Vice President, Research & Analytics,… at Ruder Finn · Austin

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, and creative teams to deliver impactful research, analytics, 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, and emerging technologies.

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 web analytics, social analytics, audience intelligence, and measurement strategy. 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 and analytics expertise
• Deliver market and audience intelligence, including social and digital landscape analysis, audience behavior analysis, sentiment analysis, keyword research, search performance, and competitive analysis such as share of voice and message pull-through
• Partner on client analytics discussions involving reporting, optimization, and recommendations to improve performance
• Build measurement frameworks, develop searches and dashboards, and create client-facing reports and insights
• 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, 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 media analytics, web analytics, and CRM measurement
• 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
• 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

Ruder Finn provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Ruder Finn will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Ruder Finn believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.