Senior Research Director

Practice Name: Hackett Group Advisory Market Intelligence

Job Title: Senior Director, Advisory Market Intelligence (Procurement Analyst)

Job Location: United States, Location is Flexible

Practice Overview:

The Hackett Group’s Vendor Enablement Program is designed to help software and service vendors stand out from their competitors and gain visibility with potential buyers. Hackett insights, curated from our many years of measuring top performance, help identify the buying decision factors most important to the vendor’s current and future clients.

The program provides clarity on what decision-makers in your market really value and how you can deliver that value better than the competition. Through the combination of empirical, data-driven insights and a cutting-edge method of competitive evaluation, The Hackett Group positions you to accelerate sales.

Procurement Analyst Overview:

We are seeking an individual who will serve a pivotal role in our overall Market Intelligence practice, the goal of which is to develop Market Intelligence into a respected and profitable Hackett Group practice through the creation of high value IP and services that can be marketed and sold to vendors and be leveraged by existing Hackett buyer-focused programs (e.g., Advisory, Consulting, IPaaS, Events).

Job Responsibilities:

The role of the Analyst is to help grow our practice through the development of an innovative and relevant research agenda, execution and delivery of that research, and engagement with the Vendor community and broader market.

The role encompasses three major responsibilities:

• Research Agenda and Thought Leadership
• Establish a provocative and relevant research agenda that will serve as the basis for intellectual capital and thought leadership to the Vendor Enablement Program members; as well as the broader client base of The Hackett Group when deemed appropriate.
• Collaborate with both internal and external constituents (e.g., Advisors, Practice Leaders, Hackett SMEs, Advisory board, clients, vendors, associations) to understand broad Procurement trends, chart the above agenda, and develop innovative insight.
• Support communication and dissemination of Hackett perspectives and thought leadership across a broader internal constituency of marketing, public relations, and practice leaders.
• Research Lifecycle Management and Delivery: The role includes conducting research, analyzing studies or other existing output or sources, and writing research pieces to meet the overall research agenda.
• Manage the research life cycle including: the development and maintenance of the research agenda and portfolio, execution of the data acquisition strategy, analysis of findings, and production of the research results.
• Lead data acquisition to support research production; working with relevant Advisors. Depending on the research portfolio type, this may involve the development and execution of quick polls, performance studies, interviews, and/or analyses of the Hackett benchmark database to arrive at findings and themes which are the basis for the research deliverables.
• Execute research deliverables. Drive completion of Hackett research portfolio -- traditional research papers, case studies, Digital Briefing Books, Spotlight Reports, Book of Numbers, and TBD – through direct authoring and occasionally coordination for non-traditional deliverables.
• Coordinate with key stakeholders to achieve this lifecycle including Advisor liaison, research analysis team, editor, practice leaders, and overall research team and leader.
• Vendor Sales and Marketing Enablement: The responsibility of the Analyst is to collaborate with our client vendors to develop marketing assets and complete program deliverables which may include but are not limited to the following:
• Infographics
• Case studies
• Market moments
• Solution spotlights
• Matrix reports
• Digital transformation in action webcasts
• Vendor sponsored webcasts
• Social media postings
• Consultations
• Research reports and summaries
• Customized content

We expect the role to be relatively fluid, evolving with the capabilities of the individual. Current thinking is the role will dedicate approximately 50% of the time to vendor sales and marketing enablement with the balance of the time executing the research management delivery lifecycle.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills:

Overall, this role must have a passion for Procurement technology, research, analysis, and collaboration with vendors on sales and marketing enablement programs. Qualified candidates must have excellent writing and analytical skills, strong communication skills, leadership skills, and a strong executive presence.

Specific key requirements for the position include:

• Develop recognized vendor domain expertise for their area of coverage (annual research agenda)
• Create and execute on a domain research agenda and list of vendors within prioritized areas
• Work with Account Managers on MIP client and non-client relationship development – Be Hackett’s face on monthly vendor client calls
• Attend key vendor briefing events and develop a position on all key vendors within their domain (prioritize)
• Work with Account Manager to front end all MIP contract deliverables (review and understand existing)
• Advisors remain the SMEs for buy-side clients, analyst for all sell-side (vendor) clients – including IPaaS
• Analysts to pull in advisors and other Hackett resources as needed to meet contract deliverables
• Analysts to have their own public voices beyond advisory positions
• Help Account Manager onboard all new vendors
• Increase the size of their domain’s ACV
• Work with Sales on developing pricing and draft SOWs
• Content development:
• 2 Value Matrix studies per year
• 5 research pieces per quarter relevant to their area of coverage
• (e.g., market landscape, market changes, trends/predictions, technology impact, solution position) – leverage advisory research and put into 1-2 pages of why it matters to our vendor clients
• 1 hallmark survey per year (500+)
• Bi-monthly video blogs (with guest experts)
• Support for Advisor and/or Consulting teams on vendor selection processes
• Exceptional oral and written communications skills
• Presentation skills
• Ability to write in a clear, concise, and interesting manner
• Experience in writing about Procurement subject matter; as a consultant, writer, or industry practitioner.
• Ability to draw insight from analysis of data, secondary and primary research, and then accurately simplify for consumption by a non-specialist audience
• Highly competent with MS Office products, especially Excel and PowerPoint
• Ability to work well within a virtual team and with limited supervision
• Capable of developing creative solutions and value propositions
• Proven track record of delivering professional services to Fortune 500 clients
• Ability to help clients solve problems that deal with business strategies, information requirements, processes, organization, and technology

Appendix: Preferred Topical Areas of Experience

This position must be comfortable with and demonstrate understanding of a broad set of Procurement topics including but not limited to:

• Upstream Procurement technologies
• Spend analytics
• E-sourcing
• Contract lifecycle management
• Downstream Procurement technologies
• E-procurement
• E-invoicing
• E-payables
• Supplier onboarding / portals
• Supporting and emerging Procurement technologies
• Digital automation (AI, GenAI, ML, orchestration, etc.)
• Procurement service delivery model design elements
• Governance
• Policies
• Operating models
• Organization and talent
• Process design
• Service placement
• Information and analytics
• Technology infrastructure
• Procurement strategies and capabilties
• Spend cost reduction
• Supply continuity
• Supplier risk management
• Supplier relationship management
• Master data management
• Category management
• Strategic sourcing
• Spend analytics
• Sustainability
• Supplier diversity