Director - 3rd Party Research Programs

JOB SUMMARY

The Director, Market Research Platforms manages market research and tracking programs and vendors used to generate key Customer and Competitive Insights. This position is responsible for managing Consumer Insight programs associated with evaluating and tracking the effectiveness of Marriott's brands and businesses, monitoring competitor moves, and other programmatic efforts to gather and disseminate insight related to broader business needs. This position works closely with peers on Research teams to develop and improve ways to provide insights in a timely manner, with attention to the speed of project turnaround and need to tailor and manage expectations for work with global implications.

In addition, the Director must be able to connect the needs of business users/internal clients to core Consumer Insight programs and help support the efforts of the D&AI team.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

* 8+ years of professional experience, demonstrating progressive career growth and a pattern of exceptional performance in consumer research and/or project/program management positions.

* Bachelor's degree required, preferably in a discipline with a rigorous emphasis on consumer research methods and statistics (e.g. psychometrics, consumer marketing research, operations research, economics, statistics, social psychology, consumer psychology).

* Master's degree in a research-related discipline preferred.

* Demonstrated expertise in customer research methods (e.g. survey design, statistics, sampling theory, in cross-cultural settings - highly desirable).

* Extensive experience leading complex, high profile, multi-brand research initiatives and programs

* Outstanding vendor negotiation and project management skills

* Highly effective oral/written communication abilities; and excellent presentation skills

* Innovative thinker with broad business view; can balance strategic and financial perspectives

Key Skills and Experience

* Demonstrated expertise in customer research methods (e.g. survey design, statistics, sampling theory, in cross-cultural settings - highly desirable).

* Extensive experience leading complex, high profile, multi-brand research initiatives and programs

* Outstanding vendor negotiation and project management skills

* Highly effective oral/written communication abilities; and excellent presentation skills

* Innovative thinker with broad business view; can balance strategic and financial perspectives.

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES

* Responsible for development and sustainment of key Consumer Insight platforms and analysis, including foundational research programs the competitive intelligence platform, and other key programmatic efforts that support understanding and monitoring of Consumer sentiment and industry trends.

* Collaborating with the Senior Director, Brand & Lodging Products, oversees the management of vendor support in the areas of brand and program tracking, survey and other insight-gathering platforms (e.g. trend scanning, 3rd party research data), and consultants used for broader enterprise, cross-cultural, or portfolio-level insight gathering.

* Development of actionable insights from research data and analysis into concrete storylines catered to stakeholder key questions and major initiatives.

* Works with key stakeholders within the GLP & D&AI teams, and business users, to understand and define the needs for Marriott's Consumer Insight platforms, and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of service offerings against those needs.

* Leads development and sustainment of Marriott's self-service insights portals and dashboards

* Collaborates across D&AI team to understand needs, develop approaches, and identify vendors (as necessary) to address key insight needs across business users; continuously evaluate the effectiveness of service offerings against those needs.

* Supports the broader D&AI team in their need to provide insights, understanding, and actionable recommendation to key stakeholder groups.

Managing Projects and Priorities

* Functions as a strategic senior technical expert within the department.

* Develops specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish work.

* Champions leaders' vision for product and service delivery.

* Makes and executes the necessary decisions to keep moving forward toward achievement of goals.

* Provides direction and assistance to other teams regarding projects.

* Determines priorities, schedules, plans and necessary resources to promote completion of any projects on schedule.

* Analyzes information and evaluates results to choose the best solution and solve problems.

* Reviews vendor proposals and selects appropriate vendor for services/technologies/hardware.

* Thinks creatively and practically to develop, execute, and implement new project plans.

* Generates and provides accurate and timely results in the form of reports, presentations, etc.

* Plans, develops, implements, and evaluates the quality of operations.

Delivering on the Needs of Key Stakeholders

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