Senior Director, Client Sales & Insights

Circana; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 165,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Medical/dental/vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Circana is seeking a Senior Director of Client Sales & Insights to lead revenue, renewal, and growth for a multi-million-dollar portfolio anchored in the Best Buy Gateway program. You will activate go-to-market strategy, align cross-functional teams, and drive measurable client value using AI-enabled selling, data-driven insights, and Circana platforms.

The role requires strong leadership, a track record of scaling new commercial motions, and the ability to navigate complex retailer

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in consultative sales, client leadership, and related commercial roles.
• Proven ability to lead complex, matrixed initiatives and influence senior leaders.
• Experience selling to senior buyers at major retailers or manufacturers preferred.
• Proficiency with CRM and analytics tools.

Responsibilities

• Own the revenue and renewal targets across a multi-million-dollar portfolio.
• Lead end-to-end commercial cycles from opportunity identification to closing.
• Mobilize cross-functional teams to ensure integrated delivery and client value.
• Develop trusted relationships with category, merchandising, and vendor management teams at Best Buy.
• Translate data signals into insight-led recommendations that drive client decisions.
• Act as Circana's Best Buy authority on strategic priorities and supplier dynamics.
• Configure Circana platforms to solve client problems.
• Apply AI to deepen client understanding and tailor engagements.
• Coach and raise standards across client insights teams.

Skills

Executive Solutions

Buying Influences

Buyer Indifference

Customer Needs

Resilience

Ambiguity

AI for Selling

Strategy to Execution

Influence Across Org

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or advanced degree

Tools

CRM

Data Visualization Tools

Circana Platforms

Job description

Senior Director, Client Sales & Insights

Let's be unstoppable together! Circana is a leading provider of technology, AI, and data solutions for General Merchandise manufacturers and retailers. Our predictive analytics and Liquid Data® platform help clients measure market share, uncover consumer behavior, and drive growth, powered by six decades of expertise and an expansive, high-quality data set. At Circana, we are fueled by our passion for continuous learning and growth, we seek and share feedback freely, and we celebrate victories both big and small in an environment that is flexible and accommodating to our work and personal lives. We're a global company dedicated to fostering inclusivity and belonging. We value and celebrate the unique experiences, cultures, and viewpoints that each individual brings. By embracing a wide range of backgrounds, skills, expertise, and beyond, we create a stronger, more innovative environment for our employees, clients, and communities. With us, you can always bring your full self to work. Join our inclusive, committed team to be a challenger, own outcomes, and stay curious together. Circana is proud to be Certified™ by Great Place To Work®. This prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Circana. Learn more at www.circana.com.

Our Critical Sales Skills

• Effectively Presents Solutions: Frames and delivers executive-level solutions that connect to client strategic priorities and compel senior decision-makers to act.
• Knows the Buying Influences: Maps and navigates complex, multi-stakeholder buying structures across retailer and supplier organizations, including senior functional and category leadership.
• Manages Buyer Indifference: Recognizes and constructively challenges customer hesitation to reframe the conversation and uncover new needs or opportunities.
• Customer Needs: Operates as a recognized authority who can articulate customer needs in the customer's business language and business context.
• Being Resilient: Bounces back from setbacks with composure and positivity; steadies and re-focuses others during difficult periods.
• Manages Ambiguity: Operates decisively in undefined, first-of-their-kind environments; creates clarity and momentum for others in the absence of precedent.
• Leveraging AI to Elevate Commercial Impact: Applies AI-enabled ways of working to deepen client understanding, tailor messages and solutions, improve decision quality, and increase commercial effectiveness at scale.
• Convert Strategy into Execution: Translates an established commercial strategy into sequenced, executable plans with clear owners, milestones, and measures of progress.
• Drives Results Through Influence: Mobilizes cross-functional teams, senior leaders, and external partners around shared commercial outcomes without relying on direct authority.

What will you be doing?

You own the commercial activation and revenue performance of a multi-million-dollar portfolio anchored in Circana's Best Buy Retail Gateway program, one of Circana's most visible retail partnerships, and one you will help stand up and scale. You activate the go-to-market approach, set how Circana shows up with Best Buy and its supplier community, and mobilize teams across the enterprise behind it. You carry the right to make consequential commercial calls in a program where precedent does not exist yet. A critical focus is translating complex retail, shopper, loyalty, and market performance signals into recommendations clients act on, driving measurable value for them and durable revenue growth for Circana. The role also demands genuine command of AI-enabled selling: not as a productivity trick, but to understand each client's business more deeply and make every client interaction sharper than the last.

Why this role?

