Head of Customer Insights
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Function: Consumer & Customer Insights
Reporting To: Senior Leadership
ROLE OVERVIEW
We are looking for a strategic and commercially oriented Head of Customer Insights to lead the customer and consumer insights agenda for a fast-growing consumer-focused organization in Saudi Arabia.
The organization operates in the smoke-free and reduced-risk consumer products space, with a focus on developing innovative alternatives and products designed to support a transition away from traditional smoking.
The role will be responsible for transforming consumer, customer, market, and behavioral data into actionable insights that support business strategy, brand development, customer experience, portfolio decisions, and sustainable growth.
The ideal candidate will bring strong experience in consumer insights, customer analytics, market intelligence, or category strategy, preferably gained within FMCG, consumer health, nicotine, lifestyle, or other consumer-driven industries.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Consumer & Customer Insights
- Lead the development and execution of the overall customer and consumer insights strategy.
- Develop a deep understanding of consumer behavior, needs, preferences, motivations, and purchasing patterns.
- Identify emerging consumer trends and translate them into actionable business opportunities.
- Develop customer and consumer segmentation frameworks to support targeted strategies.
- Generate insights across different consumer segments, channels, markets, and touchpoints.
Market & Category Intelligence
- Monitor market dynamics, category developments, competitive activity, and emerging trends within the broader consumer and smoke-free product landscape.
- Conduct market sizing, category analysis, competitor benchmarking, and opportunity assessments.
- Identify white-space opportunities and potential areas for business and portfolio expansion.
- Develop a strong understanding of changing consumer expectations and category dynamics.
Research & Analytics
- Lead qualitative and quantitative consumer research initiatives, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, ethnographic research, and other methodologies.
- Define research objectives, methodologies, and analytical frameworks in partnership with internal stakeholders and external research agencies.
- Analyze customer, consumer, sales, market, and behavioral data to identify meaningful trends and insights.
- Establish robust insight-generation frameworks and dashboards to support business decision-making.
Commercial & Strategic Support
- Partner closely with Marketing, Sales, Product, Commercial, Strategy, and Leadership teams.
- Translate complex research and data into clear, commercially relevant recommendations.
- Support brand positioning, product development, portfolio strategy, pricing, communication, and go-to-market decisions.
- Provide insights to support customer experience and engagement strategies.
- Develop regular market and consumer intelligence reports for senior leadership.
Leadership & Capability Building
- Build and lead the Customer Insights function and establish best-practice processes.
- Manage external research agencies, consultants, and data partners.
- Develop an insights-driven culture across the organization.
- Establish frameworks, tools, and processes to ensure consumer insights are consistently incorporated into business decisions.
EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS
- 12+ years of overall professional experience, with significant experience in Consumer Insights, Customer Insights, Market Research, Consumer Analytics, Category Intelligence, or a closely related function.
- Proven experience in a senior leadership role within Consumer/FMCG, Consumer Health, Nicotine, Lifestyle, Retail, or another highly consumer-driven industry.
- Strong track record of leading consumer and customer insight functions, ideally across multiple markets or geographies.
- Experience developing and executing consumer insight strategies, segmentation, market research, and customer analytics.
- Strong experience across both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including designing research frameworks and interpreting complex datasets.
- Demonstrated ability to translate consumer, market, and behavioral data into commercial and strategic recommendations.
- Experience working closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams including Marketing, Sales, Product, Strategy, and Commercial functions.
- Experience managing external research agencies, consultants, data providers, and research partners.
- Experience in emerging consumer categories, smoke-free products, reduced-risk products, nicotine, or adjacent categories would be an advantage.
- Strong understanding of consumer behavior, market dynamics, category development, competitive intelligence, and trend analysis.
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Economics, Statistics, Psychology, Market Research, or a related discipline.
- A Master’s degree or MBA in Marketing, Business, Consumer Insights, Analytics, or a related field is preferred.
- Strong English communication, presentation, analytical, and stakeholder management skills.
CORE SKILLS & COMPETENCIES
- Consumer & Customer Insights
- Market Research & Intelligence
- Consumer Segmentation
- Market & Category Analysis
- Consumer Behaviour Analysis
- Quantitative & Qualitative Research
- Data Interpretation & Analytics
- Competitive Intelligence
- Strategic Thinking
- Commercial Acumen
- Stakeholder Management
- Executive Communication
- Research Agency Management
- Team Leadership
