Customer Insights Director

We are the UK’s leading premium publisher, home to iconic and influential media brands including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Country Living. At Hearst UK, we don’t just create content — we shape culture. Our workplace is built on collaboration, creativity, and trust. We champion bold ideas, embrace innovation, and continually evolve to meet the moment — all while celebrating the legacy that’s brought us here. We believe in each other’s potential and push boundaries together to make a meaningful impact, both in the media landscape and in people’s lives.

Hearst UK operate a hybrid working model of four days per week in the office and one day working from home. Our office is based at House of Hearst, 30 Panton Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 4AJ, where teams collaborate in person and connect across brands and functions.

The Role… As the Customer Insight Director at Hearst UK, you will lead insight generation and delivery across marketing, editorial, product, strategy, partnerships, new business development, and commercial/advertising at Hearst. This is an independent, hands‑on role, suited to someone who is comfortable rolling up their sleeves and personally leading the design, execution and delivery of high‑quality research using advanced methodologies. You will work closely with senior leaders and peers to shape decision‑making and unlock growth opportunities across the Hearst portfolio of brands.

Main Duties…

• Independently manage in‑house research projects end‑to‑end, from briefing and design, to execution, analysis, and debrief (surveys, communities, qual, UX), and augmenting in‑house activities with external partners where necessary, to deadline and on budget.
• Integrate a broad set of data (behavioral analytics, first‑party data, qualitative, trends, contextual data) into unified narratives and insights that inform marketing, editorial, product, partnership, and commercial/advertising decisions through evidence‑based storytelling, with concise, actionable recommendations.
• Lead debriefs, readouts, and workshops with senior leaders and peers; codify best practices, templates, and playbooks for repeatable impact.
• Partner with peers across the Customer team to leverage other data sources and share knowledge for delivering holistic customer understanding and best‑in‑class insight.
• Establish and manage the ongoing insights delivery for our customer satisfaction programme across 15 brands.
• Contribute to the ongoing dissemination of insight to the wider organization through newsletters, knowledge sessions, surgeries, etc.
• Coach and develop junior team members to deliver high‑quality, reproducible research and insight at pace.

What We Are Looking For…

• Core Technical Skills Expert analytical thinker with strong curiosity; comfortable across qualitative and quantitative data - and any other types of data. Deep general market research experience with advanced methodology and project expertise (segmentation, market sizing, pricing, brand tracking, conjoint/MaxDiff, etc.), including research design (sampling frameworks, weighting), and analysis (factor analysis, cluster analysis, regression, etc.). Has practical experience of execution of these. Meticulous attention to detail; robust validation and triangulation across sources. Experience of working with survey platforms, including scripting and QA‑ing quantitative studies and running qualitative research at scale. Experience of undertaking qualitative work, from moderation (IDIs, focus groups, online communities), to ethnographic and observational research and UX studies. Has practical experience of execution of these.
• Communication & Storytelling Clear, influential communicator to executive and cross‑functional teams. Storytelling that connects customer evidence to strategy, product, and partnership choices; strong visual presentation. Great at synthesizing complex information, gets to impact and action.
• Business & Strategic Acumen Good understanding of growth levers for media companies. Problem‑solver who prioritises initiatives with highest enterprise impact. Builds trusted relationships with senior stakeholders; facilitates alignment and influences decision‑making; acts as a trusted advisor. Collaborative, active listener; adapts approach to audience, scope, or new data.
• Personal Attributes Persistent, open‑minded, and committed to continuous learning; elevates team standards. Ethical steward of data and customer trust. Passionate, authentic, creative, and entrepreneurial.

Hearst UK is deeply committed to using our influential brands to reflect the world we want to live in – one that respects, protects, represents and uplifts the voices and opinions of all people. As a business, we recognise the significant benefits of creativity, collaboration and innovation that comes with diverse teams. Not only is diversifying the voices in our organization the right thing to do, but it also helps us to make powerful and exciting content that can be enjoyed by many more people. This is why we’re working to build a sense of true belonging within our business and foster a culture in which everyone feels heard.