Director, Research and Insights

Morgan Street Holdings; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Parental leave

401(k) matching

Job summary

tms is seeking a Director, Research and Insights in Chicago to lead qualitative and quantitative research across packaging, strategy and user experience. You will partner with client and internal teams to deliver insights that inform strategic decisions and drive growth.

The role requires 12–15 years of experience in consumer insights or related fields, strong stakeholder influence, budget and vendor management, and hands-on research design.

Qualifications

• 12–15 years of progressive experience in consumer insights or related fields.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders.
• Experience managing research budgets and vendor relationships.
• Hands-on experience: framing proposals, recruiting, moderating, data analysis, reporting and presenting results.

Responsibilities

• Establish and own the Research & Insights strategy aligned to business growth and client needs.
• Advise stakeholders with consumer, market and customer intelligence.
• Lead end-to-end research projects from objectives to reporting and presentation.
• Develop capability roadmap including methodology innovation and vendor partnerships.
• Own annual Research & Insights budget and investments.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Research strategy

Qualitative methods

Quantitative methods

Budget management

Vendor management

Proposal writing

Survey design

Statistical analysis

Qualtrics/SPSS

Autonomous work

Education

University degree in Marketing/Market Research

Tools

Qualtrics

SPSS

Microsoft Office

Job description

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Director, Research and Insights

Reporting Location: Chicago - 345 North Morgan

$120,000-$140,000

Workplace Type: Hybrid

ABOUT US

tms unites technology, marketing, and sourcing to drive transformational change for the world’s leading brands. With more than 1,400 employees across 28 countries., we offer an impressive range of solutions – from inspiration and innovation to category management and delivery.

Operating as a creative agency, a strategic consultancy, a sourcing business, and a technology provider, we engage with over 110 million customers every single day for our clients, including McDonald’s, T-Mobile, O2, Starbucks, and adidas.

Most importantly, we're a place where you can achieve great things, and be recognized as the best.

WHAT MATTERS THE MOST

Breakthrough, business-driving ideas come from extraordinary people with the freedom to be their most authentic selves at work. Authenticity and diversity are critical elements of our business. They can only be realized when we create access and equity for all. We foster a culture of inclusion and belonging and aspire to be ever-evolving.

tms is a place where brilliant people are better together. If you want your ideas to be heard and to contribute to a culture of inclusion and authenticity, bring us your voice! Visit us at tmsw.com.

WHY WE THINK YOU WILL LOVE THIS ROLE

The Senior Manager, Research & Insights will sit within our Global Consumer Strategy team.

The Senior Manager’s focus will be to provide both qualitative and quantitative research and insights support across the tms organization including packaging, strategy and user experience. Responsible for subject matter expertise in support of client and internal teams.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING TO THE ORGANIZATION

• Establish and own the tms Global Consumer Strategy Research & Insights strategy, ensuring research priorities directly support business growth, client retention, innovation and capability development.
• Act as the senior insights advisor to key stakeholders, shaping strategic decisions through consumer, market and customer intelligence
• Partner with client leadership teams to identify growth opportunities, develop insight-led client solutions and participate in new business pursuits.
• Responsible for expanding Research & Insights revenue through capability development, solution innovation and consultative client engagement.
• Design and execute research studies from defining objectives; developing qualitative and quantitative methodologies; creating screeners, questionnaires, discussion guides; managing research suppliers; moderation of IDIs or focus groups; data and statistical analysis; report creation; and client presentations.
• Help define the multi-year Research & Insights capability roadmap, including methodology innovation, technology investments, vendor partnerships and operating model design.
• Own annual Research & Insights budget, vendor spend and investment planning to ensure efficient allocation of resources and delivery of business objectives.
• Collaborate with client account leadership to establish processes for funding, approving, and managing research needs.
• Evaluate and establish suites of consumer research methodologies to best meet client and tms needs in key areas of packaging development opportunities, strategic initiatives and user experience.
• Enhance HAVI market awareness and brand equity by contributing to thought-leadership pieces.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO HAVE

• University Degree in Marketing, Innovation, Market Research, Insights or a relevant discipline plus generally 12-15 years of progressive experience in consumer insights, market research, strategy consulting or related fields. Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Although, quantitative research skills are a must have.
• Demonstrated experience influencing senior stakeholders.
• Ability to manage diverse needs of multiple stakeholders and demands of simultaneous projects and customers.
• Demonstrated success defining and implementing research strategies that drive measurable business impact and commercial outcomes
• Experience managing research budgets and commercial outcomes.
• Experience in primary and secondary research methodologies utilizing varying approaches.
• Ability to translate business needs into appropriate research methodology.
• Hands-on experience managing the entire research project, i.e., writing proposals, recruiting screeners, survey questions, interview guides, moderating, qualitative data analysis, statistical data analysis, writing reports and presenting results.
• Experience with research report writing including framework development and storyline creation.
• Experience with evaluating market research vendors.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project management and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work autonomously.
• Experience with programming surveys into Qualtrics (or similar), statistical software (e.g., Qualtrics or SPSS), Microsoft Office suite.
• Supplier-side research experience preferred.

Starting salary between $120,000 - $140,000

Our total rewards philosophy integrates programs for compensation, benefits, recognition, learning and development, corporate culture, corporate citizenship and work-life balance. While individual program components may differ by country, some things remain constant:

• Our commitment to rewarding results
• Opportunities to work with talented and driven individuals at every level of our company who respect each other, treat each other fairly and hold one another accountable for our customers’—and our company’s—success

There's more ...

• Generous medical, dental, vision and other great benefits
• Paid parental and medical leave programs
• 401(k) with a company match component and profit sharing
• 15 days of paid time off plus company holidays
• Tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment assistance
• Inclusive employee resource groups

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.