Insights & Planning Associate Manager

What You’ll Be Serving Up:

At KFC, we believe the best ideas start with the consumer. The Insights & Planning Associate Manager will help keep the KFC Global Marketing team closely connected to the lives, needs, and motivations of consumers around the world — transforming insights into action that fuels brand growth and innovation.

This role supports the Global Insights & Innovation agenda by managing global research programs, building market capability, and helping teams across regions uncover and apply consumer, category, and cultural insights to strategic decisions. Working across markets and functions, this person will bring clarity, curiosity, and creativity to how we understand our brand and business — ensuring KFC continues to be a relevant, distinctive, and loved brand around the world.

Here’s How You’ll Spice Things Up:

1. Lead and Execute Global Insights Programs

• Manage day-to-day partner relationships for key global brand tracking and research programs, ensuring quality delivery and actionable outcomes.
• Support deployment of KFC’s global brand health and diagnostic tools — enabling markets to measure, understand, and act on performance drivers.
• Optimize ROI and value from insights investments by fostering strong relationships with vendor partners and building capability within Business Units (BMUs) and franchisees.

2. Strengthen Brand Equity & Business Understanding

• Contribute to evolving KFC’s global brand equity model, connecting brand performance to business growth drivers.
• Build new analytical frameworks and tools — such as segmentation, sales analysis, category and usage occasion modeling, or predictive market testing — that help markets uncover growth opportunities.
• Synthesize insights into simple, visual stories that help brand and marketing teams take informed action.

3. Enable Strategic Planning & Decision-Making

• Support global marketing leads and cross-functional partners on strategic projects including brand positioning, innovation pipelines, and category expansion. Lead research initiatives so said projects with a deep understanding on correct approach and methodologies to answer strategic questions effectively.
• Partner with Finance and Strategy teams to connect consumer and category insights to business performance — informing quarterly reviews, leadership updates, and earnings call narratives.
• Collaborate across global markets to proactively identify key consumer shifts, category dynamics, and cultural trends that could impact future growth.

4. Build Capability & Best Practice Across the System

• Develop and help deploy standardized best practices and protocols for research and testing (concepts, products, pricing, and menu optimization) that support strategic priorities of all BUs.
• Build a connected global Insights community — fostering collaboration, sharing best practices, and developing collective intelligence across markets.
• Support the creation of an “always-on” system for curating and sharing global consumer, category, and food trends in partnership with suppliers and agency partners.

5. Drive Insight-Led Storytelling & Influence

• Translate data and findings into compelling, actionable narratives that influence decision-making at all levels.
• Help prepare materials and presentations for senior leadership, connecting insights to strategic priorities and brand storytelling.
• Champion a culture of curiosity and consumer-centricity across Global Marketing and the broader organization.

What You Bring to the Table:

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Behavioral Science, or related field.
• Master’s preferred.
• 4–6 years of experience in consumer insights, brand strategy, or marketing analytics; global or multi-market experience preferred.
• Proven experience managing research programs (brand tracking, segmentation, concept/product testing, etc.) and interpreting syndicated data (e.g., Nielsen, Kantar, IPSOS, etc.).
• Research proficiency across both qualitative and quantitative methodologies — from survey design and focus groups to analytics and modeling.
• Data science literacy — comfortable interpreting datasets, identifying trends, and partnering with analytics teams to extract business-relevant insights.
• Technical & analytical tools: high proficiency in Excel and working familiarity with research dashboards, analytics platforms, and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, brand tracking portals).

Experience: 

Skills & Mindset

• Strong analytical, interpretive, and storytelling skills — connecting data to decisions.
• Skilled in project management and partner coordination across multiple markets and time zones.
• Curious and proactive problem-solver, comfortable navigating ambiguity and influencing without authority.
• Passionate about culture, consumers, and the restaurant/food category.

What Success Looks Like:

• Markets and franchisees are empowered to use insights tools confidently and strategically.
• KFC Global Marketing has a clear, actionable view of brand health, category dynamics, and consumer trends.
• Insights are seamlessly embedded in strategy, innovation, and communications decisions.
• The global system grows stronger through shared learning and capability building.
• The brand feels a step ahead of category trends and culture.

What’s In It for You:

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Opportunity to innovate within a global brand and make a significant impact.
• Collaborative, fast-paced work environment with a focus on professional growth and development.

Salary Range: $110,000 - 123,000 annually + bonus eligibility. This is the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, in determining pay, we'll consider the successful candidate’s location, experience, and other job-related factors.