Research & Thought Leadership Lead, Customer Insights

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM where humans with agents drive customer success together. Because ambition meets action, tech meets trust, and innovation isn’t just a buzzword but a way of life, the world of work is changing. We are looking for trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce’s core values at the heart of everything we do.

What You’ll Do

• Lead Buyer Insights Research: Design and execute research that builds a deep understanding of Salesforce’s buyers (e.g., CIO, CDO studies), their motivations, pain points, and decision‑making dynamics to inform internal decision‑making and strategic marketing for key products like Agentforce. Translate findings into recommendations that inform go‑to‑market strategy, product marketing, and competitive positioning.
• Drive Thought Leadership Research Studies: Lead major public‑facing research projects, including annual "State of" reports. Manage the full lifecycle from study design through external publication, working closely with PR and Marketing to ensure findings are accurate, compelling, and ready for the world.
• Design and Execute Mixed‑Method Studies: Translate business questions into research plans that draw on the right mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Work with external suppliers for most studies, and get hands‑on for speed demands, whether programming a survey or pulling a crosstab yourself.
• Synthesize Across Studies: Connect dots across buyer insights, thought leadership findings, and other team research to surface integrated conclusions. The most valuable insights often live at the intersection of multiple studies.
• Drive Stakeholder Alignment and Research Strategy: Scope studies with a clear point of view on what they will answer and why it’s worth the investment. Communicate the value to stakeholders, linking research to decisions they already care about and outcomes they are already on the hook for. Proactively engage stakeholders to ensure research is scoped, prioritized, and positioned to drive real decisions.
• Bring in the Bigger Picture: Complement primary findings with broader context, including competitive dynamics, industry trends, and what buyers are saying across media and social. Use AI to stay on top of the space and surface signals that enrich your research.
• Data Visualization & Storytelling: Translate quantitative findings into clear, compelling visuals that communicate the "so what" to any audience. Strong data storytelling—choosing the right chart, framing the right narrative, and building slides that drive decisions—is critical in this role as much as strong writing.
• Leverage AI to Scale Your Impact: Use AI tools across the research lifecycle, from study design and analysis to synthesis and storytelling. Bring a curious, experimental mindset to finding where AI accelerates your work, and share what you learn with the broader team.
• Manage Suppliers and Research Partners: Own day‑to‑day relationships with external research agencies and vendors, holding them to high standards of quality and keeping projects on track.

What We’re Looking For

• Genuine Curiosity — About buyers, business, technology, and the world. The best researchers bring outside context in, not just the data they collected.
• Research Experience — A strong foundation in primary research, quantitative work crucial, qualitative a plus. You know how to design a credible study, interpret results honestly, and recognize data limits.
• AI Fluency — You’ve built workflows around AI tools and have a clear opinion on what works. You would never let AI distort a finding in the name of a cleaner story.
• Comfort with Ambiguity — You know how to move forward when things are unclear and when to elevate rather than persevere alone.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll have limitless opportunities across all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you in finding balance and doing your best. 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 an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal‑opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. We hire based on 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 any other classification protected by law. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions are fair and based on merit. 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 range of benefits to help you live well.