Consumer Technical Insight Scientist

• You’re a born leader: Proactive self-direction with a high level of initiative and persistence and a hands-on approach to results delivery.  

• You’re a dot connector: This position works in strong collaboration with boarder R&D teams. Marketing - Consumer Market Insight, Brand, Customer Development, Legal, etc.  

• You’re a changemaker: Ability to identify and address emerging issues as well as set and manage priorities and continuously improve Consumer Insight Technical CTI (Product Research) process and practices. 

• You love to win and have fun doing it: You have a passion for food and product quality and extremely operator/customer focused.  

• You’re a storyteller: The position requires adapting consumer/technical information to communicate results with other cross-functional team members such as marketing, Customer development, nutrition as well as others. 

• You’re a paradox navigator: The position requires application of technical knowledge some scientific methodologies to drive design of experiments for various projects. 

Key Responsibilities 

• A key responsibility in a strong Consumer Technical Insight (CTI) role is to serve as the connective thread between consumer (chef/operator) needs, technical expertise, and business strategy, working across US partners in marketing, CMI and R&D. This means:  

• Designing and implementing robust sensory and consumer research that uncovers actionable insights, then translating those findings into clear recommendations for product development in superiority and new growth opportunities.  

• Develop and execute consumer technical test plan including sensory or consumer product and packaging testing to identify targets for designing superior products and evaluation of their delivery.  

• Define or contribute to the CI plan for innovation, strategic or competitive benchmarking exercises to ensure relevant key attributes are at the heart of design and evaluation.  

• Analyze operator and sensory data to draw out big consumer insights and identify key measures for driving superior product designs and evaluation including Structure Team Assessments.  

• Implement CTI operator/functionality/performance best practice, techniques and processes. 

• Story telling – lead and co-author strategic KBS (Knowledge Based Story) that lands superiority and support Superiority roadmap.  

• Support claims strategy through conducting claims workshops, claims support testing, craft compelling knowledge-based selling (KBS) narrative by identifying the most effective ways to highlight and elevate product superiority in alignment with brand strategy. 

What You Need to Succeed 

• Keep the operator at the core of every initiative, ensuring their needs are perspectives guide the product development process.  

• Display curiosity and enthusiasm for food and emerging dishes, diet, health trends.  

• Partner closely with brand marketing. Consumer & Market insight (CMI) and the R&D– development team to define outstanding, compelling claims and KBS.  

• Manage or support execution of relevant operator, sensory or claims testing; interpret results, identify key insights and efficiently cascade key findings/learnings.  

• Create exciting technical communications, visuals and demos that bring technologies and innovations to life. Co create KBS, demos for sales team and other activations tools.  

• Understand the needs and attitudes of operators we serve, to connect them with relevance and brand tone of voice in all aspects of claims and communications.  

• Write research study brief and execute studies; work closely with internal functions and external vendors (3rd parties) to ensure execution with excellence.  

• Preferred: Background in consumer insights, particularly within agency settings or external research consultancies 

Experience & Qualifications  

• Must have at minimum a BS or MS degree in psychology, nutrition, sensory science, food science, physical science, marketing/market research or related scientific discipline.  

• Minimum 3 years in Consumer/chef/operators/dining insights, sensory Science with experience in conducting sensory research, consumer qualitative, quantitative and claims research (in CPG with B2B is a plus).  

• Minimum of 2 years of experience within a category R&D function, Knowledge of the category or other food-based business, Consumer Technical Insight functional and performance experience.  

• Experience in B2B with chef, operators and dining experience and product functionality insight. 

• Excellent communication skills (oral and written) to bring consumer(operator)/sensory insights to life for multi-functional audiences in a clear and engaging way.  

• Strong planning, organizational and attention to details in execution of CTI research and roadmap.  

• Ability to identify the needs of technical projects and create insight programs for delivery. 

• Application of psychological principles to define operator insight research activities.  

• Have statistical knowledge and ability to interpret data  

• Analytical thinking with an ability to identify patterns within data  

• Creative thinking to support the development of new ideas and how to showcase product superiority. 

• Up to 25% travel required.  

Our Culture   

• Caring Deeply   

• Positive Tensions for Bigger Outcomes, Fairness and Transparency, Performance AND care   

• Staying Three Steps Ahead of the Market   

• Build Future While Delivering today, Think Big simplify, commit, Lead Shape Disrupt Mkt    

• Delivering with Excellence   

• Pride in our Execution, Best in Reality, Developing Breakthrough solutions   

• Focusing on What Matters Most   

• Fewer Bigger Things, Fight for What matters most, Challenging and Debating Right Choices  

What We Can Offer You       

Culture for Growth | Top Notch Employee Health & Well Being Benefits | Every Voice Matters | Global Reach | Life at Unilever | Careers with Purpose | World Class Career Development Programs | Check Out Our Space | Focus On Sustainability