Senior Manager, Consumer & Shopper Insights

Join Utz Brands as a Senior Manager, Consumer & Shopper Insights!

At Utz, we're not just making snacks-we're creating moments of joy. With over a century of heritage and a bold vision for the future, we're on a mission to become the fastest-growing pure-play U.S. snacking company of scale. Our iconic brands-Utz, Zapp's, Boulder Canyon, and On the Border-are loved by millions, and we're just getting started.

We're looking for a Senior Manager, Consumer & Shopper Insights to help us stay ahead of the curve by putting the consumer and shopper at the heart of everything we do.

The Senior Manager, Consumer & Shopper Insights plays an essential role in ensuring the consumer & shopper is central to Utz Brands Inc. strategic planning and decision making. This person is responsible for assessing business learning needs, developing effective & efficient learning plans, and generating consumer & shopper insights & implications. The Senior Manager will leverage a toolbox of syndicated resources & data, custom quantitative and qualitative research techniques. The Senior Manager will work closely with Marketing, Sales, R&D and other cross-functional partners as a strategic partner to drive growth.

*This role is a hybrid position based in Chicago, IL.

What you'll do:

• Provide Business Thought Leadership: Partner with business teams in framing business issues, opportunities & strategies. Champion the voice of the consumer/shopper in cross-functional forums.
• Provide Insights Functional Expertise: Develop clear connection between business issues/opportunities, hypotheses, and research objectives & methodologies. Develop and lead holistic, comprehensive research plans. Develop clear, actionable recommendations that guide business strategy and drive growth across brand & category building strategies, innovation and activation. Assess consumer growth opportunities & risk tradeoffs across business levers.
• Advance Insights Functional Excellence and Culture: work with manager to develop and proliferate best-in-class practices. Participate in team capability planning to evolve functional excellence and team culture. Canvas external marketplace to identify key trends & capabilities.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree, post-bachelor degree preferred
• 7-10 yrs of experience in consumer & shopper insights. Client-side experience with insights application experience across innovation, communications, shopper/activation roles.
• Experience in utilizing syndicated data (point of sale, panel, trends reports, etc.) to analyze marketplace & business trends & growth drivers.
• Experience in quantitative and qualitative primary research methodologies.
• Demonstrated project management and data analysis experience, including the ability to manage multiple priorities, stakeholders, projects, and deadlines.
• Experience in managing and directing external partner resources.

Skills

• Strategy: ability to connect insights to business actions to drive growth outcomes.
• Problem-Solving: - ability to identify/crystalize the problem to solve and potential paths forward.
• Impact: ability to drive insights to "so-what" by making actionable business recommendations.
• Agile: ability to flexibility & creatively adjust to ambiguity & changes in a dynamic environment.
• Project Management - ability to plan, manage & execute with detail, across multiple initiatives.
• Communications - ability to convey learnings & implications in a clear & concise way

External Recruitment Process:

• Easy Application (5 mins): Introduce yourself and answer a few key questions to get started.
• Engaging Chat Interview (20-25 mins): Share your experiences in an online chat, highlighting how your values align with ours.
• Live Interview: Selected candidates will meet with the hiring manager to explore their alignment with the team and overall Utz company culture.

Salary: $130,000-145,000

Our benefit package includes medical, dental, and vision plans, life insurance, a 401(k) plan with bonus program, and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. This position will include 16 days of paid time off, 5 sick days, and 6 paid company holidays throughout the calendar year.

Why Utz?

Because we believe in snacking with purpose-and that includes taking care of our people. We offer:

• Competitive compensation and bonus opportunities
• Medical, dental, and vision plans
• 401(k) with employer match, profit sharing, bonus plan
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Career development and growth opportunities
• A supportive, inclusive culture where your voice matters