Sr. Manager Consumer Insights & Capabilities

Kearney; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 200,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous retirement/contributions

Comprehensive medical insurance

Gym membership discounts

Equity-based awards for eligible roles

Learning and development opportunities

Job summary

Kearney is seeking a Consumer Insights & Capabilities Lead in Chicago to elevate how the voice of the consumer informs client work and to build capabilities across the firm. You will lead consumer insights on select engagements, assess research needs, and design scalable methodologies and tools.

You will also contribute to business development with consumer-driven perspectives and lead thought leadership initiatives.

Qualifications

• 5–10 years' experience in consumer insights and translating consumer understanding into actionable business recommendations.
• Experience selecting qualitative and quantitative research methodologies based on the business question and available evidence.
• Ability to synthesize complex research and data into clear, compelling insights and implications for senior stakeholders.
• Strong project and workstream leadership skills, with the ability to operate independently and collaborate effectively with consulting teams, clients, and external research partners.
• Experience building or codifying consumer insights methodologies, tools, frameworks, or organizational capabilities.
• A strong consumer orientation and an ability to bring the consumer perspective into strategy, innovation, and business development.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.
• A collaborative and entrepreneurial mindset, with an interest in helping build and grow Kearney’s consumer insights capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead consumer insights on select client engagements, independently leading workstreams and stepping in for the VP as needed.
• Assess clients’ existing consumer research and knowledge to determine what is known, identify critical gaps, and develop a clear point of view on the additional insights required.
• Recommend the right research approaches and studies based on the business question, existing knowledge, timeline, and desired outcomes.
• Lead the day-to-day execution of consumer insights workstreams, partnering with project teams, the Consumer Insights COE, research partners, and clients.
• Synthesize research into clear, compelling insights and implications that directly inform strategy, innovation, and decision-making.
• Bring project teams up to speed on consumer learning and facilitate the application of insights, including ideation, concept development, and evaluation of ideas.
• Partner with the VP to develop and strengthen the firm’s core consumer insights capabilities, methodologies, and offerings.
• Help codify best practices and develop repeatable approaches, tools, and frameworks that enable teams to deliver high-quality consumer insights consistently.
• As new capabilities are developed, design the workflows, processes, systems, and supporting materials required to operationalize and scale them across the organization.
• Build the knowledge and confidence of broader teams to effectively integrate consumer insights into their work.
• Bring a strong consumer lens to business development efforts, ensuring proposals, hypotheses, and recommendations are grounded in consumer needs, behaviors, and evidence.
• Partner with broader teams to shape differentiated, consumer-backed approaches for prospective clients.
• Develop thought leadership, perspectives, and knowledge that create proactive conversations with clients and generate demand for consumer insights capabilities.
• Identify emerging consumer topics, methodologies, and trends that can create new opportunities for client engagement and capability development.

Skills

Consumer insights

Project leadership

Stakeholder management

Qualitative methods

Quantitative methods

Business development

Thought leadership

Collaboration

Job description

The Role

Kearney is seeking a Consumer Insights & Capabilities Lead to help strengthen how we bring the voice of the consumer into our client work and build consumer insights capabilities across the firm.

Job Description

The Role

Kearney is seeking a Consumer Insights & Capabilities Lead to help strengthen how we bring the voice of the consumer into our client work and build consumer insights capabilities across the firm. This individual will play a dual role: leading consumer insights across select client engagements while partnering with leadership to develop, codify, and scale the capabilities, methodologies, and tools that enable our teams to consistently deliver high-quality consumer insights. The Consumer Insights & Capabilities Lead will also bring a strong consumer perspective to business development and thought leadership, helping Kearney translate evolving consumer needs, behaviors, and trends into differentiated perspectives and opportunities for our clients.

