Customer Research & Insights Director

Customer Research & Insights Director Job Description You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In this role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world. It starts with YOU. Exceptional "People Service" is your calling You approach each professional relationship as a partnership, and that includes the people you lead and collaborate with as well as the people you serve. Your caring disposition and desire to understand people’s needs encourage trust. Our organization looks for executives like you who know how to build and maintain long-term relationships, both internally and with clients. We would like to hear from you. About this role: This role leads the research & insights team for the Kimberly Clark Professional business unit within Kimberly-Clark. As the lead of the function for this business unit, this position inspires a customer data-driven culture throughout the business unit by applying meaningful, best-in-class insights to unlock growth with exceptional customer understanding. The role is accountable for driving the BU-level customer learning agenda and ensuring the team executes high quality research and analytics that develop deep customer insights to achieve category strategies and optimize the business. The incumbent is an influential strategic business leader that builds exceptional partnerships across the business. This leader must also have the technical expertise to build capability for the B2B Business unit, also leveraging overall KC capabilities, processes, and tools. KCP This role is in service to the B2B business unit goals and therefore requires exception partnership with business leaders. Key stakeholders include: Category/ Innovation, CX/Marketing, Sales, E-commerce, and Data& Analytics to assure recommendations are being built in an omnichannel way with holistic understanding of customers across channels and categories (wipers, washroom, safety & scientific categories) Global I&A Community This role partners and consolidates learning needs, provides input, resources, and provides local guidance. This role helps build talent across the I&A KC-KCP community by sharing key projects and best practices. In this role, you will: Strategic Impact Own the overall development and activation of the business unit’s research & insights agenda to reflect the most important consumer questions for the business in support of the sector's top tier growth goals. Build and align business stakeholders on the annual I&A agenda, assuring I&A focus areas are aligned to biggest strategic areas for the business (e.g., Personalization, Innovation Initiatives, Consumer Journey Management, etc.). Strategic Projects & Processes Lead individually or with team on critical projects or processes that disproportionately impact the business unit's growth goals and/or ability to create competitive advantage, including powerful value proposition, brand and portfolio positioning, optimal portfolio, price pack architecture, innovation, customer segmentation, integrated marketing, content creation. Provide hands on guidance/oversight to team on critical projects. Methodology Expertise Serve as subject matter professional for team to design and explain research, insights and analytics results when necessary. Lead supplier conversation in complex situations. Consumer Centricity Relentlessly drive toward a more holistic understanding of our customers across the customer journey; provoking continuous improvement and motivating adoption of tools to further this effort. Capabilities Provide thought leadership and feedback in development across the range of the research & insights agenda of standards and capabilities. Create environment of partnership with KC capabilities team. Standards & Best Practices Assure that best research and analytic practices are scaled and consistently utilized across the B2B business unit. Investment Maximize the business unit's learning plan investment by assuring that learning agendas align to strategic areas for the business and drive towards value creation. Knowledge Management Lead resourceful and fiscally responsible mindset by ensuring previous custom research, analytics, syndicated and other internal resources are incorporated into learning plans; Champion knowledge management system across the organization. Team Leadership Manage a team of research and insights professionals to consistently deliver high quality results; Ensure research and insights are designed effectively and to standards Talent Building Recruit, interview and hire team as openings become available. Provide day-to-day coaching and guidance to develop individuals that align to business and individual needs. Ensure timely performance discussions and individual development plans. Assist in building and executing I&A training plans to upskill KCP organization in critical areas. Support career pathing in line with development opportunities working with KC team. The successful candidate will join the Global Customer Experience and Marketing team and report to the VP, KCP Customer Experience and Marketing. About Us At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best teams committed to driving innovation and growth. We’re founded on 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform—so what can you do with that? There’s no time like the present to make an impact at Kimberly-Clark. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark. Led by Purpose. Driven by You. About You: You’re driven to perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring. You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development. To succeed in this role, you will need the following qualifications: Bachelor’s degree. MBA preferred. 10 years experience in Marketing Research including in-depth experience in either consumer research or marketing analytics methods (both preferred). B2B experience a must; CPG experience a plus; 5 years experience building and leading high-performance teams within a Marketing Research/Analytics function. Business Acumen: Deeply understand business goals, market dynamics and trends impacting the future, resulting in the translation of consumer learning into meaningful actions that drive decisions and competitive advantage. Stakeholder Management/Executive Presence: Build and nurture trust-based relationships within own team, stakeholders, cross-functional partners and agencies that drive continuous and sustainable alignment across projects, teams, and functions. Technical Expertise: Demonstrate mastery in understanding and applying current and emerging consumer research, marketing analytics and cultural foresight methods. Critical Thinking: Foster teams that prioritizes critical thinking, with focus on assessing, interpreting, translating and integrating learning from multiple sources to reach well-rounded conclusions and recommendations. Team leadership: Develop high performing teams that earn strategic partnerships with stakeholders and embrace new capabilities; Inspire extraordinary professional growth. Change management: Effectively lead change across the organization through motivating commitment, tracking and adjusting to sustain positive outcomes Location: This role will have a hybrid model and can sit out of one of the main Kimberly-Clark office locations in one of the following regions: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain For Kimberly-Clark to grow and prosper, we must be an inclusive organization that applies the diverse experiences and passions of its team members to brands that make life better for people all around the world. We actively seek to build a workforce that reflects the experiences of our consumers. When you bring your original thinking to Kimberly-Clark, you fuel the continued success of our enterprise. We are a committed equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role are available upon request. You may contact 866-444-4516 for assistance. You must include the six digit Job # with your request. The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification. Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position. This role is available for local candidates already authorized to work in the role’s country only. K-C will support in-country relocation for the chosen candidate for the role. #LI-Hybrid Primary Location USA-GA-Atlanta-Roswell Additional Locations Canada-Ontario-Mississauga, Chicago Commercial Center, Dallas World Headquarters, Germany-Flexible Location, Germany -Koblenz, Madrid Office, Mississauga Office, Neenah Conference Center, Spain -Madrid, United Kingdom- Flexible Location, United Kingdom- Flexible Location - South East England, Walton Oaks Worker Type Employee Worker Sub-Type Regular Time Type Full time Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people's most essential needs, we're working to find new ways to make a positive impact on the world we share. Kimberly-Clark and its trusted brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus, Neve, Plenitud, Sweety, Softex, Viva and WypAll, are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries by helping individuals experience more of what's important to them. We use sustainable practices that support a healthy planet, build stronger communities, and ensure our business thrives for decades to come. To learn more about the company's 150-year history of innovation, visit kimberly-clark.com.