Summary:
The Director, Customer & Message Optimization is the platform owner and capability leader for message development, concept testing, and customer segmentation research within BMS's Global Market Research Center of Excellence (CoE). This role is responsible for building, governing, and continuously improving the shared platforms and capability frameworks that Therapeutic Areas (TA) and Business Units (BU) Market Research (MR) teams use to develop, test, and optimize brand messaging, value propositions, and customer engagement strategies across BMS's portfolio.
This leader ensures that the platforms, tools, and capability infrastructure available to TA/BU MR teams are robust, consistent, and evolving in step with the AI-enabled future of rapid concept and message testing. The most consequential near-term responsibility of this role is building and governing AI-enabled self-serve message testing and concept optimization capabilities that allow teams to move faster, test more, and make better-informed messaging decisions without sacrificing rigor or comparability.
The Director, Customer & Message Optimization reports directly to the Executive Director, Global Market Research, and operates as an advisor to TA and BU MR leads, providing platform expertise and capability support that amplifies the methodology expertise those teams already hold.
Responsibilities:
Own the Enterprise Message and Concept Testing Capability Platform
- Build and govern the shared platform infrastructure that TA and BU MR teams use to design, field, and analyze message testing, concept evaluation, value proposition development, and customer segmentation research
- Define and maintain the platform's structural elements, output formats, and analytical frameworks that are built into message and concept testing tools to ensure cross-TA comparability without constraining TA-level design flexibility
- Own the platform governance model (the rules, documentation standards, and escalation processes that govern how TA teams configure, adapt, and report from CoE message and concept testing platforms)
- Partner with the Director, CoE Strategy & AI Innovation on message and concept testing platform vendor requirements and preferred supplier selection, ensuring vendors are governed in a manner consistent with the CoE's broader capability architecture and AI roadmap
Lead the AI-Enabled Message Testing Capability Build
- Own the platform development roadmap for AI-enabled and self-serve message testing and concept optimization tools, sequenced against TA/BU capability needs and CoE platform priorities
- Define the platform validation framework for AI-enabled message and concept testing, establishing how AI-generated outputs are tested for reliability and decision-readiness before teams adopt new platforms for live programs
- Work in close partnership with the Director, CoE Strategy & AI Innovation to ensure the AI message testing platform roadmap is grounded in the practical realities of how teams currently design and use message and concept research
- Support TA/BU MR teams through the adoption of new message testing platforms, providing capability onboarding, user support, and change management as teams transition from traditional vendor-led approaches to AI-enabled and self-serve models
- Monitor AI message testing platform output quality on an ongoing basis, flagging platform-level anomalies or reliability concerns to the CoE and relevant TA stakeholders
TA Advisory and Capability Adoption
- Serve as the CoE's primary advisory resource for TA and BU teams on all message testing and concept optimization platform questions, providing expert guidance on platform configuration, output interpretation, and capability use as requested on a pull basis
- Partner with TA/BU MR leads to gather message and concept testing platform requirements, test new capabilities, and identify cross-TA/BU opportunities for shared instrument development or coordinated research approaches
- Track platform adoption across TA/BU teams, identify barriers to adoption, and work with TA/BU leads to address them, ensuring CoE message and concept testing platforms are used because they add genuine value, not because they are mandated
- Represent BMS's message and concept testing platform requirements in vendor relationships, ensuring preferred suppliers build and deliver against the platform standards the CoE has established
Qualifications:
- Minimum 8 years of experience in Market Research, commercial insights, or a related analytics function within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare industry
- Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree strongly preferred
- Strong working knowledge of message testing, concept evaluation, value proposition research, and customer segmentation approaches, sufficient to credibly engage with expert MR practitioners and translate their needs into platform requirements
- Demonstrated experience owning or governing a shared research platform, analytics tool, or capability infrastructure used by multiple teams or stakeholders simultaneously
- Clear understanding of AI-enabled research platforms and the practical implications of transitioning from traditional vendor-led message and concept testing to AI-assisted or self-serve approaches, including platform validation, output comparability, and change management
- Proven ability to drive platform adoption in a matrixed organization where stakeholder teams have high autonomy and established ways of working
- Experience working with and managing external research vendors, including platform quality oversight, scope management, and performance evaluation
- Strong change management and stakeholder influence skills
- Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to explain platform capability investments and transition decisions in business-impact terms for senior commercial leadership
- Familiarity with global regulatory requirements for Market Research data usage and privacy compliance as applied to message and concept testing platforms
Key Competencies:
Message and Concept Testing Platform Ownership and Governance
- Able to build and govern a shared message and concept testing capability platform that serves diverse contexts without imposing a single methodology
- Designs platform guardrails that ensure cross-TA/BU comparability while preserving TA/BU-level design flexibility
AI Platform Build and Transition Leadership
- Clear understanding of AI-enabled message and concept testing tools and the platform implications of moving teams from traditional vendor-led research to self-serve and AI-assisted approaches
- Designs and governs rigorous platform validation frameworks that give teams confidence in new research capabilities
Capability Adoption and TA/BU Partnership
- Builds platform adoption through demonstrated value delivery
- Engages TA/BU teams as partners in platform design and iteration, not as end users of a top-down solution
Executive Communication
- Able to communicate message testing platform decisions and capability investments in terms that resonate with senior commercial leadership
- Translates technical platform decisions into business-impact language
#CASA
Compensation Overview:
Princeton - NJ - US: $197,800 - $239,681
The starting compensation range(s) for this role are listed above for a full-time employee (FTE) basis. Additional incentive cash and stock opportunities (based on eligibility) may be available. The starting pay rate takes into account characteristics of the job, such as required skills, where the job is performed, the employee’s work schedule, job-related knowledge, and experience. Final, individual compensation will be decided based on demonstrated experience.
Eligibility for specific benefits listed on our careers site may vary based on the job and location. For more on benefits, please visit
Benefit offerings are subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans in effect at the time and may require enrollment. Our benefits include:
Health Coverage: Medical, pharmacy, dental, and vision care.
Wellbeing Support: Programs such as BMS Well-Being Account, BMS Living Life Better, and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP).
Financial Well-being and Protection: 401(k) plan, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, accident insurance, supplemental health insurance, business travel protection, personal liability protection, identity theft benefit, legal support, and survivor support.
Work-life benefits include:
Paid Time Off
US Exempt Employees: flexible time off (unlimited, with manager approval, 11 paid national holidays (not applicable to employees in Phoenix, AZ, Puerto Rico or Rayzebio employees)
Phoenix, AZ, Puerto Rico and Rayzebio Exempt, Non-Exempt, Hourly Employees: 160 hours annual paid vacation for new hires with manager approval, 11 national holidays, and 3 optional holidays
Based on eligibility*, additional time off for employees may include unlimited paid sick time, up to 2 paid volunteer days per year, summer hours flexibility, leaves of absence for medical, personal, parental, caregiver, bereavement, and military needs and an annual Global Shutdown between Christmas and New Years Day.
All global employees full and part-time who are actively employed at and paid directly by BMS at the end of the calendar year are eligible to take advantage of the Global Shutdown.
*Eligibility Disclosure: The summer hours program is for United States (U.S.) office-based employees due to the unique nature of their work. Summer hours are generally not available for field sales and manufacturing operations and may also be limited for the capability centers. Employees in remote-by-design or lab-based roles may be eligible for summer hours, depending on the nature of their work, and should discuss eligibility with their manager. Employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement should consult that document to determine if they are eligible. Contractors, leased workers and other service providers are not eligible to participate in the program.
On-site Protocol
BMS has an occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:
