Senior Director, Mindset

WGSN Mindset is looking for a Senior Director in New York to lead the regional consultancy business, to shape and deliver the North America strategy and ultimately drive growth for WGSN.

A career with WGSN is fast-paced, exciting and full of opportunities to grow and develop. We're a team of consumer and design trend forecasters, content creators, designers, data analysts, advisory consultants and much more, united by a common goal: to create tomorrow. 

WGSN's trusted consumer and design forecasts power outstanding product design, enabling our customers to create a better future. Our services cover consumer insights, beauty, consumer tech, fashion, interiors, lifestyle, food and drink forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory. If you are an expert in your field, we want to hear from you.   

An influential leader within the WGSN Mindset team, primarily responsible for driving the growth of the business through shaping our client interactions, you will work closely with the other Senior Directors, commercial leaders within WGSN and the wider Mindset team. The Senior Director will build the consultancy offering across North America, with the main aim to identify, develop and refine new opportunities to deliver success for Mindset and inspire future strategies for our clients.

You will have a strong background in consultancy or extensive agency experience and proven success delivering strategy and foresight across a range of Fashion, Beauty, Food & Drink and Product Design industries.

The role will focus on two remits: external growth and internal optimisation from a client relationship and service level perspective. External growth will involve working with the Key Account Management teams and clients to identify innovative solutions and service levels across all relationships, particularly those across an extended time period and of a high value. 

Internal optimisation will largely focus on developing and strengthening the skillset of the Mindset team to manage large-scale clients, high investment consultancy relationships and accounts.  To ensure success, this role will work closely with the Mindset leaders to shape the business in a way that allows for this accelerated growth and capacity to manage larger and more senior client relationships.

You will be part of a dynamic and high-performing team, made up of 50+ consultants, strategists, researchers and data analysts who bring together bespoke solutions for a wide range of clients across the globe. You will be working with industry experts and thought leaders with backgrounds in creative strategy, product innovation, design, marketing, buying and merchandising, data analytics and of course, trend forecasting. 

- Shape the global Consulting strategy into a North America context and lead the implementation of it to drive revenue growth.

- Lead the delivery of the financial KPIs and metrics as outlined in annual billings & revenue targets 

- Work closely with the other Senior Directors,  identify new business opportunities and evolve the regional consulting proposition to address these.

- Alongside senior commercial leaders own & direct the largest and most senior regional clients,  build and nurture relationships to ensure excellent service levels.  

- Work closely with the Key Account Managers to define clear strategic directions for growth and the identification of new business opportunities specific to key clients and high value accounts  

- Accountable for the quality of all regional client work, ensuring excellence in strategic thinking and forecasting that is grounded in evidence and data.

- Lead specific project and client based teams to ensure high level thinking and strategic outcomes across deliveries, leading to client success and long-term relationships. 

- Line Management responsibility of direct senior reports and oversight of their teams to ensure successful delivery & growth of assigned accounts 

- Instill a deep understanding of client relationship management and service levels across all Consultancy job levels 

- Drive excellence across the capabilities, performance and skillset of the WGSN Mindset team, optimising team growth and progression.

- Fostering a dynamic, positive, inspiring and innovative culture to support the foundational growth of the Mindset team.

- Travel nationally and internationally to deliver high-value consulting projects to clients. 

- Consulting or agency experience is a must, demonstrating an understanding of the operational models that underpin commercial success for consultancy and the ability to implement strategy for an organization. 

- Track-record of managing high value client, project and retainer work upwards of $100K

- Commercial acumen and experience working with Enterprise and Global client teams. 

- Ability to pitch ideas both internally and externally to new clients, gaining the buy into approach 

- Experience working with clients in one or more of WGSN’s focus industries (Fashion, Beauty, Interiors, Food & Drink and Consumer Tech), and confident in delivering insights to senior client stakeholders. 

- Experience across qualitative and quantitative primary and secondary data sources, understanding how to build actionable and insightful strategic analysis.

- Strong knowledge of consumer behaviour, cultural insights, and market trends, with the ability to pinpoint trends that will have a great impact across industries. 

- A creative, innovation-driven and solution-minded approach with the ability to identify the differences and nuanced expression of trends at a regional and global level. 

- A critical thinker, able to consider both strategic and tactical implications. 

- Experience managing a mid-size team and direct reports driving both financial and people success 

- Confident and eloquent presentation skills to large audiences and senior leaders 

- Technical skills: Google Workspace, Google Slides / PPT report development. 

Our benefits and wellbeing package offers flexible benefits you can tailor to your own personal needs, including:  

- Paid Time Off – 15 days of vacation per year with an additional day for each year of service up to 20 days.  WGSN also observes the 12 Federal holidays.  We also offer 6 weeks of paid Parental Leave. 

- 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan – allows employees to save and invest for their own retirement on a tax deferred basis. WGSN matches 50% of the first 6% contributed by employees.   

- Dental and Vision plans with MetLife

- Health Care with Anthem & Blue Cross Blue Shield 

- Life Insurance, AD&D, Short and Long-Term Disability - all eligible employees receive coverage at no cost through Metlife

- Mental Health – WGSN provides many ways for employees to access mental health care including an Employee Assistance Program and inpatient, outpatient and virtual care if enrolled in an Anthem medical plan. Our EAP is available to all permanent staff, regardless of if you elect benefits.

WGSN is the global authority on consumer trend forecasting.

We help brands around the world create the right products at the right time for tomorrow’s consumer.

The future is everything, it happens everywhere. WGSN is the world-leading forecaster because we track and analyse consumer behaviours, product innovation, design and creativity, everywhere.

We utilise our global resources and intelligence to research, source and analyse quantitative and qualitative data to produce our forecasts. Everything we do is focused on working with our customers to create a successful and positive tomorrow.

We source, review and assess quantitative and qualitative data to produce robust, actionable forecasts. To provide credible insights and design solutions for our clients, it is essential that rigour runs through everything we do.

An inclusive culture is one of our key priorities. We want our people to truly be themselves and thrive. We love having a diverse team of people who bring new ideas, different strengths and perspectives & reflect the global audience we work with.

Inclusive workforce 

We are committed to supporting the environment and sustainability, including ensuring our pension plan defaults to sustainable options and striving to be net zero by 2030.

Recognising great performance is a key part of our culture. Our Awards schemes recognise and reward the brilliant achievements of our people.  

We offer a flexible working environment with a wide range of flexible, hybrid and agile working arrangements. Conversations about flexible working have always been—and will continue to be—actively encouraged here, but we do not offer full remote working. 

We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable during the process, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you.