Contract One Time Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Description:

Contract: One-year fixed term maternity cover

Schedule: 40 hours per week (Monday – Friday)

Ability to commute/relocate: Leeds, LS15 8GB – reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

As an Insight Director, you will take ownership of commercial performance, team wellbeing and development, and client happiness across complex R&D, innovation and full-service insight projects. Acting as a trusted senior advisor to clients, you will confidently discuss business strategy, budgets, research approaches and growth opportunities, while leading high-quality project delivery from proposal through to debrief. You will be accountable for achieving financial targets, managing a healthy pipeline, ensuring efficient team utilisation, and inspiring colleagues internally and externally through strong leadership, commercial thinking and sector expertise.

They are R&D and innovation experts, able to confidently discuss business strategy, budgets and negotiate with clients, and being an escalation point as necessary. They have ultimate accountability for their team’s motivation, efficiency, and utilisation, for achieving financial targets and managing a pipeline, and act as an inspirational leader both internally and outside of the Blue Yonder business.

Project management

• Accountable for all aspects of projects overseeing, working closely with wider project teams/execs to ensure projects follow the Blueprint and are delivered on time and to budget
• Manage project teams effectively and ensure projects are resourced to run efficiently with adequate junior and senior support.
• Responsible for ensuring project teams are engaged, motivated and well-organised
• Accountable for all accuracy and quality aspects across projects, from questionnaires, discussion guides and other research inputs to all research deliverables (data, reports, presentations, video edits)

Fieldwork

• Ensure fieldwork processes are adhered to and managed smoothly and all research materials (screeners, questionnaires etc.) have been through detailed testing and checks
• As required, oversee key aspects of fieldwork and hosting in person

Client management

• Own and lead complex client accounts as a trusted client advisor and expert in R&D and innovation: comfortable discussing business strategy, budgets, project and growth opportunities, advising on optimal methods, writing winning proposals, and negotiating
• Demonstrate commercial understanding of clients’ business – where and how they make money, how to drive ROI of research / maximise value from their research spend, and developing commercially-focused insight recommendations
• Proactively seek client and stakeholder feedback and implement strategies to strengthen relationships with key budget holders and wider client stakeholders (budget influencers, research users etc.)
• Fully demonstrate the client charter, providing excellent client service consistently, role modelling this behaviour to other members of the team
• Key escalation point on projects for conflict management (escalating to Team head as required)

Client/project deliverables

• Accountable for ensuring high quality outputs (data, reports etc.) to clients with clear, actionable and commercially-focused insights which deliver against project objectives and stakeholder needs
• Lead client debriefs independently
• Proactively seek new ways to continually improve client service and deliverables and add commercial value to clients

Commercials, proposals & financials

• Accountable for a financial target set at the start of each year.
• Develop and deliver overall team strategy with Team Head
• Responsible for delivering key team and project level financial targets
• Demonstrate commercial thinking for Blue Yonder and how to drive gross and net profit on accounts while growing existing clients
• Increasingly drive presence and thought leadership of Blue Yonder externally e.g. representing the business in wider industry events, conferences, on LinkedIn or at events organised by Blue Yonder
• Key business winner and account lead within the team, proactively and independently driving opportunities to support unmet client needs, cross-and up-sell, and writing winning proposals with accurate costings which hit financial (GP/NP) targets
• Accountable for ensuring projects are run to allocated budgets, and all financial reporting is accurate e.g. monitoring and reviewing expenditure on projects, PO/spend processes internally, and flagging to the relevant people (e.g. Team Leader/Finance) if there are any problems ahead of time with solutions
• Actively manage own pipeline, ensuring forecasting is completed accurately and is regularly updated
• Proactively suggest and implement ways to innovate, reduce costs and work as efficiently as possible while ensuring high quality service and deliverables for clients

Working as one team

• Be an inspiring leader: accountable for all aspects of own team/unit including client satisfaction, team motivation and retention, feedback, career planning team culture (including living our values), and cross-team working
• Demonstrate excellent delegation, negotiation and conflict management skills
• Able to handle grey areas, develop and deliver new solutions, and consistently demonstrate a solution-focused approach

This job description is not intended to be all inclusive, flexibility is assumed based on business needs

Requirements

• 10+ years’ relevant industry experience, ideally within a full-service agency, consumer insight, product testing, R&D or innovation research environment (required)
• A degree in a relevant field (e.g. market research, social sciences, marketing, business) can be helpful, but is not essential, we’re open to candidates with diverse backgrounds and relevant skills
• Must have the right to work in the UK and will need to bring proof to the interview e.g. a passport or work permit.
• Ability to commute/relocate to Leeds, LS15 8GB – reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

About you

You are an experienced insight leader with deep expertise in R&D, innovation, product and consumer research. You combine strategic client counsel with strong commercial judgement, confident project leadership and the ability to inspire, develop and motivate teams. You are comfortable operating in grey areas, shaping solutions, managing senior stakeholders and translating research into clear, actionable recommendations that drive commercial value for clients.

You will bring 10+ years’ relevant industry experience, ideally gained within a full-service market research, consumer insight, product testing or innovation agency environment. You will have a strong track record of leading complex quantitative projects, winning and growing client accounts, managing commercial targets, and developing high-performing teams.

What we offer

We offer a competitive salary, a bonus holiday for your birthday, regular socials, a bonus day for charity work, DE&I and wellbeing initiatives and lots of structured training throughout the year. We have a flexible working environment and if there’s something that’s important to you – be it a day you need to pick the kids up, or a specific charity you want to support – let’s talk!

Authenticity is one of our core values, and at Blue Yonder we’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic team with equal opportunities. We want to attract, develop, and promote the very best people from all walks of life, so we actively encourage applications from a range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, as well as others who are underrepresented in our sector, such as disabled or neurodiverse applicants.

Should you be successful in the recruitment process, and if you require any reasonable adjustments to be made to accommodate your interview, let us know in confidence.

For Blue Yonder’s Insight Director, we offer a competitive starting salary range of of £58,000 to £65,000 based on the qualifications and experience of each individual. Blue Yonder offers a benefits package for this position which includes:

• Flexible working location and hybrid working
• Support with work from home needs you may have
• 26 days holiday (plus bank holidays) + one per year up to 27 days
• Company pension scheme
• Extra day off on your birthday
• Volunteering day every year
• Fully renovated flexible / hybrid office in 2024
• Bi-annual promotion and salary review windows
• 2 major company parties a year + monthly socials organised by our own social and charity team

A bit about Blue Yonder, a Curion company

We specialise in delivering impactful insights to the world’s top CPG companies, helping them develop winning, repeatedly purchased products. Our deep data-driven product insights, sensory expertise, and state-of-the-art consumer centres enable them to uncover responses to critical client objectives. With over five decades of experience in the product testing industry, we are dedicated to guiding clients in every stage of their product development, connecting brands to consumers at every step.

An innovator in the industry, we recently developed a groundbreaking benchmarking product testing method, the Curion Score™, which has become a trusted and sought after tool within the industry. As one of the largest product and consumer insights companies in the U.S. and U.K., we have built a reputation for excellence and trust among the world’s leading consumer brands. Our commitment to innovation and expertise, coupled with a passion for delivering actionable insights, makes us a valuable partner for companies looking to develop and launch successful products.

Requirements: