Associate Director - Consumer & Retail

About us:

1Lattice is a 360-degree business decision support platform with a tech-enabled services stack of data, people network, and custom research. Powered by advanced tech tools and unique data-gathering approaches, 1Lattice offers an integrated product suite to make decisions smartly, right from Inputs to Validation, Execution and Measurement. 1Lattice works with clients and partners globally, helping them solve a wide variety of business and organizational problems through actionable research-led insights.

About the role:

As an Associate Director (AD), you will have four key responsibilities: (1) Driving account growth and supporting business development activities, (2) Client management, (3) Ensuring project delivery, and (4) Team management.

The foremost responsibility of this role is to drive account growth, client retention, and project profitability. You will be expected to seamlessly own and nurture existing client accounts for repeat and continued business, identify cross-sell and upsell opportunities within existing accounts, and ensure sustained client engagement. In addition, you will support the Director in business development activities, including proposal development, solutioning, and other pre-sales initiatives. Apart from ensuring account continuity and growth, you will also be responsible for the profitability of your projects by effectively managing direct and indirect costs. You will further contribute towards the development and enhancement of product offerings and capabilities within 1Lattice.

This role will be expected to develop close connections and relationships with senior level Consumer & Retail executives. This will require building and developing a wide network in the industry and leading interactions with them, playing a significant role in influencing their thinking, identifying potential project leads / opportunities / proposals and driving them to closure. This will also involve ensuring high quality project delivery through your teams to ensure high client satisfaction and repeat business.

This position will lead and drive delivery teams of 10+ members in the Consumer & Retail vertical for 1Lattice, including senior members who will be responsible for project delivery, and mid-junior levels for execution. This will involve supervising and guiding the research process and generating insights that help client make critical business decision across key sub-verticals within Consumer & Retail such as FMCG, Retail, E-commerce, D2C Brands, Consumer Durables, Home & Building Products, Electronics, and Apparel & Lifestyle.

You will also play a very important leadership role internally – to grow and engage your team and align them to the 1Lattice culture. As such, your team's success will also enhance your own personal results. You will support and promote the 1Lattice culture by motivating your team members, train them and help them develop their skills, showcase their talents, make them feel part of the 1Lattice family, and overall helping them grow professionally. As such, you will be responsible for both their growth as well as overall happiness.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Ensuring sustained growth and profitability of existing accounts through effective account farming, client retention, and identification of expansion opportunities within key accounts.
• Driving business continuity with existing clients, ensuring repeat business and long-term engagement from key accounts.
• Supporting the Director in business development activities, including proposal development, solutioning, client discussions, and other pre-sales initiatives.
• Driving sectoral marketing, industry visibility, representing the 1Lattice brand, and supporting lead generation and conversion initiatives.
• End-to-end ownership of project scoping and delivery by leading high-impact teams and ensuring overall client satisfaction and engagement.
• Driving thought leadership in projects and coming up with compelling approaches, frameworks, and solutions to client problems.
• Managing team growth and satisfaction – be responsible for their success as well as build a strong team culture.
• Play an active role in recruitment and build project delivery teams in your vertical.

Competencies and skills:

• Deep understanding of the Consumer & Retail domain - experience.
• Proven experience in business research / consulting / data services, with a minimum of 8+ years of experience leading and managing teams in the Consumer & Retails industry.
• Strong and credible industry relationships with the ability to manage senior stakeholder conversations, drive account growth within existing clients, understand client needs, and develop trusted relationships.
• Ability to create impactful proposals for specific projects with a tailored approach and support business development initiatives for maximum conversions.
• Demonstrated ability to execute/project manage large-scale projects from beginning to completion – having a strong orientation to planning work, defining scope and approach for assignments, and driving work through teams with high efficiency.
• Strong team management skills – building a strong team culture, driving high impact and efficiency, ensuring team growth and happiness.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills - deriving insights from data and conversations.
• Excellent communication skills - both written (slide / text output) and verbal (client presentations).