Key Responsibilities

Lead Consumer Insights Across Client Engagements

• Serve as the consumer insights lead on select client engagements, independently leading workstreams and stepping in for the VP as needed.
• Assess clients’ existing consumer research and knowledge to determine what is known, identify critical gaps, and develop a clear point of view on the additional insights required.
• Recommend the right research approaches and studies based on the business question, existing knowledge, timeline, and desired outcomes.
• Lead the day-to-day execution of consumer insights workstreams, partnering with project teams, the Consumer Insights COE, research partners, and clients.
• Synthesize research into clear, compelling insights and implications that directly inform strategy, innovation, and decision-making.
• Bring project teams up to speed on consumer learning and facilitate the application of insights, including ideation, concept development, and evaluation of ideas.

Build and Scale Consumer Insights Capabilities

• Partner with the VP to develop and strengthen the firm’s core consumer insights capabilities, methodologies, and offerings.
• Help codify best practices and develop repeatable approaches, tools, and frameworks that enable teams to deliver high-quality consumer insights consistently.
• As new capabilities are developed, design the workflows, processes, systems, and supporting materials required to operationalize and scale them across the organization.
• Build the knowledge and confidence of broader teams to effectively integrate consumer insights into their work.

Support Business Development & Thought Leadership

• Bring a strong consumer lens to business development efforts, ensuring proposals, hypotheses, and recommendations are grounded in consumer needs, behaviors, and evidence.
• Partner with broader teams to shape differentiated, consumer-backed approaches for prospective clients.
• Develop thought leadership, perspectives, and knowledge that create proactive conversations with clients and generate demand for consumer insights capabilities.
• Identify emerging consumer topics, methodologies, and trends that can create new opportunities for client engagement and capability development.

Who You Are

After nearly 100 years, we know that our people make the difference. We are looking for someone who is collaborative, insightful, inquisitive, and excited by the opportunity to both deliver outstanding consumer insights and build capabilities that can scale across the firm.

You Bring

• 5-10 years' experience in consumer insights, consumer research, and translating consumer understanding into actionable business recommendations.
• Experience selecting and applying qualitative and quantitative research methodologies based on the business question and available evidence.
• The ability to synthesize complex research and data into clear, compelling insights and implications for senior stakeholders.
• Strong project and workstream leadership skills, with the ability to operate independently and collaborate effectively with consulting teams, clients, and external research partners.
• Experience building or codifying consumer insights methodologies, tools, frameworks, or organizational capabilities.
• A strong consumer orientation and an ability to bring the consumer perspective into strategy, innovation, and business development.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills.
• A collaborative and entrepreneurial mindset, with an interest in helping build and grow Kearney’s consumer insights capabilities.

What We Can Offer You

Every day, our people work to be the difference for our clients, our communities, and our colleagues. Helping them make an impact, they are supported by a competitive remuneration package plus comprehensive benefits and perks, including but not limited to:

• Generous retirement/pension savings contributions.
• Comprehensive medical insurance for employees and immediate family.
• Gym membership discounts.
• Non-partner equity-based awards for eligible roles.
• Structured and on-the-job learning and development opportunities.
• Personalized opportunities including talent mobility, flexible work programs, and externships to help you chart a unique career journey and pursue your personal and professional goals.

Compensation

Base Salary: $ 200k-$220k Individual salaries within the range are determined through a variety of factors, including but not limited to education, experience, office location, knowledge, and skills. Kearney reviews compensation regularly and may adjust base salaries to reflect market competitiveness. In addition to salary, individuals may be eligible for a discretionary performance bonus. Our full suite of benefits includes paid time off, paid sick time off, 401(k) match and profit sharing, medical, dental and vision coverage, healthcare concierge, backup child/adult care, annual employer HSA contribution, home office stipend, subsidized Wellhub and annual wellness program, and leaves of absence when needed to support employees’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

Read more about our benefits and a career at Kearney.com/careers.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Non-Discrimination

Kearney prides itself on providing a culture where our employees belong and thrive equally, which means our people feel comfort, confidence, and joy as they do great things for our firm, our colleagues, and our clients. That’s why Kearney is committed to building a diverse workforce and inclusive environment. Kearney is an equal opportunity employer; we recruit, hire, train, promote, develop, and provide other conditions of employment without regard to a person’s gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religion, age, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other differences consistent with applicable laws. This includes providing reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs and practices. We encourage everyone to apply, including those who may not feel historically represented in consulting.