Senior Research Lead, Customer Insights

Overview As Senior Research Lead, you will own research projects and workstreams for stakeholders across marketing. You will manage studies from initial scoping through delivery, apply judgment on methodology, contribute to AI-assisted workflows, and help build repeatable processes that raise the quality floor across the team. Your first project in summer 2026: keynote message testing ahead of Dreamforce. What You’ll Do Lead and Execute Primary Research: Own research projects and workstreams for marketing stakeholders. Translate ambiguous business questions into well‑designed studies with a clear point of view on what the research will answer and why it matters. Maintain full accountability for quality throughout. Apply the Right Methods: Apply judgment on methodology across complex, high‑visibility studies. Know when quantitative, qualitative, or mixed approaches are right, and why. Decisions often need to be made quickly, defended to senior stakeholders, and adapted as briefs evolve. Work is a mix of supplier‑led and in‑house execution; you need to be comfortable with both. Synthesize Across Studies: Connect findings across projects to surface integrated conclusions. Deliver strong data storytelling by choosing the right visualization and framing the narrative, landing with senior stakeholders and driving decisions. Drive Stakeholder Alignment: Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders. Scope studies with a clear point of view on what they will answer and why the investment is worth it. Communicate findings in terms of decisions and actions, not research outputs. Build AI‑Assisted Team Practices: Use AI tools to accelerate and sharpen research work. Help establish team practices around where AI adds genuine value and where it needs to be checked carefully. Set a high bar for what AI output looks like before it reaches a stakeholder. Manage Concurrent Workstreams: Handle multiple concurrent projects without losing track of quality or timelines. Anticipate what’s coming and stay ahead of it. Manage Suppliers and Research Partners: Own relationships with external research agencies and vendors across your projects. Set expectations, maintain quality standards, and keep concurrent workstreams on track. Build Processes That Scale: Introduce repeatable approaches that make the team’s work more consistent and efficient – frameworks for study design, synthesis templates, QA checkpoints, and delivery standards. What We’re Looking For Research Depth: Strong foundation in both quantitative and qualitative primary research with experience running complex, high‑visibility studies. Know when to bring in outside expertise to close gaps in your skill set. Organizational Fluency: Understand how research operates inside a complex organization, navigating ambiguous direction, competing stakeholder priorities, and audiences who did not commission the research. Execution at Scale: Comfortable managing more than one project at a time without dropping quality. Stay organized, anticipate blockers, and keep work moving. Process Orientation: Notice when something is being done the hard way and fix it in a way that scales. Document, standardize, and share. Stakeholder Credibility: Operate comfortably at a senior level, communicate in business terms, and build trust to get in the room before a study is scoped. Communication and Presence: Present recommendations—not just findings—to senior leadership, secure buy‑in on direction, and field hard questions with credibility. Strong written and verbal communication are essential. Influence Without Authority: Make the people around you more effective. Share what you know, raise the bar through example, and bring others along without a management title. Openness to AI: Curious about how AI can make research faster and sharper. Prior experience building AI‑assisted workflows is a plus, but the aptitude and desire to learn matters more. Nice to Have Background in enterprise software, B2B technology, or CRM Familiarity with Salesforce products or the broader ecosystem Equal Opportunity Employer Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications—without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education. Benefits In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and a employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: #J-18808-Ljbffr Salesforce