Senior Manager, Stills & Global Sprite, Technical Consumer Data Research

The Senior Manager, Technical Consumer Data Research (TCDR) reports to the Senior Director, TCDR, NAOU and leads consumer research for North America Operating Unit (NA OU) Still Categories and Global Sprite, delivering front‑end, consumer‑centric insights to drive a prioritized innovation pipeline across Product, Packaging, and Equipment for right‑first‑time, high‑impact outcomes. This role functions as a senior individual contributor, leading research strategy and influencing innovation decisions across categories and brands. 

Organizationally, the TCDR function sits within the Innovation, Technology & Strategy team, ensuring strong integration of consumer insights into broader innovation and strategic decision-making processes. 

This role serves as a critical business partner shaping strategic, end-to-end consumer centric innovation learning plans and comprehensive research for the OU Stills Categories and Global Sprite Brand while collaborating closely with Marketing, Human Insights, Global Development & Innovation teams, within the NA and global innovation centers to deliver present-forward and future-back research strategies, that drive exceptional consumer experiences in alignment with consumer trends and our business strategies whilst delivering enterprise business growth.  

Function and Global Sprite Brand Related Activities / Key Responsibilities 

• TCDR lead for the NA OU Stills Categories and Global Sprite Brand, accountable for end-to-end delivery of research projects and initiatives, including robust cross-functional stakeholder engagement, governance, and alignment. Drives global TCDR community initiatives while standardizing and embedding best practices across markets and categories. 
• Strategic business partner shaping and influencing the innovation pipeline for the OU, Stills Categories and Global Sprite Brand and the broader global TCDR community. Aligns diverse cross-functional teams (SRA, HI, Marketing, GDI, ITS, Strategy) to embed a consumer-first mindset and leverage deep business understanding to drive impactful, insight-led decisions.
• Owns and leads critical innovation research initiatives as a strategic, empowering consumer-centric, technical business partner, driving end-to-end TCDR research excellence with a “right-first-time” mindset, and influencing decisions to deliver strong, measurable business outcomes.
• Translate business needs into actionable sensory and consumer research plans. Build and lead end-to-end consumer research learning plans, with appropriate future forward consumer and sensory approaches and methodologies, utilizing digital capabilities, grounded in sound data & insights, to enable effective business decisions.
• Demonstrates deep functional expertise across TCDR disciplines, including sensory science, human behavioral science, consumer research, and advanced statistical and data science methodologies and sophisticated modeling techniques (e.g., AI, ML, LLMs, PLS regression) leveraging AI capability.
• Utilizes rigorous statistical methodologies and advanced analytical techniques to design studies, analyze data, and interpret results with precision; synthesizes findings into robust, evidence-based conclusions and delivers clear, actionable technical and business recommendations to inform decision-making. 
• Delivers data-driven strategic recommendations to inform business solutions, leveraging deep technical consumer research expertise and a strong understanding of the business and competitive landscape; defines insight-led solutions grounded in consumer needs, proactively identifies and mitigates technical risks, and communicates with clarity through compelling, data-driven storytelling to influence stakeholders and drive confident decision-making.
• Actively contributes to the GDI Global TCDR community, partnering on research-on-research initiatives to advance methodologies and strengthen functional capabilities.
• Champions external orientation and innovation, identifying, developing, and adopting new, agile research methodologies and data science approaches in collaboration with the Global TCDR Capabilities team, and scaling relevant solutions within the OU.
• Drives continuous improvement and innovation in TCDR practices, evolving best practices and methodologies while proactively exploring and implementing cutting-edge AI-enabled tools to solve complex challenges and deliver competitive advantage.
• Global Sprite Brand and NA Stills Categories knowledge and understanding, with a trained palette for sensory evaluation.

Data Analytics & Synthesis 

• Perform advanced statistical analysis for sensory & consumer research, to include interpretation of research data outcomes, and application of appropriate methods (e.g., ANOVA, parametric/non‑parametric, modeling), adopting appropriate risk management.
• Proficient usage of Statistical software and tools such as JMP, SPSS, SAS, Python, R, SQL, Power BI, and Azure ML, parametric and non-parametric methods, ANOVA, factorial analysis, and modeling tools.
• Apply advanced analytics and statistical modeling to solve complex business problems.
• Translate data into clear, actionable insights that support business decision-making.
• Develop and adopt innovative, data-driven solutions to drive competitive advantage. 
• Demonstrate hands-on experience applying analytics to real-world business challenges with measurable impact.

Technical Risk Management 

• Skilled in identifying and assessing technical risks, developing strategies in working with the Global TCDR Capabilities team, mitigate these risks, and implementing proactive measures to ensure project continuity and system integrity.

Proactively Build Global Sprite Brand and NA Stills categories knowledge to support Present-Forward and Future-back Innovation pipeline and business Long Range Plan: 

• Lead a multi-year category research strategy, generating critical product, sensory, and consumer insights to support global and local innovation while optimizing portfolio and identifying growth opportunities.
• Drive competitive benchmarking and insights, evaluating Product, Packaging, and Equipment to uncover drivers of consumer preference, market trends, and white space opportunities.
• Execute front-end exploration research, identifying key drivers of consumer choice and translating them into optimal sensory and consumer research experiences to strengthen early-stage front end innovation insights, drivers of liking, and uncover white space opportunities.

