Associate Director, Strategic Insights & Analytics

ABOUT THE POSITION 

As Associate Director, Strategic Insights and Analytics, you will serve as a senior people leader and individual contributor responsible for shaping how the business understands performance, anticipates what’s next, and makes better strategic decisions. This is a player–coach role, with direct ownership of proactive, forward‑looking insights and the Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE), while managing a team of analysts. 

You will partner closely with senior leaders across the entire organization to translate complexity into clear, actionable insights. This role requires a strong strategic lens, deep technical fluency, exceptional written and verbal communication, systems thinking, and comfort operating in ambiguity. The ideal candidate thrives in a role that blends strategic thinking with hands-on execution - someone who is energized by both producing sharp insights independently and elevating the work of a team. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Strategic Insights & Proactive Analytics  

• Own the development of forward‑looking, proactive insights that identify emerging risks, opportunities, and inflection points across the business 

• Lead work that answers questions such as “Where are clouds forming on the horizon?” and “What should we be thinking about that no one is talking about yet?”  by synthesizing trends across performance, customer behavior, competitive dynamics, and external macro signals 

• Develop and monitor leading indicators and early‑warning metrics; ensure insights are actionable, clearly communicated, and tied to business decisions 

• Frame ambiguous business questions, design analytical approaches, and guide work from hypothesis through executive‑ready recommendations 

• Serve as a trusted thought partner to senior leadership, influencing strategy through evidence‑based narratives rather than static reporting 

People Leadership & Team Management 

• Manage and develop a team of analysts responsible for: 

• • Historical performance analysis and lagging metrics 

• • Deep‑dive analysis into underserved or embedded business areas 

• • Targeted support for cross‑functional initiatives 

• Act as a hands-on coach, setting analytical direction, reviewing work, and modeling high standards for clarity, rigor, and storytelling 

• Prioritize team workload to focus on the highest impact problems, aligned with company goals 

• Provide clear feedback, mentorship, and growth opportunities for team members 

Business Partnership & Stakeholder Management 

• Build strong, trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across the organization, with a ‘one-team’ and partnership-oriented attitude 

• Translate complex analyses into concise narratives – speak the business’s language 

• Coordinate closely with other analytics teams and the data team to ensure alignment on definitions, metrics, and insights 

• Represent analytics in strategic discussions, ensuring data meaningfully informs decisions 

Systems Thinking & External Perspective 

• Apply systems thinking to understand how decisions and changes cascade across the business 

• Incorporate external context—competitive landscape, industry trends, and macroeconomic factors—into strategic analysis 

• Identify structural gaps in data, measurement, or decision-making processes and propose durable solutions 

Change Management 

• Apply a structured approach to guide teams and organizations from current state to an improved future state

• Influence across an organization without direct authority to drive substantial and durable change

• Embrace crucial conversations and communicate effectively across all levels of the company

• Guide business analytics through a team charter evolution, ensuring the team and company are clear on the goals and purpose of the team

QUALIFICATIONS 

• 8+ years of experience in analytics, strategy, consulting, finance, or a related field, with demonstrated progression into senior‑level responsibility 

• Proven ability to operate as both a strategic individual contributor and people leader 

• Strong technical skills across analytics and data tooling  (Preferred: familiarity with Databricks SQL, Power BI, or similar cloud-native analytics environments) 

• Exceptional ability to synthesize complex information into clear, executive ready insights 

• Strong business acumen – PL literacy, Ecommerce fluency, broad business knowledge 

• Experience working with senior leaders and influencing decisions in ambiguous environments 

• Demonstrated comfort thinking in systems and navigating tradeoffs across competing priorities 

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE 

• Leadership consistently relies on proactive insights to guide decisions, and the business directly benefits as a result 

• The business analytics team delivers work that is clearer, more strategic, and more impactful 

• Complex, ambiguous problems are routinely translated into actionable recommendations 

• Analytics is viewed as a strategic partner, not a reporting function 

Department: Finance - Business Analytics

Reports To: Senior Director of Finance & Business Analytics

Level: Associate Director

Location: Watertown, MA (hybrid - 2 days in office)

Base Salary: $185,000-210,000