Together We Innovate. Together We Change.

Join us to help transform how innovation comes to life.  Looking for an opportunity to plan and execute research and synthesize insights from various sources, including customer feedback, competitor product analysis, market studies, and observational research?  Come join our team.

This role can be located in Richmond, VA or we are open to remote work arrangements.

We are seeking a UX Product Research Manager who will play a key role within Growth to elevate Altria’s ability to put the consumer at the center of all innovation with the purpose of delivering Altria’s goal to create a smoke-free future. Amongst their multi-functional Pod partners, the UX Product Research team must become true experts in the consumer, their habits, needs and compensating behaviors with today’s Nicotine solutions to envision, develop and deliver winning product experiences that delight smokers and other nicotine users with safer alternatives to fuel long-term sustainable growth.   

What You Will Be Doing:

•Contribute to opportunity identification: Partner with Consumer Insights to monitor trends, develop technical insights, and translate consumer and shopper learnings into actionable inputs for innovation.

•Design and lead consumer research: Develop and execute qualitative and quantitative research (e.g., surveys, focus groups, concept and usage testing) to evaluate products and concepts, using advanced sensory methodologies and analytics to generate actionable insights.

•Advance research innovation: Serve as a subject matter resource on emerging UX research methods, including the application of AI and synthetic consumer approaches to accelerate learning and improve efficiency.

•Translate insights into design strategy: Partner with leadership to define design criteria (e.g., points of parity, points of difference, desired consumer experience) and evaluate solutions against these benchmarks to drive in-market success.

•Enable ideation and concept development: Collaborate across internal and external teams to identify technical solution spaces, support ideation, and lead research to evaluate and prioritize concepts based on strategic and consumer criteria.

•Support claims and product storytelling: Partner with Marketing to develop product claims and consumer-facing demonstrations and lead the research required to validate and support those claims.

•Drive incubation and in-market learning: Design and execute in-market testing and usage studies, partnering with Consumer Insights to assess real-world performance and user experience.

•Support IP and regulatory strategy: Partner with Marketing, Legal, and Regulatory teams to inform intellectual property strategy and ensure solutions align with consumer and regulatory requirements.

We Want You to Have:

•Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Science, Sensory Science, Psychology, Human Factors, Consumer Science, Analytics or a related field.

•6+ years of experience in consumer-driven R&D or similar products research experience, with 3+ years of experience with creating and leading strategic research programs that help successfully launch new categories or sub-categories is preferred.  

•Fluent in advanced sensory methodologies and emergent consumer research technologies, including AI and it’s use for synthetic consumer research.

•Strong analytical, scientific method, and problem-solving skills to identify research challenges and propose and test practical and efficient solutions.

•Proficiency in typical CPG research methods, product testing, safety testing, and lab instrumentation.

•Experience working on disruptive or transformative innovation projects.

•Proven track record of working successfully with external partners and cross-functionally across R&D, Engineering, Marketing, Insights, Design, Regulatory, Law and Finance.