Technical Communication & Data Storytelling 

• Translate strategic visions into actionable plans, using knowledge of current business processes and best practices.
• Communicate with clarity and precision by using data-driven storytelling to drive change, negotiate with stakeholders, and engage with target audiences.
• Delivers insightful reports and trend dashboards to thoroughly examine consumer behavior, turning data into practical insights and suggestions for the entire organization.
• Storytelling, frameworks, tools, and approaches to socializing our Technical Product Story.

Strategic Partner, Influencing & Stakeholder Management 

• Acts as a strategic business partner, with Global Sprite cross functional and brand leaders (GDI, Marketing, HI) and NAOU teams to support Still Categories, build and manage strong internal and external relationships (including suppliers, academia, and cross-functional teams) to advance organizational and innovation goals.
• Navigates and influences within a complex TCCC system, demonstrating strong leadership, stakeholder management, and communication skills to drive alignment and deliver measurable business impact.
• Partners cross-functionally with R&D, Marketing, and Human Insights, fostering collaboration to deliver consumer-centric solutions and accelerate category development.
• Leads the TCDR Global Sprite agenda, serving as the key interface to GDI Sprite leadership while driving regional OU priorities across Product, Packaging, and Equipment through integrated consumer and sensory insights.

Qualifications & Requirements:   

• Educational Requirement: Batchelor Science Degree or Masters Degree, BSc /MSc from an accredited University in Food or Sensory Science, Engineering, Behavioral Psychology, or related field, and technical mastery of Sensory, Consumer, Applied Statistics and AI, Data Science, User Experience, to include science, methodologies, frameworks, and approaches.

• Work Related Experience: 10+ years of experience within FMCG Beverage/Food Industry with proven relevant experience in Sensory and Consumer research, delivering consumer centric results working in a matrix FMCG organization including R&D, Marketing and Human Insight, translated into successful business impact. Global brand leadership is an essential component of the role.

Desired Skills and Competencies: 

Technical & Category: As Senior Manager, to require an elevated level of understanding and proficiency of TCDR Sensory & Consumer Science methodologies and applied Statistics & AI experience, Stills Category and preferably Global Sprite Brand knowledge. 

• Expertise of Consumer Centric Innovation Frameworks, Approaches and Future Planning.
• Expertise in TCDR sensory & consumer science methodologies & statistics
• Social & Human Behavior Science applied expertise, applicable for beverage industry of consumer insights. 
• Understanding of Demand Space & Need States frameworks, Psychographic consumers, Synthetic personas, and cross-fertilization of such learnings thereof in partnership with HI.
• Digital, technology-driven, and modelling approach knowledge and application with experience of large-scale sensory and consumer data of success business outcomes, of significant ROI.
• Algorithm application for unstructured data, in building an agile approach for knowledge mining.
• Applied Statistic, Data Processing, NLP, ChatGPT, Dall-E, Gen AI etc.
• Visualizations and creative Storytelling, expert in Power BI.
• Global Sprite Brand, Stills Category knowledge and understanding, with a trained palette for sensory evaluation thereof.

Human-Centered Design: Lead holistic research plans to address key questions for specific business research projects.  

• Sensory Science & Consumer Science, User with a sound understanding of the underlying statistics.
• Social, behavioral human science
• Research Design Principles for qualitative and quantitative research.
• Foundations of technical risk management
• User experience
• Brand knowledge (playbook, U&A research, Demand Spaces)

Technical Communication 

• Strong written and oral communication skills to be able to simplify complex information in a concise format that is appropriate for the audience.
• This role communicates internally with the local and global GDI network, Global and Regional Category Marketing, and TI&SC teams. External communication with agencies, suppliers, and universities.
• Ability to apply technical knowledge to build credibility with both technical and non-technical audiences, influencing decision makers and benefiting customers or the Company.
• Storytelling and building concise business recommendations from data and insights.
• Advanced influencing skills.
• Use of AI in advanced communication techniques.
• Data Engineering, database development & understanding

Data Analytics & Synthesis of Structured and Unstructured data 

• Excellent statistics and data analysis skills.
• Knowledge of AI and Machine Learning principles, demonstrating an eagerness to deepen understanding and apply these technologies effectively.
• Understand and work in data management tools (Azure) and proficiency in visualization (Power BI or other)

Business Partnerships: Work with multiple functions to execute project work (R&D, Marketing, HI, etc.)  

• Serves as a trusted advisor, providing market, strategy, and operating environment insights to enable informed business decision-making.
• Builds and sustains strong internal and external partnerships, leveraging strategic guidance and market understanding to drive business performance.
• Demonstrates strong cross-functional influence, effectively engaging and aligning diverse stakeholders to achieve shared objectives.
• Develops talent through coaching and mentorship, fostering capability growth and a high-performing, collaborative culture.
• Apply strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address complex business challenges.
• Drives execution excellence, leveraging strong organizational capabilities to deliver priorities effectively.
• Builds and maintains a robust cross-functional network, strengthening alignment and connectivity across the organization.

Process Improvement 

• Recommends more effective ways of working to execute and drive value.

• Bring the outside in, remain current with relevant scientific literature. Inspire self and the team with external resources.

Travel: Travel will fluctuate and is projected to be a maximum of 10% of the time.  

Direct Reports: 0