Manager, Consumer Insights & Research

The National Football League’s Marketing Strategy & Insights team serves as the voice of NFL fans within the various League offices and with stakeholders (e.g., Clubs, partners, agencies).  This team informs and authors strategic plans, ensuring grounding in consumer preferences and behaviors, marketplace dynamics, and evolving business priorities.  Marketing Strategy & Insights also leads Marketing department business planning and is responsible for influencing the entire NFL ecosystem to orient activities toward key fan base development and engagement initiatives.

The Consumer Insights & Research function within the team focuses on uncovering strategic insights that inform optimization across all business units and stakeholders.  The areas of coverage include (but are not limited to): global fan development, brand health, DE&I, media (e.g., direct-to-consumer, broadcasting), live events, in-stadium experiences, marketing effectiveness, legalized sports betting, corporate partnerships, social responsibility, player engagement, and player health and safety.  Team members design and conduct primary research (largely via third-party research partners) and leverage a myriad of syndicated data sources to measure relevant consumer preferences and behaviors.  They then generate robust insights tailored to informing key areas across the business.   

The Manager of Consumer Insights position is responsible for leading the design and execution of primary research, with support from analysts and third-party vendors/agencies. This role serves as a strategic thought partner to key stakeholders, proactively shaping research agendas, driving alignment, and ensuring insights are translated into action to inform business decisions. The Manager is expected to manage complex workstreams across multiple stakeholders, and flex across priority business areas as needs evolve.

Responsibilities:

• Work with industry-leading research vendors to conduct qualitative and quantitative primary research initiatives that drive NFL fandom, deepen engagement, and create value for the League, the 32 Clubs, partners, and players. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
  • Leading insights related to broadcast, media consumption, and the game viewing experience, helping optimize how fans watch, engage with, and experience NFL content across platforms
  • Supporting the Voice of the Fan study, a large-scale insights program measuring gameday and Season Ticket Member experiences across all 32 Clubs, and translating findings into actionable recommendations for League and Club stakeholders
  • Managing creative evaluation research to assess campaign, content, and messaging effectiveness, identifying opportunities to strengthen resonance, clarity, and impact among target audiences
  • Measuring insights related to the League’s Social Responsibility programs and Player Health & Safety perceptions, helping assess fan understanding, credibility, and impact of key initiatives
  • Developing insights that guide strategy, positioning, and product optimization for NFL media properties, including NFL+, with a focus on deepening fan engagement and informing future growth opportunities
• Own end-to-end management of research projects, including stakeholder alignment, objective setting, methodology selection, vendor management, survey and discussion guide design, analysis oversight, and final deliverables
• Analyze data and generate strategic insights with minimal direction
• Compile creative, story-driven reports from scratch with minimal direction
• Provide guidance and direct oversight to one direct report, ensuring work is high quality, strategically focused, and aligned to business needs
• Serve as the voice of the fan and an insights expert across the League, influencing decisions through credible, actionable, and well-socialized insights
  • Leverage syndicated and proprietary research tools (MarketSight, Q, Sports Poll, Decipher, etc.) and guide others in how to use them effectively to generate stronger insights and more impactful outputs
  • Ensure research design, analysis, and insight generation reflect best-in-class practices, including diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations where appropriate
  • Contribute to raising the level of the broader team by sharing knowledge, strengthening ways of working, and helping elevate the quality of outputs across projects
• Partner with strategy and functional leads across the League to develop fan-centric plans and recommendations grounded in data and insight
• Manage multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously, balancing strategic thinking with strong execution in a fast-paced environment

Required Qualifications 

• 5+ years of relevant experience 
• Vendor and/or internal analyst oversight experience
• Demonstration of strong people management skills strongly preferred 
• Ability to outline research objectives and quantitative surveys based on business questions and the analysis of prior insights bodies of work 
• Experience synthesizing quantitative and qualitative research results and writing concise, creative, and insightful reports
• Experience presenting and effectively communicating insights to a variety of stakeholders  
• Strong project management and relationship-building skills and the ability to effectively work with cross-functional project teams 
• Experience with a range of research methods preferred (e.g., segmentation, online surveys, ethnographies, one-on-one interviews, focus groups) 
• Knowledge and proficiency with custom and syndicated media measurement tools 
• Understanding of the application of various analytic techniques preferred (e.g., chi-square, t-tests, correlations, regression, factor analysis, cluster analysis, Max-Diff, conjoint analysis)  
• Strong analytical platform experience such as Microsoft Excel, SPSS, or Q 
• Broad familiarity with the sports and entertainment industry; specific, deep understanding of the media and live events landscape a plus 
• Drive to contribute both strategically and tactically 
• Comfort working in a dynamic business environment where quick decision making is crucial 
• Bachelor's degree in Market Research, Business, Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Data & Analytics or a closely related discipline, or equivalent professional work experience; Master’s degree preferred

Terms /Expected Hours of Work: 

• 40 plus hour work week in the New York office 

Salary / Pay Range 

This job posting contains a pay range, which represents the range of salaries or hourly rates that the NFL believes, in good faith, at the time of this posting that it might be willing to pay for the posted job in the location(s) specified. The NFL expects to hire for this position near the middle of the range. Only in truly rare and exceptional circumstances, where an external candidate has experience, credentials, or expertise that far exceed those required or expected for the position, would the NFL consider paying a salary or rate near the higher end of the range.