Job Overview:Director Consumer Insights - Coffee [North America]This role is specific to the current Coffee Operating Unit of KDP. Following the recent, successful acquisition of JDE Peet's in April 2026, the Coffee Operating Unit will become its own independent publicly traded company. For more information on this, please visit keurigdrpepper.com
This individual will report into the Senior Director, Insights. This role is based at the Burlington, MA office location working in a Hybrid capacity( 3 days from the office and 2 days remote)
We are seeking
Director of Consumer Insights to lead the consumer insights agenda for the coffee portfolio across US and Canada. This leader will bring the voice of the consumer to marketing and brand decision-making. The ideal candidate will uncover meaningful consumer needs, motivations, behaviors, attitudes, and cultural trends and translate those insights into compelling strategies that strengthen the brand, shape communications, inspire innovation and deepen consumer connection.
The ideal candidate is consumer and marketing-oriented, with a deep passion for understanding why people think, feel, and behave the way they do. They combine strong research expertise with strategic judgment and have the ability to turn complex information into simple, compelling stories that inspire teams and influence business decisions.
Key Responsibilities Consumer Understanding and Insights Strategy - Develop and lead the coffee insights strategy and annual learning agenda for both US and Canada markets
- Build a deep, evolving understanding of the consumer, including their needs, motivations, behaviors, attitudes, lifestyles, and consumption occasions.
- Identify consumer tensions, unmet needs, and opportunities to strengthen emotional and functional connections with the brands
- Bring together qualitative and quantitative research, behavioral data, social listening, cultural trends, and other sources to create a holistic understanding of the consumer
- Identify and champion the application of AI, emerging technologies, and innovative research approaches.
- Identify opportunities to use agentic AI, synthetic data to augment traditional research processes and unlock forward looking intelligence framework
- Apply strong statistical and analytical thinking to evaluate research design, sampling to ensure insights are grounded in sound research methodology
- Establish a strong culture of curiosity and consumer empathy across the organization
Brand & Marketing Insights - Serve as a strategic thought partner to the coffee marketing team and the broader marketing leadership team.
- Translate consumer attitudes and behaviors into clear, compelling brand and marketing recommendations and support the annual brand planning process
- Lead consumer learning agenda around brand equity tracking. Establish frameworks and KPIs to measure brand health and marketing effectiveness
- Partner with creative, media and communications teams to uncover powerful consumer and cultural insights that can inspire breakthrough work.
- Lead research supporting campaign development, creative evaluation, campaign effectiveness, and support the overall brand and communications strategy
- Partner with Marketing analytics to define target audiences based on consumer insights, segmentation and occasion research
Innovation & Product Development - Serve as a strategic insights partner to Innovation, R&D and sensory teams
- Identify unmet consumer needs, whitespace opportunities, emerging trends and new consumption occasions
- Lead qualitative, quantitative research from opportunity identification through concept development, product testing and commercialization
- Define consumer success criteria based on innovation performance and work closely with innovation team to establish consumer benchmarks across the innovation stage gate process
Culture & Consumer Trends - Stay deeply connected to evolving consumer lifestyles, behaviors, values, and cultural conversations.
- Identify emerging macro-consumer trends and shifts that may influence how consumers' think about coffee, brands and their everyday rituals.
Leadership & Influence - Act as the organization's voice of the consumer bringing a clear and compelling consumer perspective to strategic decisions
- Build trusted partnerships across Brand Marketing, Communications, Marketing Analytics, Innovation, Product Development, and Commercial teams
- Present insights in a clear, inspiring, and highly actionable way to senior leaders and cross-functional teams
- Build and manage strategic relationships with external research partners, agencies, ensuring they bring strong strategic thinking, high-quality execution, innovative research methodologies
- Lead and mentor the insights team and build strong relationships with research partners and agencies
- Establish high standards for research quality, strategic thinking, and insight storytelling.
Total Rewards:- Salary Range: $155,500- $195,000
- Actual placement within the compensation range may vary depending on experience, skills, and other factors
- Benefits, subject to election and eligibility: Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability, Paid Time Off (including paid parental leave, vacation, and sick time), 401k with company match, Tuition Reimbursement, and Mileage Reimbursement
- Annual bonus based on performance and eligibility
Requirements:- Bachelor's degree required in marketing, business, psychology, sociology, statistics, anthropology. Masters Degree preferred
- 8-15 years of experience in consumer insights, market research, brand strategy, shopper insights, or a related discipline.
- Experience in CPG, food & beverage, coffee, retail preferred.
- Demonstrated expertise across qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, with strong analytical and statistical skills
- Demonstrated experience applying advanced analytical approaches such as driver analysis, predictive analytics, correlation and statistical techniques
- Ability to interpret complex datasets, assess research rigor, and translate analysis into actionable business insights
- Strong understanding of brand strategy, consumer behavior, segmentation, innovation, and marketing effectiveness.
- Proven ability to translate research and data into strategic recommendations that influence business and marketing decisions.
- Strong executive presence, communication, and storytelling skills.
- Demonstrated experience in managing research budgets
- Experience in leading external agencies, research partners, and vendors, including partner selection, briefing, performance management, and delivery
- Comfortable synthesizing multiple sources of information and translating complexity into clear, actionable insights.
- Highly proficient in Excel, Word and Power Point
- Presentation skills a must - building and delivering
