Principal Associate, Brand- Market Research and Social Insights

Principal Associate, Brand‑Market Research and Social Insights

Capital One Auto is seeking a strategic researcher with experience in social listening and curating industry insights to inform business outcomes. This role will be a part of the Capital One Auto – Brand Awareness team, with a focus on B2C & B2B market research. You will be the voice of the customer, translating real‑time expectations and digital conversations into actionable insights that shape our future products, services, communications and marketing programs.

The ideal candidate is a strategic, analytical, resourceful, team player that is passionate about the power of evidence‑based insights.

• Translate complex, real‑time social conversations and customer feedback into compelling, actionable insights that fuel business strategies, product improvements and communications programs.
• Serve as a subject‑matter expert in social and digital analysis, partnering with internal stakeholders to define and deliver critical reporting and analysis needs.
• Act as the first line of defense for brand reputation: proactively monitor anomalies, identify reputation risks, and ensure clear, timely escalation.
• Lead the insights discovery process: cull themes and trends from data, distilling key performance indicators, and appropriately organize information to compel outcomes.
• Keep up with competitive automotive marketplace and trends, partnering with internal teams.
• Manage vendor relationships to enable social listening, and curate custom dashboards, as needed.
• Act as a steward for well‑managed processes, identifying opportunity gaps where uncovered.

• An entrepreneurial spirit, initiative, leadership, creativity, balance of proactive and reactive, and drive for results.
• A love for following trends and helping brands connect with their audience in social‑first ways.
• Knowledge of social media best practices and guidelines including targeting, channel strategies, KPI development, high‑level understanding of paid social media, analytics and insight tools.
• Big picture thinking, connecting the dots between multiple experiences to create one seamless customer‑focused brand.
• Skilled relationship‑builder with strong aptitude for client relationship management.
• Able to manage the details of multiple projects, deadlines, and changing priorities simultaneously while maintaining excellent and accurate work.
• A passion for leveraging data, metrics, and themes to drive results.
• A curious mindset, ready to dig in on consumer and automotive dealer attitudes, behaviors, trends and draw insights.
• Highly effective communication skills with outstanding writing, editing, and presentation abilities for executive‑level audience.
• Strong working knowledge of Google Suite Sheets, Docs and Slides.

• Bachelor’s Degree or military experience.
• At least 3 years of market research, public relations, digital marketing, social media marketing or social media listening experience, or a combination.
• At least 3 years of experience writing communications and presentations for leadership and non‑leadership audiences.

• At least 6 years of digital marketing, public relations, social media management or marketing experience.
• At least 4 years of enterprise‑level social listening tools such as Sprinklr, Brandwatch, Sprout, Synthesio, Meltwater, Netbase Quid, or Pendulum Intelligence.
• At least 2 years of experience in financial services, or other highly regulated industry.
• At least 2 years of experience in the automotive industry.

At this time, Capital One will not sponsor a new applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The minimum and maximum full‑time annual salaries for this role are listed below by location. Plano, TX: $109,900 – $125,400 for Principal Associate, Brand. Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location.

This role is also eligible to earn performance‑based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long‑term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non‑discretionary depending on the plan.

Capital One…