Director of Business Analytics North America at Bel Brands USA – Chicago, Illinois

Job Description Summary

At Bel, the vision for the Strategic Insights department (SI) is to become a competitive advantage for the company, ​running a Best-in-class Insights & Foresights factory, powered by big & smart data analytics.

The Director of Business Analytics North America belongs to the global SI team (around 20 people), with a direct reporting line to the Head of Strategic Insights for North America. This hybrid role will be located in Bel’s Chicago or New York City US HQ offices. The Director of Business Analytics, North America, is a strategic leadership position focused on driving data-driven decision-making and business growth across the U.S. and Canada. This role collaborates with various departments, including marketing, innovation, finance, supply chain, and sales—to turn consumer and market insights into actionable strategies. This role brings together consumer understanding, shopper insights, advanced analytics, and market performance data to shape strategy and fuel brand growth. This position also supports global initiatives by sharing North American insights and activating global Strategic Insights tools across the region. The Director of Business Analytics will have a Business Analyst as a direct report.

Main responsibilities include:

Support the Head of Strategic Insights for North America & broader North America Strategic Insights team to lead the relevant learning agenda & roadmap to address local key business priorities. 

• Leverage trends, data, consumer & shopper insights, and other relevant resources, such as macroeconomics, to inform local strategies, accelerate business growth and identify new business opportunities. 

• Identify learning gaps and turn them into learning roadmap with clear objectives.
• Manage the Analytics portion of the Strategic Insights budget with agility and a strong ROI mindset
• Leverage data & analytics agency partnerships to maximize added value. 

• Recommend potential new vendors and methodologies to address key business issues in the most efficient and impactful way.

Drive and expand data & analytics culture and usage (sell out data, consumer data, retailer data)

• Drive business and brand performance analysis and processes.
• Develop and manage analytic tools on both ongoing and ad-hoc basis in partnership with Global Business Analytics lead.
• Support the development and adoption of forecasting and analytics tools.
• Strengthen North America’s data-driven culture and insights-led decision making
• Upskill & Train the local teams leveraging analysis templates and tools developed by the Strategic Insights Business Analytics group (RGM, Sales uplift, etc.)
• Lead the data set-up of the new “(healthy) snacking” competitive environment
• Leverage various data sources (POS data, HH purchase dynamics, consumption trends, etc.) to explain drivers of business performance and inform tactical & strategic business decisions with actionable recommendations.
• Translate data into clear, persuasive reports and presentations for senior leadership.
• Support Marketing, Sales, Finance and Supply Chain teams in category and retail ad hoc analysis to understand underlying trends and impact to brand/retailer volume performance.
• Drive media effectiveness and efficiency for all brands. Provide guidance on opportunities to optimize or improve marketing effectiveness and efficiency by leveraging Growth Drivers Models.
• Recommend appropriate tools to measure marketing campaigns effectiveness and ROI (i.e. marketing mix, etc.) according to level of investment, stakes and Bel Group requirements. Partner with the global business analytics lead on measurement projects pilot and internalization (in-house MMM)
• Build and lead the North America learning agenda aligned with business priorities.
• Identify insight gaps and recommend the right mix of syndicated data and custom research.

Lead and coach the NorAm cheese & squeeze business analyst

• Actively identify strengths and areas of opportunities for the Business Analyst through regular feedback, hands on coaching and stretch assignments that build confidence and leadership capabilities.
• Build development plans for the team to grow their skillset in alignment with the company needs and vision for the North American Strategic Insights department
• Create a culture of analytical rigor by setting standards for data quality, validation and insight generation across the team.

Contribute to the Strategic Insights full team life and mission:  

• Responsible for transversal projects in the SI Community and Share business cases and best practices with other members across the globe. 
• Roll out & amplify Strategic Insights global Business Analytics programs.

PROFILE/SKILLS

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred
• Minimum 10 years of experience and expertise as business analyst & consumer insights with a strong focus on business analytics, in FMCG space.

• Mastery working with data and data providers such as Circana/ Nielsen, Kantar, retailer data and loyalty cards analytic programs

• Experience working in a multicultural, international environment / company is necessary. 
  • Experience partnering with North American commercial teams; international experience is a plus.
  • Fluent in English; French is a plus 

 Technical skills

• Excellent analytical skills and experience manipulating large, complex datasets from multiple sources (Nielsen, IRI, etc.), coupled with solid business thinking.
• Expertise in ad hoc research
• Affinity for visualizing data in a way that is relevant to answering specific business questions 
• Business-oriented strategic thinker with strong synthesis and storytelling skills.
• Proactive, autonomous, and solutions-focused; comfortable navigating ambiguity.
• Curious mindset with interest in new tools and approaches (AI, DIY research, etc.)
• Advanced skills in Excel, Power BI, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.

Soft skills

• Accountable, autonomous & proactive  
• Strong business acumen
• Strong capacity to connect the dots: Ability to translate data analysis into clear presentations with actionable insights and recommendations.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to see the strategic implications for the business in the big picture.

• Excellent storyteller, leveraging effective & impactful communication skills
• Engaged team player with strong collaboration and cross-functional partnership skills- must be comfortable working with teams throughout the organization (horizontally and vertically), with drive and enthusiasm.
• Solid Influencing skills – has a point of view, articulates it, and can influence senior leadership at local and global level.
• Curious learner, with strong appetite for new tools and approaches (AI, DIY, etc.)
• Eager to work with people from different countries and cultures
• Flexible and agile, with capacity to overcome obstacles & create solutions when they don’t exist. Problem solving skills.

Total Rewards

• Base Salary: $185,000 - $210,000 (based on experience and location of role Chicago or NYC)
• Bonus Opportunity: 28%
• PTO and Medical, Dental and Vision Benefits from Day 1
• 401k Match