Most commercial leadership jobs hand you an established book and ask you to defend it. This one is an early work in progress. The Best Buy Gateway program is new, the go-to-market model, the supplier engagement approach, and the commercial playbook, is yours to build, prove, and scale. If you want work that is foundational rather than incremental, in one of retail's fastest-moving categories, with six decades of data behind you, this is that seat.

Job Responsibilities

• Own the Number: Carry full accountability for revenue, renewal, supplier participation, and growth targets across a multi-million-dollar portfolio. Build and defend the forecast, allocate effort and investment across the supplier base, and surface risk before it becomes a miss.
• Win and Renew the Business: Run the full commercial cycle end to end, identifying, shaping, and closing opportunities that expand gateway participation and supplier adoption, through business case development, solution design, commercial structuring, negotiation, and contracting.
• Lead Through Influence: Mobilize and align Client Insights, Analytics, Product, Operations, Finance, Legal, and Commercial teams to ensure integrated delivery, strong execution discipline, and consistent client value.
• Go Deep Where the Work Happens: Develop trusted relationships with category, merchandising, and vendor management teams at Best Buy and with the practitioners across the supplier community who use Circana data every day; surface risk and opportunity early through consistent, operator-level engagement.
• Deliver Insight-Led Recommendations: Translate complex retail, shopper, loyalty, and market data into recommendations clients actually act on, and that measurably improve the decisions they make.
• Become Circana's Best Buy Authority: Act as Circana's internal and external expert on Best Buy's strategic priorities and supplier dynamics in the category; surface market shifts, competitive threats, and their commercial implications to program leadership.
• Put Circana's Platforms to Work: Decide how Circana platforms and solutions, including Liquid Data, Unify+, Intelligence Suite, gateway reporting assets, and CRM tools, are configured, positioned, and applied to solve client problems.
• Apply AI to Elevate Client Impact: Use AI across the program to build deeper understanding of each client's business priorities, pain points, and growth opportunities; create more relevant supplier segmentations; and customize messages, insights, and solution recommendations. AI should strengthen judgment, sharpen preparation, improve message relevance, and raise the quality of client engagement before being used to drive efficiency.
• Raise the Bar Around You: Coach and strengthen General Merchandise client insights leads and the cross-functional partners working on the program; model the standards expected of Circana's commercial leaders and build bench strength as the program scales.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required, MBA, advanced degree, or equivalent experience in business, analytics, marketing, economics, or a related field preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in consultative sales, client leadership, retail, General Merchandise or CPG, data analytics, category management, shopper insights, or related commercial roles, including considerable time owning multi-million-dollar strategic accounts or complex, enterprise-level client relationships.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, matrixed initiatives, influencing senior leaders and cross-functional teams toward a shared commercial outcome.
• Proven record of building or scaling a new business line, program, or commercial motion in an ambiguous, undefined environment.
• Experience selling to and influencing senior functional buyers, including category, merchandising, and vendor management leadership, at major retailers or manufacturers; consumer electronics, durables, or hardlines category experience preferred.
• Experience with retailer gateway, data monetization, retail media, or similar retailer-supplier data programs strongly preferred.
• Proficiency with CRM, Microsoft Office, data visualization, reporting, and analytics tools required.
• Experience with Circana platforms, retailer gateway programs, segmentation methods, executive-level storytelling, and AI-enabled approaches that sharpen client understanding and commercial effectiveness preferred.

Circana Behaviors

• Stay Curious: Being hungry to learn and grow, always asking the big questions.
• Seek Clarity: Embracing complexity to create clarity and inspire action.
• Own the Outcome: Being accountable for decisions and taking ownership of our choices.
• Center on the Client: Relentlessly adding value to our customers.
• Be a Challenger: Never complacent, always striving for continuous improvement.
• Champion Inclusivity: Fostering trust in relationships engaging with empathy, respect, and integrity.
• Commit to each other: Contributing to making Circana a great place to work for everyone.

Location

This position can be located remotely within the United States, with the ability to travel as needed for client meetings, internal collaboration, and key business reviews.

Prospective candidates may be asked to consent to background checks (in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice ) Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission.

The below range reflects the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future. An employee's position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, seniority, geographic location, performance, shift, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, any collective bargaining agreements, and business or organizational needs. The salary range for this role is $165,000 to $200,000 USD. This job is also eligible for bonus pay.

• paid time off
• medical/dental/vision insurance
• 401(k) to eligible employees

An offer of employment may be conditional upon successful completion of a background check in accordance with local legislation and our candidate privacy notice. Your current employer will not be contacted without your permission.

Additional Information

Circana uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess resumes for alignment with job requirements by helping locate details in resumes that relate to the job description. This position is expected to remain open for approximately 30 days and may close early if sufficient qualified candidates are identified.