Senior Director, Consumer Insights

Senior Director, Consumer Insights

Job Type: Full-Time Location Type: Hybrid Primary Location: Atlanta, Georgia, US Alternate Locations: Newell Brands is a leading consumer products company with a portfolio of iconic brands like Graco, Coleman, Oster, Rubbermaid, Sharpie and Yankee Candle - and 24,000 talented teammates around the world. Our culture is built on values in action: Integrity, Teamwork, Passion for Winning, Ownership, and Leadership. We work together to win, grow, and make a real impactsupported by a high-performing, inclusive, and collaborative environment where you can be your best, every day. Consumer and Shopper Insights at Newell Brands is a discipline closely linked to marketing and consumer-driven innovation, category management, and sales and shopper-centric retail understanding. The team's work is grounded in a deep understanding of brands, consumers, shoppers, competition, product categories, global consumer trends and market dynamics increasingly powered by artificial intelligence and advanced analytics that speed up how insights are generated, tested and scaled. The Sr. Director, Outdoor, Recreational and Commercial Insights delivers insightful, actionable learning to all levels of the organization and serves as a trusted strategic partner to senior leadership. This role drives business results by influencing brand and category strategy, portfolio management and innovation, integrated marketing planning, new product development and category management through a constant focus on the consumer, shopper and marketplace. A core part of the mandate is modernizing how Newell does research standardizing foundational research globally, building a scalable insights platform and embedding AI methodologies (predictive analytics, natural language processing, generative AI and machine learning) into brand health tracking, trend detection and everyday research delivery. Focus areas are products within Outdoor and Recreational brands, while also supporting products within our Commercial business (B2B)

Job Responsibilities

• Insights & AI-Enabled Research
• Builds standardized research tools and AI-augmented workflows the organization can implement and execute across the world.
• Builds nimble research platforms proprietary omnibus, online communities and AI-simulated or synthetic-audience testing to accelerate early-stage learning.
• Leads Brand Health methodology deployment and standardizes it across segments and categories globally, incorporating AI-based tracking and anomaly detection to flag shifts in brand equity faster.
• Applies natural language processing and generative AI to analyze open-ended survey responses, social listening data and unstructured consumer feedback, turning qualitative volume into structured themes at speed.
• Uses predictive analytics and machine learning to forecast brand and category performance, concept success and consumer response ahead of full-scale testing.
• Builds consumer communities and a proprietary omnibus for speedy execution of consumer research across key geographies.
• Supports the innovation and stage-gate process, centralizing claims-testing tracking and using AI-assisted reporting to shorten the time from data to decision.
• Brings a foundational best-practices lens including responsible and bias-aware use of AI to every piece of research conducted within the organization.
• Brings a spirit of collaboration and passion for growth to the role. Proactively cultivates opportunities to bring cross-functional team members closer to consumers to make Newell's brands and products more relevant and attractive to consumers and shoppers.
• Collaborates with marketing partners to evaluate brand relevance with current and prospective consumers, proactively identifying category, brand and retailer opportunities and ensuring key learning is embedded in category strategy.
• Leads the effort to ensure Newell has the right packaging testing protocols that meet consumer needs, deliver on the brand's proposition, support overall brand positioning and help identify possible quality issues.
• Sets priorities for product testing based on a robust business risk assessment and new product development best practices, aligned with budgetary considerations.
• Builds advocacy for sustained organizational investment in consumer understanding based on the delivery of impactful insights that help the business grow while delighting consumers.
• Translates consumer needs and wishes into business opportunities. Demonstrates effective project management, including setting appropriate action standards, selecting and guiding suppliers, managing within budget and schedule constraints, and delivering actionable results.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Four-year college degree and graduate degree preferred.
• 10 years of experience minimum in consumer insights or market research strategic consulting role; 15 years preferred.
• Both client-side and research agency-side work in consumer products; experience with durable categories preferred.
• Substantial experience conducting global research projects; demonstrates an understanding of differences and diversity among consumers, countries and cultures.
• Expertise in a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods, and the ability to apply them appropriately to business issues.
• Hands-on experience applying AI and machine learning to marketing research and brand analytics for example, predictive analytics, natural language processing for open-ended and social data, generative AI for insight synthesis and reporting, or AI-simulated consumer testing and synthetic audiences.
• Experience with longitudinal research, consumer online communities and proprietary omnibus methodologies.
• Experience leading the strategic learning plan and priorities for a brand or product category, and managing a research budget accordingly.
• Experience tailoring communications to different audiences and proactively communicating to all levels of stakeholders: executive leadership, cross-functional team members, and agency and retail partners.
• Demonstrated ability to build advocacy for consumer and shopper insights in an organization.
• Experience discovering and activating consumer and shopper insights that lead to sales growth through new product or service launches, existing product improvements and improved marketing efficiency.
• Proven ability to recruit diverse, expert consumer insights talent.
• Proven ability to engage, retain, manage and develop consumer insights professionals, including teams, direct reports and peers.

Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Coleman, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Yankee Candle, Paper Mate, FoodSaver, Dymo, EXPO, Elmer's, Oster, NUK, Spontex and Campingaz. We are focused on delighting consumers by lighting up everyday moments. Newell Brands and its subsidiaries are Equal Opportunity Employers and comply with applicable employment laws. EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled are encouraged to apply.