Senior Director, Consumer Insights

Role Overview

• Develop and lead Macmillan’s consumer insights strategy, setting clear direction for how research, data, and trends are leveraged to drive growth, increase ROI, and strengthen competitive advantage.
• Synthesize performance data, market dynamics, and competitive context into clear insights that clarify audience behavior, channel effectiveness, and opportunity areas, and translate those findings into specific, actionable recommendations.
• Shape how insights are applied to planning and decision-making, sharpening campaign strategy, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and content development, guiding smarter prioritization of budgets and resources.
• Work in close partnership across CIMA, collaborating with leaders in Performance Marketing & Audience Development, Direct-to-Consumer Marketing & Ecommerce Strategy, and Social Media & Community Growth to surface opportunities and maximize the impact of revenue generation initiatives, including increasing backlist sales and scaling new D2C sales channels.
• Oversee the creation and evolution of dashboards and reporting tools related to consumer insights and marketing, working closely with the Data Strategy and Platform Development teams to define analytics requirements, ensure reliable access to data, evaluate third-party solutions, and deliver clear, accessible reporting that surfaces priorities and guides action.
• Guide trend tracking and forward-looking analysis, helping teams understand how shifts in media, retail, platforms, and consumer behavior may impact discovery, genre performance, and marketing effectiveness.
• Monitor competitor strategies and market activity, translating signals into clear implications and recommendations that inform positioning, prioritization, and go-to-market decisions.
• Identify and apply AI and predictive techniques to enhance forecasting, surface early signals, connect qualitative and quantitative patterns, and scale the generation and distribution of insights across the organization.
• Establish clear intake and prioritization processes for insights requests, ensuring work is scoped and sequenced to drive the greatest business impact, inform shared priorities, and generate learnings that can be applied broadly across teams.
• Lead and establish a clear approach to insight communication and knowledge-sharing, presenting findings, trends, and recommendations in compelling, accessible formats that clearly highlight potential revenue impact and are tailored to different stakeholders.
• Mentor the Manager, Consumer Insights & Data Analytics, setting strategic direction and priorities for data science-led analytics, experimentation, and reporting that power actionable insights and tools across the company.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in consumer insights or a related strategic insights role within media, publishing, or a consumer-facing industry.
• 5+ years of people management experience, including leading teams with both technical data science skills and insight-driven, strategic capabilities.
• Demonstrated experience launching or evolving an insights program, with the ability to define priorities and drive growth.
• Strong data science fluency, with experience translating complex analytical work into clear, actionable guidance.
• Hands-on experience using analytics and business intelligence tools such as Power BI and Google Analytics, as well as SQL-based analysis environments and analytics databases such as Snowflake, to support analysis, reporting, and insight development.
• Familiarity with both quantitative and qualitative research methods, and the ability to synthesize findings across multiple sources.
• Comfort working with revenue, performance, and ROI metrics to assess and communicate business impact.
• Experience applying AI-enabled and predictive techniques to forecasting, early signal detection, pattern recognition, and scaling insight generation.
• Experience driving adoption of new tools, frameworks, or ways of working in a cross-functional environment.
• Strong understanding of the trade publishing industry, including how publishing strategy and sales channels shape book discovery, marketing effectiveness, and long-term performance across frontlist and backlist.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to make complex data accessible and clearly articulate insights, implications, and potential revenue impact to a wide range of stakeholders.
• A collaborative leadership style, with experience partnering across teams and functions, building trust, and influencing decisions.

Tech Stack

• SQL