Research Programs & Market Insights Lead, Product Marketing

NetApp - Research Programs & Market Insights Lead, Product Marketing

Job Summary

NetApp is looking for a Senior Competitive Intelligence Manager to lead research and market insights programs. As a senior individual contributor, you will set the research agenda, direct a network of research partners, and ensure our studies are rigorous and tied to real business decisions. Your work will give us an evidence-based understanding of what customers are trying to accomplish, how they make decisions, and how they view the market.

This is a strategic, high-visibility role for someone who shapes the questions, oversees the work, and communicates what it means. You will brief senior leaders, lead through influence, and operate with autonomy in a fast-changing environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Research Programs: Lead the primary research program for Product Marketing and Product, setting priorities and quality standards.

• Lead Through Partners: Direct research agencies and panel providers to execute studies end to end, managing scope, methodology, and budget. Oversee workstreams and review design and findings for rigor and quality.

• Understand Customers and Buyers: Lead research on customer needs, jobs to be done, buyer journeys, and decision-making, and bring findings together into a clear, customer-centered view of the market.

• Market Sizing and Segmentation: Lead market sizing and segmentation research to inform how we understand the markets we serve and new developing markets.

• Customer Decision Dynamics: Direct structured research, including win/loss, to understand how customers evaluate and choose, and turn the findings into insight for go-to-market and product teams.

• Brief Senior Leaders: Present findings to senior and executive management in Product Marketing and Product Management with clear, decision-ready insight.

• Drive Thought Leadership: Develop research perspectives on customer and market trends that inform strategy and messaging.

• Lead Through Influence: Guide cross-functional initiatives, apply modern tools and AI to improve how research is done, and mentor colleagues.

• Job Requirements

• Domain Expertise: Deep technical understanding of the technologies, architectures, and go-to-market strategies within the B2B Data, AI, and Cloud Infrastructure industries.

• Proven CI Execution: 10+ years of hands-on experience in competitive intelligence, technical product marketing, or sales engineering, with a proven track record of personally creating high-impact competitive content.

• Hands-on Tool Proficiency: Direct experience using and managing competitive intelligence platforms (e.g., Klue, Crayon) and conversational intelligence tools (e.g., Gong) to gather field insights.

• Strong Research & Synthesis

Skills

• Proven ability to independently dig through competitor documentation, financial filings, and analyst reports to extract actionable, validated insights.
• Sales Collaboration: High comfort level working directly alongside Field sales teams in active sales cycles, translating technical specs into "how-to-win" sales talk-tracks.
• Execution-Oriented: A self-starter who thrives on detailed execution, with the ability to own projects end-to-end without administrative oversight or direct reports.
• Superior Communication: Outstanding oral and written communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field.

• MBA and/or a strong technical background in data management or AI/ML workloads is highly preferred.

• Equivalent combination of additional experience as stated above can be considered in place of academic degree listed.

• At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

• NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

• Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

• At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

• NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

• Our culture

• We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

• If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.

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• NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status and any other protected classification. We pledge to take every reasonable step to ensure that our applicants and employees are respected, treated fairly and with dignity. See the EEO poster, Know your rights poster, and NetApp EEO policy. NetApp makes reasonable accommodations, consistent with applicable laws, for religious purposes and for the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified applicant or employee with a disability, who can perform the essential job functions unless undue hardship would result.

• State-specific postings/notices to applicants regarding contract compliance can be found here in English and here in Spanish,