Vice President, Research & Analytics, TechLab, Ruder Finn

Ruder Finn is seeking a Vice President of Research & Analytics to join its award-winning TechLab team. This role will serve as a strategic partner across the agency, collaborating with client leaders, branding and communications strategists, creative teams, and paid media specialists to deliver impactful research, analytics, measurement, and insight-driven strategies for clients and prospects. The position works closely with teams across the U.S. and India in a highly collaborative, fast-paced environment focused on innovation, AI, emerging technologies, and integrated marketing performance. 

The ideal candidate brings strong strategic thinking capabilities and deep expertise across research methodologies, analytics platforms, storytelling, and data interpretation. They should be highly skilled in translating complex data into actionable insights and compelling narratives, with experience spanning paid media analytics, web analytics, social analytics, audience intelligence, and measurement strategy. This leader will establish reporting frameworks, measurement standards, and governance practices that drive consistency and scalability across client programs while advancing automated reporting solutions that reduce reliance on manual reporting. This role is both strategic and hands-on, supporting major client accounts while contributing to the agency’s broader AI and technology initiatives. It is an opportunity to help shape the future of research and analytics within a growing, technology-forward organization. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Drive complex and diverse communications research projects, including primary research (quantitative and qualitative), measurement, and secondary research in partnership with account teams  

• Provide strategic counsel to clients and internal teams through data-driven insights analytics expertise and integrated measurement strategies 

• Deliver market and audience intelligence, including social and digital landscape analysis, audience behavior analysis, sentiment analysis, keyword research, search performance, paid media performance analysis and competitive analysis such as share of voice and message pull-through  

• Partner with client teams and paid media specialists on analytics discussions involving campaign measurement, reporting, optimization, attribution, and recommendations to improve performance across integrated marketing programs 

• Build measurement frameworks, develop searches and dashboards, and create client-facing reports and insights across paid, earned, owned and shared channels  

• Establish standardized reporting frameworks, KPI definitions, data governance practices, and quality assurance processes that improve reporting consistency, scalability, and accuracy across the agency.  

• Partner with leadership to advance automated reporting dashboards and business intelligence solutions that reduce manual reporting while improving efficiency and decision-making 

• Analyze paid media performance across search, social, display, video, programmatic, and emerging digital channels, delivering actionable insights and optimization recommendations tied to client business objectives 

• Collaborate with paid media, strategy, and communications teams to develop holistic measurement frameworks and evaluate campaign effectiveness through attribution modeling, conversion analysis, ROI measurement, and cross-channel performance reporting 

• Conduct AI-search visibility research and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) analysis across multiple platforms and model ecosystems  

• Develop strategic insights into how content is surfaced, ranked, and synthesized within AI-driven search systems  

• Translate data into meaningful storytelling, actionable insights, and strategic recommendations that support client planning and decision-making  

• Stay informed on emerging analytics technologies and recommend new tools and platforms that enhance agency capabilities  

• Mentor and support research analysts and analytics managers by sharing best practices and helping improve reporting quality, speed, and accuracy  

• Collaborate closely with creative planning, strategy, paid media, and other cross-functional teams across the organization  

• Support agency-wide training initiatives focused on analytics, measurement, and AI capabilities  

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related field  

• 7+ years of experience working with an integrated marketing and communications agency or in-house experience in research, analytics, or insights-focused roles  

• Advanced experience working with frontier AI models (e.g., LLMs) and evaluating their behavior in real-world applications  

• Proficient in leveraging agentic platforms to design, build, and optimize automated research workflows  

• Experience implementing scalable automation pipelines to improve data collection, analysis, and insight generation  

• Experience defining measurement plans and analyzing performance across marketing campaigns, including paid media analytics, web analytics, social analytics, CRM measurement, and cross-channel attribution   

• Experience evaluating paid media performance across platforms such as Meta, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Google Ads, GA4, and others 

• Skilled in creating complex Boolean queries and using analytics tools such as Cision, Brandwatch, Talkwalker, Rival IQ, Meltwater, and Signal AI  

• Expertise in Excel, Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and one or more contemporary data visualization platforms (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio), along with SQL  

• Experience with AWS, Python, R, or other statistical computing/programming languages is a strong plus  

• Experience working with third-party APIs for data collection and processing  

• Ability to evaluate and manage analytics tools and platforms, including vendor relationships and quarterly audits  

• Experience establishing reporting governance, KPI frameworks, dashboard automation, and data quality standards across multiple client accounts 

• Strong ability to synthesize data into actionable insights and compelling narratives  

• Excellent problem-solving, critical thinking, and independent decision-making skills  

• Strong project management capabilities with the ability to adapt, prioritize, and manage multiple workstreams in a fast-paced agency environment  

• Experience collaborating across multiple client accounts and cross-functional teams  

• Experience across healthcare, consumer, B2B, and technology sectors is preferred but not required  

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills 

. Benefits & More 

• You will receive a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity 

• You will also be able to enroll in our Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, as well as 401k (match) plan 

• Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc. 

• Generous PTO policy with paid maternity/paternity leave 

• Professional learning and development opportunities 

• Workplace flexibility 

• On-site and off-site social gatherings