Description:
Intelligence Lead

PRIMARY FUNCTION

The Intelligence team is responsible for developing actionable insights that inform Target's corporate strategy, planning, and portfolio decisions. To inform these decisions, the team must develop and maintain a deep and proactive understanding of rapidly evolving industry, consumer, competitor, and regional drivers and trends over multiple time horizons. The Intelligence Lead will specifically be responsible for generating industry and competitive intelligence and insights that help to drive Target's strategic decisions.

KEY OBJECTIVES

The candidate will be responsible for delivering one or more of the below key objectives:

• Serve as a trusted expert by developing and maintaining deep intelligence on industry, competitive, economic and regional trends that could cause disruption or opportunistic moments for Target.
• Create and execute various research methodologies in support of data-driven decision making.
• Leverage depth and breadth of internal and external data sources for holistic and unbiased insights on industry, competitive, economic and regional landscape.
• Collaborate with key business partners to secure and integrate intelligence while driving deeper understanding of market dynamics and competitive moves.
• Ensure constant and widespread understanding of trends and external factors across key partners at Target.
• Deliver proactive and actionable synthesis of competitive and market trends to Target's Leadership Team and key business partners

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The candidate will be responsible for one or more of the below principal duties and responsibilities:

• Leverage Intelligence Cycle to develop strategic questions, collection plans, and analysis to deliver clear, forward-looking insight
• Develop key indicators and thresholds to drive proactive monitoring competitor dynamics.
• Build network and leverage primary research capabilities to gain insights from key partners
• Develop deep understanding of competitor financial position and investment strategies
• Leverage structured methodologies to gain insight from complex data sets and long-term, ongoing analysis
• Develop specific scenarios based on insights and assess Target's strategy against probable outcomes through research and intelligence; support scenario planning and war gaming to pressure-test Target's strategies against market and competitive actions
• Serve as a trusted expert and consultant in proactively developing insights and intelligence in service of Target's existing and future strategic direction
• Maintain pulse and perspective on adjacent opportunities being considered within Target
• Integrate with enterprise planning process to ensure proper focus on external factors, trends, and intelligence across key planning milestones
• Ensure constant and widespread understanding of trends and external factors with key partners across Target

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

The candidate will be responsible for maintaining all of the following relationships:

• Reports to Director Intelligence
• Ongoing working relationships with strategy, finance, and insights functions across the organization
• Other key relationships with Merchandising, Marketing, Digital, Food & Beverage, Finance, Stores and Risk

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

The candidate will be responsible for having (or quickly learning) and maintaining best-in-class capabilities in the following:

• Proven ability to translate structured and unstructured data into meaningful objective intelligence through methodologies and analytical and conceptual frameworks
• Independent ability to drive structure out of ambiguity, connect dots across disparate insights, and structure synthesized output
• Diverse and rigorous problem-solving toolkit, inclusive of analytical, conceptual, and design thinking
• Proficiency with structured methods such as Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (ACH), i2 Analyst Notebook Link Charting, Multi-Criteria Intelligence Matrix, SWOT
• Ability to find creative solutions and analogies to seemingly unsolvable problem
• Firm understanding of all relevant insights and intelligence sources within scope for Target's enterprise business; deep understanding of the most relevant sources
• Ability to build strong relationships with internal insights teams, partnering to align on message, shared resources, and support shared goals
• Clear understanding of Retail and Target business model and capabilities, including strengths and weaknesses of both
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including through storytelling, succinct presentations, and thoughtful questioning
• Understanding and application of diverse set of engagement tools, inclusive of presentation, leading war gaming exercises, and co-creation
• Broad understanding of Target's strategic planning process; general understanding of the strategy development process, innovation tools, and business development
• Ability to quickly establish trust and credibility with leaders across all levels within Target

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• 4-year college degree with minimum 5 years of experience driving strategic business insights; Master's degree with one to three years of work experience in corporate strategy or competitive intelligence is highly desired
• Exceptional analytical and conceptual problem-solving skills and ability to synthesize and clearly communicate complex findings to focus on critical issues and actionable opportunities
• Ability to work both independently and lead cross-functional teams
• Ability to assimilate information quickly and to learn/ follow a systematic approach to strategic problem solving: define/ reframe key questions, develop hypotheses, structure quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop insights, formulate well-founded recommendations, and communicate recommendations to leaders at all levels of the organization, including senior executives
• Demonstrated success working closely with senior executive leaders, including influencing without authority
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills with a strong ability to tell compelling business and result stories.
• Innate curiosity and desire to learn with a strong inclination to drive for results in ambiguous spaces.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Target will provide reasonable accommodations (such as a qualified sign language interpreter or other personal assistance) with the application process upon your request as required to comply with applicable laws. If you have a disability and require assistance in this application process, please visit your nearest Target store or Distribution Center or reach out to Guest Services at 1-800-440-0680 for additional information.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Target will provide reasonable accommodations (such as a qualified sign language interpreter or other personal assistance) with the application process upon your request as required to comply with applicable laws. If you have a disability and require assistance in this application process, please visit your nearest Target store or Distribution Center or reach out to Guest Services at 1-800-440-0680 for additional information.

Qualifications: