Director, Social Intelligence & Cultural Relevance

Kansas City, MO (Hybrid)

$75K/yr – $180K/yrDirector/Executive10+ years expFull time

Posted 5 months ago

Top 1% of applicants do these two things.

The other 99% submit and hope. You're about to do something different.

Job Summary

This role centers on turning social listening, audience insights, and cultural data into strategic brand guidance. It combines leadership of an insights team with cross-functional collaboration to inform strategy, campaigns, and long-term planning, while developing measurement frameworks and storytelling that drive decisions.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Analyze and synthesize data from social listening platforms, audience insight tools, brand trackers, cultural research, and internal business data to uncover consumer insights and human truths
  • Partner closely with strategy, creative, and channel teams to embed insights into brand strategy, campaign development, content ideation, and channel planning
  • Oversee reporting and insights across paid campaigns and organic social channels, translating performance data into actionable learnings and recommendations
  • Monitor and interpret cultural, social, and behavioral trends to understand what is happening in culture and how the brand can strategically engage
  • Identify business and brand opportunities rooted in consumer needs, emerging behaviors, and cultural moments
  • Translate complex data into clear, compelling narratives and strategic recommendations for leadership and cross-functional teams
  • Collaborate with marketing, brand, social, media, and business teams to inform brand strategy, campaigns, innovation, and long-term planning
  • Develop frameworks and methodologies for integrating cultural intelligence with business and performance data
  • Serve as a thought leader on consumer insights, culture, and data-driven decision-making across the organization
  • Lead, mentor, and oversee the work of a team of insights analysts, providing direction, feedback, and development to ensure high-quality and consistent output

Requirements

  • 10+ years of experience in strategic insights, analytics, marketing intelligence, or consumer insights, with experience working on large, culturally relevant consumer brands
  • Proven ability to translate quantitative and qualitative data into actionable, forward-looking insights that inform brand, creative, and business decisions
  • Expertise in identifying brand, audience, business, and cultural opportunities through data synthesis and trend analysis, moving beyond reporting to predictive and opportunity-driven insight
  • Deep understanding of social platforms and internet culture, including content performance, creator ecosystems, platform trends, and real-time cultural engagement
  • Strong experience applying social listening, cultural intelligence, and audience insights to inform brand strategy, creative ideation, and channel execution
  • Proven leadership experience overseeing and mentoring team members while setting standards, prioritizing insight needs, and ensuring rigor and consistency across outputs
  • Extensive experience overseeing campaign and organic social reporting, developing measurement frameworks across brand health, social, and campaign performance, and applying marketing effectiveness principles
  • Hands-on expertise with social listening, platform analytics, audience insight, and brand tracking tools used to monitor culture, understand audiences, evaluate performance, and track brand impact
  • Strong storytelling, presentation, and cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and partner closely with strategy, creative, media, social, and channel teams
  • Ability to navigate ambiguity, balance speed with analytical depth, and guide teams through complex, fast-moving environments

Benefits

  • We offer a competitive benefits package
  • click WPP Benefits for more details.
VML logo

VML

3.5 Glassdoor

VML is a global powerhouse born from the unification of Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R — two of the world's most powerful and accomplished creative agencies with complementary capabilities and geographic strengths. We have an industry-unique opportunity to provide our client partners with a fully integrated offering across brand experience, customer experience and commerce practices — powered by deep data and technology experience. For more information, visit www.vml.com.

Founded in 2024
New York, New York, US
33K employees (8,368 in marketing)
67% recommend to a friend
79% CEO approval

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
279.9K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
42.8%
Direct
42.1%
Referral
8.4%
Social
5.5%
Paid
0.9%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~34.6K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
4,123 (12% of company)
Median Career Experience
14.5 years
Median Tenure
4.5 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
13

Recent News