Vice President, Head of Qualitative Insights

VP, Head of Qualitative Insights

This is a hybrid role to be based near one our offices in Los Angeles, Austin or New York City

About Us

We drive intelligent growth for ambitious businesses and leading brands. Customer understanding is more potent and drives greater value when insights go to work directly within marketing and experience priorities. To give our clients that advantage, we put an insights-driven operating system at the core of our design, go-to-market and digital experience solutions. Material clients make smarter growth choices because they can see clearly how and when to take the shots that count. Together, we connect consumer intelligence with customer demand generation to build lasting, profitable relationships.

About the VP, Head of Qualitative Insights Role

As VP, Head of Qualitative Insights, you will lead a talented team in growing and innovating Material’s qualitative practice and delivering extraordinary impact for clients. You will be accountable for growing client relationships and the metrics associated with that, including client satisfaction, quality, bookings, revenue, and profitability. As the practice’s growth leader, you will set the vision, build pipeline, develop senior client relationships, and lead or collaborate with other sales leaders across the organization to drive growth. You will also lead your team to actively participate in growth, strengthen client relationships, and deliver great work. This is a highly visible leadership role, not a behind-the-scenes position. You will champion Material’s qualitative capabilities in the marketplace, inspire confidence with clients, generate demand, and ensure our work delivers on its promise. You understand what makes qualitative insights strategically valuable and will set a high bar for quality. At the same time, you will evolve the practice through new methods, offerings, and technologies to keep Material modern, differentiated, and ahead of the market. You will work closely with other members of the senior team toward their own personal goals and, in partnership with them, on motivating, inspiring, and developing the rest of the team.

What You'll Do

• Set the vision for Qualitative Insights at Material. In partnership with the Head of Insights and other leaders, define the vision and strategy for Material’s qualitative capabilities. Shape the practice’s go-to-market strategy, identify opportunities for differentiation, and drive the priorities needed to accelerate demand, growth, and top-tier work.
• Drive Qualitative growth and client relationships. Serve as the internal and external champion for Qualitative Insights at Material, continuously elevating its role and impact. Own a personal and practice-level revenue target, drive new business, build strong senior client relationships, convert opportunities, and ensure we deliver high quality work.
• Raise the qualitative selling capabilities of the broader organization by training teams, joining pitches, and equipping Client Partners with compelling stories, solutions, and tools.
• Make informed decisions and be accountable for pricing, investment and profitability. Bring strong commercial judgment to scoping, proposals, and pricing work so that solutions are compelling to clients, feasible to deliver, and financially responsible.
• Lead Qualitative innovation and advance the capability. Evolve the practice, along with senior members of the team, by developing differentiated offerings, thought leadership, piloting new methodologies, and leading the thoughtful adoption of AI.
• Develop and inspire a high-performing team. Foster an environment in which talented people are motivated to do their best work. Lead through a clear and compelling vision, set high standards for the work quality, consistency, and repeatability, and build a culture in which learning, collaboration, innovation, and growth are expected, supported, and celebrated. Included in this is helping the leaders on the Qual team achieve their goals.

About You, What you Bring

• You have 12+ years of strategy or insights experience and a proven record, including the work you’ve done, high-functioning teams you’ve built, and clients you've grown.
• You can be an expert in Qualitative insights or an expert using it to drive client outcomes.
• You are a proven growth leader who finds energy in growth, as much as in the work itself.
• You have a track record of leading or partnering on accounts to grow and developing deep client relationships.
• You lead with high emotional intelligence. You read rooms, build trust quickly, and know how to get the best out of people, including other leaders with whom you may partner.
• You're a strategic thinker who can zoom out to see the business case and zoom in to make the solution sharper. You bring both to every conversation.
• You have an AI forward mindset, can speak credibly to how AI is changing the marketplace, and how Material can be at the forefront. You shape strategies that use AI to create competitive advantages and client value in repeatable ways, and bring a strong POV on how the Qual team needs to evolve to meet these needs.
• You have strong business and financial acumen, including experience managing a P&L and strategic decisions across growth, pricing, investment, staffing, and profitability.
• You live in Los Angeles or New York with willingness to travel across the United States and internationally at times.
• You're driven and motivated. You want to raise the ceiling for those around you.
• You want to build something, and you want the people on your team to feel that.

Why work for Material?

Material is a global company and we work with best-of-class brands worldwide. We also create and launch new brands and products, putting innovation and value creation at the center of our practice. Our clients are in the top of their class, across industry sectors from technology to retail, transportation, finance and healthcare. Material employees join a peer group of exceptionally talented colleagues across the company, the country, and even the world. We develop capabilities, craft and leading-edge market offerings across seven global practices including strategy and insights, design, data & analytics, technology and tracking. Our engagement management team makes it all hum for clients. A community focused on learning and making an impact. Material is an outcomes focused company. We create experiences that matter, create new value and make a difference in our clients' lives and their customers' lives.

Pay Range

$180,000.00 - $225,000.00

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.

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Material drives intelligent growth for ambitious businesses and leading brands. Customer understanding is more potent and drives greater value when insights go to work directly within marketing and experience priorities. To give our clients that advantage, we put an insights-driven operating system at the core of our design, go-to-market and digital experience solutions. Our clients make smarter growth choices because they can see clearly how and when to take the shots that count. Together, we connect consumer intelligence with customer demand generation to build lasting, profitable relationships.