Sr. Director Audience Insights & Research, University Marketing at The Ohio State University

Job Type

Full-time

Posting Date

April 18, 2019

Location of Position

Columbus, OH

Company Summary

For 144 years, The Ohio State University's campus in Columbus has been the stage for academic achievement and a laboratory for innovation. It's where friendships are forged. It's where rivalries and revelry are born.

The university's main campus is one of America's largest and most comprehensive. As Ohio's best and one of the nation's top-20 public universities, Ohio State is further recognized by a top-rated academic medical center and a premier cancer hospital and research center. As a land-grant university, Ohio State has a physical presence throughout the state, with campuses and research centers located around Ohio.

Duties and Responsibilities

University Marketing is seeking a disciplined market researcher and thought leader to fill a key role on our Marketing Strategy team. The selected candidate will play a significant part in University Marketing as we continue to grow our audience insights capabilities and formalize an audience insights practice that serves the broader marketing community across the university.

The Senior Director, Audience Insights & Research reports to the Senior Associate Vice President of Marketing for The Ohio State University and defines and drives an integrated audience insights and research strategy and plan to proactively provide a comprehensive view of the market, audiences and the Ohio State brand. The Senior Director acts as the audience champion for the university, providing strategic consultation and bringing to life Ohio State’s different audiences to fuel audience-centric strategies and marketing plans. The ideal candidate will be competent as:

A sophisticated thought leader who is able to leverage their knowledge and experience to add to the discourse and direction of marketing professionals across the university, with a focus on audience insights, business intelligence, brand health and reputation measurement
A disciplined market researcher, both in practices and processes, with distinctive analytical skills, creativity, strategic mindset and keen business acumen
A collaborative leader with experience navigating and influencing stakeholders within complex organizations in order to develop strong partnerships at many levels across the university, actively listening and advancing the strategic nature and quality of discussions
A solutions-oriented visionary and change agent with the ability to envision and create momentum in building an audience-centric organization and community
An experienced team builder with a proven ability to think holistically about team development as well as coach and mentor colleagues across the broader marketing community
A proactive self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity and able to progress multiple priorities/projects

The Senior Director, Audience Insights & Research is both an initiator of research and gatherer of research, both inside and outside Ohio State, to synthesize and inform audience and market insights, ensuring efficiency in audience research and insights work across the university. The Senior Director develops and synthesizes insights into frameworks that inform brand strategy and drive key business decisions across the university in partnership with colleges and units’ marketing efforts. The Senior Director sources secondary and 3^rd party research and manages all aspects of any additional primary research, including partnering with teams to frame problems, designing research methodologies, implementing high-quality data collection and analyzing results. The Senior Director will translate research findings into clear, actionable insights, and present and evangelize results and recommendations to teams and leadership, utilizing excellent writing, communication and presentation skills.

All members of Advancement are part of creating an inclusive culture that inspires an exceptionally diverse and talented team and are measured on their adherence to the following core competencies: leadership, continuous improvement, teamwork and collaboration, and communication/interpersonal effectiveness.

More about University Marketing

University Marketing exists to advance the relevance, resonance and distinctiveness of Ohio State’s brand by leveraging disciplined and modern marketing practices that measurably grow and deepen audience perceptions, including their understanding of and preference for Ohio State. University Marketing partners with colleges and units across the university and with members of the greater Ohio State community to continuously develop and enhance the Ohio State brand while advancing the university’s strategic goals.

Performance Objectives include, but are not limited to:

Envision the future state and strategic roadmap of an audience insights and research practice for University Marketing and across the broader marketing and communications community, including development of an audience knowledge repository with dossiers for key audiences
Develop and maintain audience experience maps and supporting personas, working in partnership with the Marketing Strategy team and other partners to guide the development of audience-centric marketing strategies, campaigns and brand experiences
Develop ongoing brand health, reputation and audience measurement recommendations, including the required research methodologies and toolsets
Build collaborative relationships and provide strategic consultation around audience insights and research methodologies with marketing and analytics professionals and other key partners across the university

Position Requirements

Required qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree preferably in psychology or statistics-related field
10+ years of experience and progressive leadership at a market research firm/agency, research vendor and/or managing research and insights in-house
Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methodology and audience insights development
Experience in applying statistical design and significance testing, as well as using various statistical techniques such as clustering and regression analyses to improve audience segmentation practices
Experience using data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau), statistics analysis software (e.g., SPSS), and other research survey tools (e.g., Qualtrics)
Experience in segmentation, brand positioning, messaging, brand tracking, advertising/messaging effectiveness, and syndicated data analysis

Required Experience

Desired:

Master’s and/or graduate degree
Experience managing a market research and/or insights function
Experience in leveraging advanced analytics in developing insights and recommendations
Experience working in a complex, decentralized and/or matrix organization structure
Experience in higher education market research and/or insights, with knowledge of admissions, alumni relations and/or fundraising marketing is a plus

You Need To Know

Aside from the unparalleled benefits of working for The Ohio State University and working in the diverse, smart, safe, fun and growing city of Columbus, Ohio, this opportunity will provide exceptional rewards that arise from working for a land grant institution where you will truly feel the impact of this role. Learn more here: https://hr.osu.edu/careers/.

Apply Here

To find out more about University Advancement, please visit: www.advancement.osu.edu

Questions may be director to Greg Bright, Recruiter, at bright.159@osu.edu. For information about University Marketing, visit http://universitymarketing.osu.edu.

Closing Statement

The Ohio State University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, national origin, disability status, or protected veteran status.