CMI Director - Prestige

Job Title: CMI Director – Prestige

Location: London, Prestige Offices (other locations can be considered)

Reports to: VP Strategy & M&A

About Prestige
Founded in 2015 as a stand-alone global business unit (GBU), Unilever Prestige is now a leading global luxury beauty company and a powerhouse hub within Unilever. With a portfolio of nine authentic brands, Prestige has grown through consistent market-beating organic growth and strategic acquisitions. In 2024, Prestige reached €1.6bn in turnover, with ambitious goals to reach €3.5bn in organic growth and an additional €1.5bn through M&A by 2030—positioning us among the top five premium beauty players globally.

About the Role

The CMI Director – Prestige is the strategic insights partner for the Central and Brand teams. This role is responsible for embedding deep consumer understanding into brand strategy, innovation, and performance measurement to drive growth across our premium beauty portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Insight Leadership

• Define and lead the Prestige CMI strategy in alignment with brand and business priorities.
• Translate complex data into compelling insights that influence brand positioning, innovation, and communication.
• Partner with senior stakeholders to define KPIs and track brand equity, consumer engagement, and campaign effectiveness.

Innovation & Brand Building

• Identify emerging consumer needs and macro trends to inform innovation and brand stretch opportunities.
• Guide concept development and testing to ensure consumer desirability and market fit.
• Champion the voice of the consumer in all brand-building activities.

Performance & Foresight

• Lead the development of performance dashboards, brand health tracking, and competitive intelligence.
• Use predictive analytics, social listening, and behavioural data to anticipate shifts in consumer behaviour.
• Provide foresight to inform long-term brand and portfolio strategy.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead and develop a high-performing CMI team.
• Build CMI capabilities across the Prestige organisation, including storytelling, data fluency, and agile research methods.
• Establish a Consumer Insights CoE for Prestige, ensuring the adoption of innovative methodologies, capability building and knowledge sharing across the portfolio.
• Create and embed a consumer first culture within Prestige, ensuring the consumer is at the heart of brand decision making and shaping strategies, driving a step change in how CMI is leveraged across the division.

Must-Have Skills & Experience

• Proven track record in senior CMI roles, ideally within premium beauty, luxury, or lifestyle categories.
• Ability to shape and influence brand and business strategy through insight.
• Deep passion for understanding consumers and translating insights into action.
• Strong command of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including brand tracking, innovation testing, and U&A studies.
• Exceptional ability to craft compelling narratives and influence senior stakeholders.
• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams.
• Proven experience applying innovative research and testing methodologies, including the use of AI and digital tools.
• Comfortable working with data platforms, dashboards, and analytics tools.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Familiarity with foresight tools and cultural trend mapping
• Experience in agile research and innovation sprints.
• Proficiency in tools like Meltwater, Circana Unify+, Numerator or similar.
• Experience working in a global or multi-market environment.
• Strong track record of working with marketing, R&D, and commercial teams.
• Demonstrated ability to foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation and fast learning in an agile and entrepreneurial environment