Director, India Innovation

Job Description

As a Director in the India Innovation Customer Success team, your responsibilities and key expectations will include:

Role Purpose

• Provide senior leadership for India Innovation Customer Success, with direct responsibility for managing people and strengthening client delivery across strategic Innovation / BASES engagements.
• Actively support commercial activities by partnering with commercial teams, identifying value-added insight opportunities, and leading senior client conversations that enable cross-selling and upselling.
• Champion the transformation of current ways of working into an AI-first organization by embedding Studio, automation, prompting, AI-enabled delivery, and AI-enabled insight generation into day-to-day delivery.

Client Management

• Act as a trusted senior consulting partner for strategic global and regional Innovation / BASES clients in India, with the credibility to engage senior client stakeholders and C-suite audiences.
• Lead and promote strategic client conversations that create business opportunities, strengthen relationships, and support India Innovation revenue priorities.
• Partner closely with commercial teams to identify opportunities for value-added insights, cross-selling, and upselling across existing global and regional accounts.
• Safeguard and deepen high-value client relationships where senior consulting involvement is required to improve confidence, satisfaction, and impact.
• Rebuild momentum with under-leveraged strategic accounts by bringing sharper consulting, stronger recommendations, and more proactive senior engagement.
• Drive overall client satisfaction by ensuring that deliverables are accurate, actionable, commercially relevant, and clearly connected to client business issues.

Insights Delivery

• Provide senior consulting and delivery ownership for strategic Innovation / BASES studies, including complex studies and critical deliverables.
• Act as the senior reviewer and escalation point for analytical quality, storytelling, recommendations, and overall delivery standards.
• Bring deep expertise across end-to-end Innovation / BASES processes, frameworks, methodologies, and client applications.
• Apply BASES-specific and broader Innovation expertise across concept and product testing, volumetric forecasting, activation guidance, custom research, analytics, and recommendation development.
• Translate data into insights, create compelling stories, and synthesize findings into high-impact recommendations that support client decision-making.
• Actively drive issue-based analyses, build effective analytical presentations, and present recommendations to senior client stakeholders in a clear and consultative way.
• Improve delivery quality, analytical accuracy, storytelling, actionability, and consistency across India Innovation Customer Success outputs.

Team Management

• Directly manage, coach, and develop members of the India Innovation Customer Success team, including setting performance objectives and providing ongoing feedback.
• Upskill the team on Innovation / BASES expertise, analytical review, consultative storytelling, recommendation development, and senior client engagement.
• Build a strong team culture with active engagement, clear standards, accountability, and positive energy.
• Establish an open culture in which team members are challenged, supported, treated with respect, and rewarded as appropriate.
• Manage team resources effectively to support on-time delivery, quality expectations, and consistent client experience.
• Strengthen team capability by creating structured coaching moments, senior review routines, and repeatable best-practice approaches.

Business Focus

• Support delivery of India Innovation operating plan and strategic revenue priorities through strong senior consulting, delivery ownership, and proactive commercial partnership.
• Be an active business developer by generating opportunities with existing global and regional clients through value-added insights, cross-selling, and upselling.
• Drive fast track and automate solution platforms across India Innovation Customer Success, including Studio and related AI-enabled workflows that improve speed to market and consistency.
• Embed AI-first ways of working across delivery through automation, prompting, AI-enabled insight generation, and process-efficient approaches.
• Continuously monitor delivery quality, client feedback, and business performance, making interventions where needed to improve outcomes.
• Be current with developments in Innovation, BASES, market research, AI-enabled delivery, and automation, and translate these into practical refinements to current processes and approaches.
• Operate with a clear ownership mindset and deliver results from day one with limited ramp-up time.

Qualifications

• Post Graduate degree in Business, Marketing, Social Sciences or related fields.
• Minimum 8 years of Primary Quantitative research experience.
• Working knowledge of the FMCG vertical preferred.
• Deep BASES-specific and broader Innovation expertise across processes, frameworks, methodologies, and client applications.
• Strong understanding of concept testing, product testing, volumetric forecasting, activation guidance, custom research, and analytics.
• Experience in managing people/team (minimum 3 years).
• Experience in managing a high volume of complex quantitative research studies under tight budgets and schedules.
• Proven track record of positively impacting client outcomes and influencing senior client stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commercial orientation, including the ability to partner with commercial teams, identify opportunities, and contribute to cross-selling and upselling conversations.
• Hands-on familiarity with Studio or similar solution platforms, with the ability to drive fast-track and automated ways of working.
• Strong change-management capability across process improvement, AI-enabled delivery, automation, and speed-to-market initiatives.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including presenting to C-suite clients.
• Intellectually curious, critical thinker and impact driven.
• Can-do attitude, with a reputation for providing clarity and creating positive energy.
• Highly collaborative, open to novel ideas, and able to build strong relationships with external clients and internal business partners.

Additional Information

Our Benefits

• Flexible working environment
• Volunteer time off
• LinkedIn Learning
• Employee-Assistance-Program (EAP)

NIQ may utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools at various stages of the recruitment process, including résumé screening, candidate assessments, interview scheduling, job matching, communication support, and certain administrative tasks that help streamline workflows. These tools are intended to improve efficiency and support fair and consistent evaluation based on job-related criteria. All use of AI is governed by NIQ’s principles of fairness, transparency, human oversight, and inclusion. Final hiring decisions are made exclusively by humans. NIQ regularly reviews its AI tools to help mitigate bias and ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. If you have questions, require accommodations, or wish to request human review were permitted by law, please contact your local HR representative. For more information, please visit NIQ’s AI Safety Policies and Guiding Principles: https://nielseniq.com/global/en/info/niqs-ai-safety-policies/

About NIQ

NIQ is the world’s leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. In 2023, NIQ combined with GfK, bringing together the two industry leaders with unparalleled global reach. With a holistic retail read and the most comprehensive consumer insights—delivered with advanced analytics through state-of-the-art platforms—NIQ delivers the Full View™. NIQ is an Advent International portfolio company with operations in 100+ markets, covering more than 90% of the world’s population.

For more information, visit NIQ.com

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Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At NIQ, we are steadfast in our commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace that mirrors the rich diversity of the communities and markets we serve. We believe that embracing a wide range of perspectives drives innovation and excellence.  All employment decisions at NIQ are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. We invite individuals who share our dedication to inclusivity and equity to join us in making a meaningful impact. To learn more about our ongoing efforts in diversity and inclusion, please visit the https://nielseniq.com/global/en/news-center/diversity-inclusion