Research & Insights Director

Orange Barrel Media; New York (NY); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Orange Barrel Media, a leader in outdoor media, is hiring a Research & Insights Director to guide our research agenda and act as the strategic bridge between data, sales, and national brands. The role focuses on client research, attribution studies, and case-based storytelling to optimize OBM’s inventory and offerings.

You’ll manage a growing research team, engage with agencies and brands, and translate insights into practical recommendations that advance deals and client outcomes.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in research, insights, analytics in media/advertising.
• Experience managing people and scaling a research function.
• Comfort presenting directly to clients.
• Able to defend methodology and connect data to business outcomes.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills.
• Proven ability to translate research into revenue via upsells or wins.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to tell a compelling marketing story.
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with sales and marketing teams.
• Familiarity with OOH measurement standards or vendors.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day management of research and insights projects for internal stakeholders and clients, ensuring rigor, accuracy, and on-time delivery.
• Mentor the Research & Insights Manager and the broader research function as it scales.
• Build a library of research-backed case studies and marketing materials that answer cost-benefit questions.
• Engage with clients and guide conversations with Sales, presenting findings and translating data into recommendations that move deals forward.
• Identify where OBM can earn a larger share of OOH budget and build a research case to win it.
• Support marketing with data-driven insights for storytelling in external decks and materials.
• Maintain relationships with third-party vendors and deploy services when appropriate.
• Evaluate new data sources and tools, advising management on opportunities to expand capabilities or create efficiencies.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing to provide data, research, and insights regularly.
• Stay current on OOH measurement standards and market trends to keep OBM's claims sharp and defensible.

Job description

About The Role

Orange Barrel Media is hiring a Research & Insights Director to lead our research function and serve as the strategic link between OBM's data, our sales team, and the largest agencies and national brands investing in out-of-home. This is a senior, client-facing research role for someone who knows the OOH landscape inside and out and can translate that expertise into insight that helps clients make smarter media decisions.

The Research & Insights Director owns the day-to-day research agenda: client research projects including third-party impact and attribution studies, comparative and category analyses, and the research-backed case studies and marketing materials that bring OBM's story to life. This person works directly with agencies and brand partners through our Sales org to understand our client’s KPIs, decode how they measure success, and ensure OBM's inventory, positioning, and offering are aligned with what clients actually need to hit their goals. This is both a research leadership role and a relationship-driving one, requiring an energetic spirit and can-do attitude; someone driven by their desire to lift everyone up around them. Success is measured by the rigor of the work and by this person's ability to turn insight into real client conversations, building OBM's reputation as the OOH partner that best understands, and delivers against, client objectives.

What You’ll Do

• Own day-to-day management of research and insights projects for both our internal stakeholders and clients, ensuring rigor, accuracy, and on-time delivery
• Manage and mentor the Research & Insights Manager and the broader research function as it scales, providing support on day-to-day needs while simultaneously steering the ship
• Lead the building of a library of research-backed case studies and marketing materials that answer the client's cost-benefit question directly
• Engage with clients and guide conversations in tandem with our Sales executives, presenting research findings and solutions, fielding tough questions, and translating data into recommendations that move deals forward
• Identify where OBM is under-earning its share of OOH budget and build the research case to win it
• Seek insightful competitive advantages using data and research to aid our marketing team with telling compelling marketing stories through external-facing decks and materials
• In partnership with the Research & Insights Manager, build and maintain relationships with third-party research vendors, deploying their services when they are the right fit after considering budget, scope and projected impact
• Evaluate new data sources and tools, advising management on opportunities to expand our capabilities, or create efficiencies
• Partner with Sales leadership and Marketing to ensure the Sales org is provided with data, research and insights on an ongoing basis, through both key deliverables, a library of resources, and direct support of their clients needs
• Stay current on OOH format performance, media measurement, and research methodology trends to keep OBM's comparative claims sharp and defensible
• Maintain a working view of competitor and alternative-format offerings (static, digital, other OOH operators) to keep OBM's comparative claims current and credible

What We’re Looking For

• 8+ years in research, insights, analytics in media, advertising, or a client-facing research role in a related field. OOH experience is a significant plus
• Experience managing people and leading or scaling a research function
• Comfort and credibility presenting directly to clients
• Able to defend methodology, field hard questions, and connect data to business outcomes in real time
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, with the judgment to know which numbers matter for a given audience
• A demonstrated ability to translate research into revenue via: upsells, pricing support, or competitive wins, not just industry-level advocacy
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; equally comfortable in rigorous methodology and in telling a compelling marketing story
• Experience partnering cross-functionally with sales and marketing teams
• Ideally has familiarity with OOH measurement standards and vendors or comparable media measurement currencies
• A desire to help lift others up by showcasing through action that your expertise is a resource to be shared, offering your valuable perspective to leadership, and supporting internal stakeholders with direct one-to-one support on a regular basis
• COMPANY OVERVIEW

Orange Barrel Media (OBM) creates and operates iconic urban media displays that advertisers ask for by name in top U.S. markets. Since our founding in 2004, OBM has pioneered a community-oriented model of outdoor media development and is nationally recognized by cities and real estate owners alike seeking to implement premier media programs that add to the character of urban places. In the advertising community, OBM is widely recognized as the owner of the highest impact and most memorable advertising locations in the cities where it operates.
The OBM team is also a leader in smart city infrastructure, launching the Interactive Kiosk Experience (IKE) platform in concert with cities across the U.S. through the company IKE Smart City. IKE is a best-in-class public engagement platform that helps cities communicate with the public, enliven the pedestrian experience, and tell the story of their city. The core pillars of the IKE platform are public benefit and social equity, values that we seek to maximize in every IKE market to achieve city objectives and exceed community expectations.
We are a place where people are inspired to achieve success, genuinely like each other, and have endless opportunities to grow.
Learn more at www.obm.com and www.ikesmartcity.com.

The Pay Range For This Role Is

130,000 - 160,000 USD per year (NYC Office )