your Milestones: Success in One Year’s Time

By the end of your first year, you will have strengthened how Bombas identifies, interprets, and acts on consumer insight across Product, Merchandising, and Marketing. Specifically, you will have achieved:

• Opportunity Map Deployment: You have operationalized the Subcategory Opportunity Map across quarterly business reviews, giving Merchandising and leadership a clear consumer‑informed framework for FY27/FY28 category prioritization, line planning and media strategy.
• Product QA & Wear-Test Overhaul: You have directed a revamp of wear‑testing SOPs and concept validation gates, executed by the Insights Manager in partnership with Sourcing and Merchandising, helping the business identify fit, quality, and product risks earlier.
• Cross‑Functional Marketing Pipeline: You have established a structured insight‑sharing rhythm with Creative, Product Marketing, Acquisition, and Retention, ensuring consumer verbatims and pain points consistently feed into ad testing and campaign briefs.
• Real‑Time Consumer Signal Deployment: You have directed the Insights Manager’s partnership with Analytics to implement LLM clustering across review sentiment and CX tickets, creating a more responsive system for surfacing relevant signals to Merchandising and Product teams.
• Strategic Adoption & Business Impact: The Opportunity Map and broader Insights function are actively used by Executive and functional leaders to inform resource allocation, product priorities, media decisions, and go‑to‑market strategy, with progress reflected in launch forecast accuracy, assortment pull‑through, fit and quality‑related returns, campaign resonance, ad hook performance, and cross‑sell efficiency.

What we’ll love about you:

• A strong storyteller who can turn complex consumer insights into clear, actionable recommendations.
• A confident cross‑functional influencer who uses evidence to challenge assumptions and shape decisions.
• Deeply fluent in product, customer psychology, and DTC dynamics, with a sharp instinct for separating signal from noise.
• Thoughtful and pragmatic in your approach, knowing when to dig deep, when to move quickly, and what’s worth prioritizing.
• Belief in our mission and understand the importance of giving‑back
• Inquisitive, love to learn, embrace failure, and never give up
• Comfortable working in an open office environment while staying focused

What you’ll love about us:

• We are a team of smart, interesting, diverse, funny, and loving people.
• We offer competitive compensation, employer paid health, medical and dental benefits, 401k with match, paid parental leave, snacks, socks and a fun, relaxed office environment.
• We take the responsibility to make sure you are excited, happy, and find fulfillment in your work very seriously.
• We value fun. This is why we host office lunches, offsite team outings and company retreats.
• We believe in giving back to the community and helping those in need, which is why we volunteer as a team regularly.
• We believe success comes from the collective effort of all, which is why all full‑time employees receive equity in the business.
• We understand the value of health, relaxation, spending time with friends and family, and traveling the world and offer flexible paid time off for all full‑time employees. This includes over 20 paid company holidays, year‑round 'Flexible Fridays' and unlimited vacation, sick, and wellness days.
• We understand the importance of communication and offer a monthly phone stipend for all full‑time employees.
• We believe a healthy body equals a healthy mind, so we offer a $100 monthly wellbeing reimbursement to all full‑time employees.

What you’ll bring:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Consumer Insights, Commercial Strategy, or Brand Strategy in consumer products, retail, footwear, apparel, or adjacent industries.
• A track record of collaborative impact, with demonstrated success working alongside functional leads across Merchandising, Marketing, and Creative to translate research into measurable revenue growth, category expansion, and campaign performance.
• Deep methodological expertise, with hands‑on experience designing and executing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed‑methods research, including conjoint analysis, segmentation, concept testing, wear‑testing, and brand tracking.
• Broad commercial fluency, with a strong understanding of direct‑to‑consumer unit economics, marketing funnel dynamics, product development timelines, and merchandising logic.
• Demonstrated experience operating as a trusted advisor to senior peers or leadership without formal decision authority, using evidence and relationships to shape outcomes.
• 1+ years of direct people management or formal mentorship experience

Bombas is committed to delivering competitive and equitable pay for our employees.

Each component of the Bombas total rewards package, including benefits and pay, is aimed at contributing to an environment where team members have resources to manage their lives and are enabled to focus on doing their best work.

The pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $168,000 and $178,000/year. However, the base pay offered may vary depending on multiple factors, including job‑related knowledge, skills, experience, market factors, and business need.

The Bombas total rewards package offered for this position may also include other elements, such as annual bonus and equity target award opportunities as well as medical, financial, and well‑being benefits. Additional details of these benefits will be provided if a candidate receives an offer of employment.

If hired, the position is “at‑will” and the Company reserves the right to modify any component, plan, or program of the total rewards package at any time, for any reason.

Bombas Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Pledge

At Bombas, we are strengthened by our differences and united by our shared goal of creating a more comfortable world for others.

We are committed to continuously building a company that embraces and champions all voices, backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, and where we each strive to Bee Better every day.