Sr Manager Customer Insights

Senior Manager Customer Insights

Our Company Promise:
We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.

The Senior Manager Customer Insights leads the development and sharing of actionable Customer learning to help the Company make better strategic decisions through the lens of Customer-centricity. This Leader uses critical thinking to navigate ambiguity and move from broad business questions to clear learning objectives, sound research design, and practical recommendations. This role leads a team in designing, managing, synthesizing, and applying qualitative, quantitative, syndicated, and behavioral research to answer key business questions.

As research tools evolve, this Leader is expected to thoughtfully use advanced analytics, LLMs, automation, and emerging research technologies to improve speed, scale, synthesis, and quality, while ensuring that human judgment, methodological rigor, and Customer understanding remain central. The Senior Manager is accountable for increasing the team's impact and productivity by reducing low-value manual work, improving reuse of existing Customer knowledge, and helping the organization make faster, more confident Customer-informed decisions.

• The culture of Southwest Airlines means we value the camaraderie, collaboration, and innovation that occurs when we come together and interact face-to-face at our vibrant Corporate Campus. Due to the nature of this role, you would be required to work from our Dallas, TX Headquarters facility during business hours.
• U.S. citizenship or current authorization to work in the U.S. required and no current or future work authorization sponsorship available.

We're committed to fair hiring practices and to making employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, military or veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other legally protected characteristics.

• Guide and lead Team Members using SWA talent management practices to coach, develop, and engage Employees
• Adhere to Company Values and competencies to foster a Culture of inclusion, recognition, and support of a safe work environment
• Invest in Leadership and self-growth through participating in continuous learning and development

• Lead the Customer Insights Team in developing actionable research and Customer learning that supports broader Company priorities
• Identify evolving Customer needs, industry trends, business priorities, and advancements in research methods and tools; advocate for improved approaches where they strengthen decision-making
• Partner with senior Leaders to clarify business questions, define learning objectives, and determine the right research approach. Build strong relationships with other department Leaders to refine learning priorities, manage demand, and focus the team on the highest-value business questions
• Direct qualitative, quantitative, syndicated, and ongoing tracking research, including ad hoc studies, concept testing, brand research, segmentation, Customer journey research, conjoint, discrete choice, and predictive or descriptive modeling
• Synthesize multiple sources of Customer understanding, including primary research, syndicated data, behavioral data, Customer feedback, operational signals, and market trends
• Use AI, automation, and modern research tools where appropriate to accelerate research design, analysis, reporting, knowledge management, and synthesis
• Build scalable insight practices, including research repositories, standard reporting, reusable frameworks, consistent methodologies, and clear quality controls
• Coach, develop, and upskill Team Members in research design, analytics, synthesis, storytelling, business consulting, and thoughtful use of emerging tools
• Manage the research budget from planning through execution, maximizing value through the right mix of vendor partnerships, internal capabilities, reusable assets, and modern tools
• May perform other job duties as directed by Employee's Leaders

• Strong knowledge of Customer research principles, Customer needs assessment, satisfaction measurement, and insight activation
• Skilled in developing qualitative and quantitative research solutions that are appropriate for the business question and decision at hand
• Skilled in advanced Customer research methods, including focus groups, ethnography, one-on-ones, online qualitative, concept testing, tracking studies, conjoint, discrete choice, segmentation, clustering, and predictive modeling
• Skilled in critical thinking, including the ability to…