Head of Consumer Insights

Career Guide

Leads the strategy and execution of consumer and market research to inform product, brand, and customer experience decisions. Oversees primary and secondary research, turns insights into recommendations, and partners with executives to guide growth.

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Key Responsibilities

Define insights strategy and research roadmap aligned to business goals
Lead primary research (surveys, focus groups, ethnography) and secondary analysis
Translate findings into clear recommendations for product, marketing, and CX
Own research budget, vendor selection, and contract management
Develop customer segmentation, personas, and brand tracking programs
Build, mentor, and scale the insights team and operations
Present executive-level readouts and influence go-to-market decisions

Career Progression

Can Lead To

VP of Consumer Insights

Head of Insights & Analytics

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Transition Opportunities

Director of Product Marketing

Director of Brand Strategy

Director of Customer Experience (CX)

Director of Growth/Marketing Analytics

Common Skill Gaps

Often Missing Skills

Advanced quantitative research (conjoint/choice modeling)Robust survey programming and data quality controlsExperimental design and causal inferenceEnd-to-end vendor management and research operationsSQL for integrating first-party/customer data

Development SuggestionsComplete an advanced survey methods and choice modeling course; lead a full-cycle pilot study using Qualtrics (or similar), analyze in R/SPSS, and present an executive readout.

Market Intelligence Report

Head of Consumer Insights is part of the Market Research category.Explore our market intelligence report to see how AI and hiring demand are shifting for these roles.

See the market intelligence report

Salary & Demand

Median Salary Range

Entry Level$140,000–$170,000

Mid Level$170,000–$210,000

Senior Level$210,000–$260,000

Growth Trend

growing - Brands expanding data-driven decisions and first-party insights capabilities

Companies Hiring

Major Employers

AmazonProcter & GamblePepsiCo

Industry Sectors

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)Retail & E-commerceTechnology

Recommended Next Steps

Earn the Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) and publish 2–3 case-study portfolios showcasing end-to-end studies.

Upskill in conjoint/segmentation and SQL via courses (e.g., Coursera/edX) and build a dashboard in Tableau/Power BI.

Join the Insights Association or attend Quirk’s events to network with vendors and hiring leaders; seek a cross-functional project to lead a key study.