Director, Global Market Research

Location: US - Watsonville, California, More... Additional Locations: China - Hong Kong

About The Opportunity

Reporting to the Global Chief Marketing Officer, the Global Director of Market Research is the enterprise leader responsible for transforming consumer, customer and category understanding into a core growth engine for Driscoll’s. This role sets and leads the global research strategy across all four regions (i.e. Driscoll’s of the Americas (DOTA), Driscoll’s Europe Middle East and Africa (DEMEA), Driscoll’s of Asia (DOA) and Driscoll’s Australia and New Zealand (DANZ)), ensuring that Driscoll’s most critical decisions in portfolio strategy, product innovation, brand building, and commercial execution are grounded in high‑quality, decision‑ready insight.

The role builds and governs a best‑in‑class insights operating system, embeds modern research and analytics practices, and partners deeply with senior leaders to shape “where to win” choices, accelerate innovation success, and strengthen brand and commercial execution globally.

Note: This role can be located in Watsonville, CA (corporate HQ) or Hong Kong. This position is not authorized for remote work.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Insight Leadership
  • Lead the global consumer and customer insights agenda, partnering with local teams across DOTA, DEMEA, DOA, and DANZ
  • Partner with Marketing, Product, Commercial, and Strategy leaders to define category growth opportunities, priority consumer segments, value propositions, and portfolio investment choices
  • Act as a strategic thought partner and constructive challenger, translating complex data into clear business direction
• Innovation & Brand Impact
  • Support the front‑end innovation discovery, including demand spaces mapping, cultural and category foresight, and opportunity space definition
  • Translate opportunity spaces into structured innovation and concept learning agendas
  • Establish evidence standards for innovation decisions across all development stages, including concept desirability, sensory performance, pricing/value hypotheses, and communication credibility
  • Embed insights into brand strategy development, positioning, creative development, and campaign evaluation
• Measurement Stewardship & Growth Performance
  • Design and govern Driscoll’s global brand and growth measurement framework, including brand equity, funnel health, campaign effectiveness, innovation performance, consumer and customer satisfaction, and demand drivers
  • Ensure KPI consistency and comparability across regions, enabling enterprise‑level performance management and learning
• Modern Research & Advanced Analytics
  • Integrate primary research, behavioral data, advanced analytics, social and search intelligence, and digital signals into a unified insights ecosystem
  • Lead experimentation and learning programs, including test‑and‑learn, conjoint analysis, drivers modeling, and pricing analytics
  • Champion the adoption of AI‑enabled research and insight workflows to accelerate learning velocity while maintaining methodological rigor
• Customer & Category Growth Leadership
  • Build compelling category growth narratives that elevate Driscoll’s strategic partnership with customers
  • Translate customer, channel, and category insights into repeatable global and regional growth playbooks
• Global Governance & Capability Building
  • Own Driscoll’s global insights operating model, including research standards, methodologies, quality benchmarks, and governance forums
  • Lead the global research agency and vendor ecosystem, including procurement strategy and performance management
  • Establish enterprise learning repositories and cross‑regional knowledge‑sharing systems
  • Build insights capability across regions through coaching, training, and talent development
• Leadership & Culture
  • Lead and develop a high‑performing global insights team and community
  • Foster a culture of curiosity, learning, collaboration, and disciplined decision‑making
  • Model enterprise leadership and partnership across functions and regions

Candidate Profile

• The successful candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, psychology, economics, statistics, or a related field, with an advanced degree strongly preferred.
• They will bring at least 12 years of progressive leadership experience in market research, consumer insights, analytics, or related disciplines, including demonstrated success leading global, multi‑market insight organizations and influencing senior executives.
• The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in innovation research, brand strategy, growth measurement, and advanced analytics with strong commercial and financial acumen, enabling them to translate complex insight into clear business impact.
• They are an exceptional communicator and storyteller with the credibility to partner with senior leaders across marketing, product, commercial, strategy, and operations.
• This individual has a proven track record of building and developing high‑performing global teams, thrives in ambiguity, operates with a strong bias toward action and continuous learning, and is comfortable navigating complex, matrixed organizations.
• Willingness and ability to travel globally (approximately 30%) is required.
• English fluency essential, Spanish and/or Mandarin a plus.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range estimated for the Director of Global Market Research: $155,000 to $210,000 USD.

Driscoll’s is committed to a culture of care and offers an attractive benefits package that includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, life insurance, and disability coverage for positions working more than 30 hours per week.

Other benefits include:

• 401(k) with employer match
• Profit‑sharing participation
• Paid sick time
• Paid vacation
• Paid personal and family care leave
• Free Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

About Driscolls

Driscoll's is the global market leader for fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. With more than 100 years of farming heritage and hundreds of independent growers around the world, Driscoll's is passionate about growing fresh, beautiful and delicious berries. Our values of humility, passion, and trustworthiness have guided our mission to delight consumers around the world.

Driscoll's exclusive patented berry varieties are developed through years of research using only natural breeding methods – meaning, no GMOs. From farm‑to‑table, we focus on delivering a high‑quality, premium berry experience with our many supply chain partners. Driscoll's is the trusted brand for Only the Finest Berries™.

Driscoll's es el proveedor líder en la comercialización de Fresas, Frambuesas, Zarzamoras y Arándanos Azules en el mundo. Con más de 100 años de herencia en agricultura y cientos de productores independiente alrededor del mundo, Driscoll's es una compañía apasionada por cultivar Berries frescas, hermosas y deliciosas. Nuestros valores de humildad, pasión y confianza han guiado nuestra misión de deleitar a los consumidores en el mundo.

Las variedades exclusivas de Driscoll's han sido desarrolladas a través de años de investigación usando sólo métodos de mejoramiento natural. De la granja a la mesa, nos enfocamos en ofrecer una experiencia de alta calidad con apoyo de nuestros socios de la cadena de suministro. Driscoll's es la marca de confianza de sólo las mejores Berries.