Dishwash Assistant Consumer Insight Manager

If you have a passion for innovation, consumer insights and products, then this opportunity might just be for you.  Unilever’s Global Home Care Category is looking for someone to join its Consumer Insights (CI) team at Port Sunlight, Wirral to work on building their understanding of the consumers that use our products and translate this understanding into insights that can guide innovation. This is an excellent opportunity to join an exciting team and develop your skills and a career working on some of the world’s biggest Homecare brands.

Understanding and meeting the needs of our consumers is at the heart of the Consumer Insights team. This role will play an important part in understanding how Homecare products are perceived and used and translating this understanding into insights and ideas for product innovation, improvement and claims. We develop our product innovations in response to current or future consumer needs, so this role has a direct impact on the innovation portfolio.

Consumer experience of a Home Care product is determined by many factors – habits, physical conditions, marketing communication, sensory and design properties of the product, new technologies, and many more. Understanding the product experience and its impact on consumer perception will be a key part of this role, creating a link between product development and consumers. The role will need to build our consumer understanding across our many markets and will involve working collaboratively with colleagues in these countries.

This role sits within a multidisciplinary team, working alongside R&D and marketing, and establishing links with third parties, such as agencies and academic institutions. Because the focus of the role is to guide technology and product communication, a basic understanding of science and technology is essential. The role could be suitable for a Physical Scientist with an interest in consumer research or to a Social Scientist or Design specialist interested in product science.

MAIN JOB PURPOSE

To design and deliver the consumer learning plan for specific category projects to create the insights needed for product innovation; to deliver relevant studies which build consumer understanding and capability.  

MAIN ACCOUNTABILITIES

• To represent CI within innovation project teams, being responsible for the design, agreement, and implementation of consumer learning plans.
• To design and implement any studies and activities according to project needs, working with relevant internal and/or external partners
• Lead discussions to refine objectives and define action standards, that will lead to the design of winning products in the marketplace.
• To select, brief and hold accountable the relevant external 3rd party(ies) and other partners.
• Be responsible for maintaining existing quality of capabilities in skill area and to identify new opportunities via networks (internal/external) to help define & build the needs of the future, particularly in the digital world.
• To analyse data and reports (including from 3rd parties) and add value from other sources of knowledge to give maximum value to stakeholders.
• To communicate results of studies to stakeholders so they can use them to refine product innovations and shape technical targets.
• To extract insights from multiple sources of information and identify the opportunities for the business.
• To build an area of expertise and provide input in defining best practice.
• To help build CI’s capability in digital methods.

KEY SKILLS

• Proven ability to plan and manage own work within a technical area.
• Ability to manage and communicate with stakeholders, including those from non-technical backgrounds
• Familiarity with consumer research techniques (qualitative, quantitative and sensory).
• Experimental design, familiarity with statistical tools, statistical data analysis and statistical interpretation of data.
• Ability to interpret data, from multiple sources in order to identify relevant insights.
• Ability to communicate consumer insights to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to use digital approaches to data collection and modelling for prediction (other qualitative or quantitative).
• Problem solving skills with practical creativity.
• Ability to work with in multi-functional teams.
• Excellent communication & interpersonal skills.
• Exceptional organisation and time-management.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

• BSc or MSc (or equivalent) in Physical Sciences (including Physics, Materials Science, Chemistry or Biochemistry) OR in Social/Behavioural Sciences (eg Psychology or Sociology) OR other subject requiring generation of consumer / clinical data
• Experience in an industrial or academic science area requiring measurement and data handling / analysis either qualitative or quantitative

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

• Experience of FMCG

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Occasional travel may be required
• The job is majority office and lab based work (some of which may be agile)