Senior Research Lead (Thought Leadership), Customer Insights

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Job Category

Marketing & Communications

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

About the Role

Join Salesforce's Customer Insights team, a core function within the marketing organization responsible for delivering objective, actionable insights that shape our marketing strategy and external narrative. 

As Research Lead you will own research across two of the team's most visible programs: Buyer Insights, which informs how Salesforce goes to market, and Thought Leadership, which shapes our external narrative through major public-facing reports. You bring both research rigor and editorial instinct: you know how to design a credible study and how to make the findings land.

This is a hands-on role for someone with strong research instincts, a curiosity about buyers and the broader market landscape, and the drive to turn findings into stories that influence real decisions. Experience using AI to accelerate and enhance research work is a must.

What You'll Do

• Lead and Execute Primary Research.

  • Lead Buyer Insights Research: Design and execute research that builds a deep understanding of Salesforce's buyers (e.g., CIO, CDO studies), their motivations, pain points, and decision-making dynamics to deeply inform internal decision-making and strategic marketing for key products like Agentforce. Translate findings into recommendations that inform go-to-market strategy, product marketing, and competitive positioning.

  • Drive Thought Leadership Research Programs: Own your portion of the team's major public-facing research portfolio, including large-scale annual “State of” reports (e.g., State of Service, State of IT). Manage the full lifecycle from study design through external publication, working closely with PR and Marketing to ensure findings are accurate, compelling, and ready for the world.

  • Design and Execute Mixed-Method Studies: Translate business questions into research plans that draw on the right mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Work with external suppliers for most studies, and get hands-on when speed demands it, whether that means programming a survey or pulling a crosstab yourself.

• Synthesize Across Programs. Connect dots across buyer insights, thought leadership findings, and other team research to surface integrated conclusions. The most valuable insights often live at the intersection of multiple studies.

• Drive Stakeholder Alignment and Research Strategy. Scope studies with a clear point of view on what they'll answer and why it's worth the investment. Build the case compellingly when budget needs to comes from stakeholders — connecting the research to decisions they already care about. Proactively engage stakeholders to ensure research is scoped, prioritized, and positioned to drive real decisions.

• Data Visualization & Storytelling. Translate quantitative findings into clear, compelling visuals that communicate a "so what" to any audience. Strong data storytelling — choosing the right chart, framing the right narrative, and building slides that drive decisions — is as critical in this role as strong writing.

• Bring a Storyteller's Instinct. Understand how findings connect to the market’s broader narrative, what resonates with media and business audiences, and how to position insights for external impact — not only accuracy, but also value and influence.

• Leverage AI to Scale Your Impact. Use AI tools across the research lifecycle, from study design and analysis to synthesis and storytelling. Bring a curious, experimental mindset to finding where AI accelerates your work, and share what you learn with the broader team.

• Manage Suppliers and Research Partners. Own day-to-day relationships with external research agencies and vendors, holding them to high standards of quality and keeping projects on track.

 

What We're Looking For

• Genuine Curiosity — About buyers, business, technology, and the world. The best researchers bring outside context in, not just the data they collected.

• Research Experience — A strong foundation in primary research, quant crucial, qual a plus. You know how to design a credible study, interpret the results honestly, and know the limits of what the data can tell you.

• AI Fluency — You've built workflows around AI tools and have a point of view on what works. You'd never let AI distort a finding in the name of a cleaner story.

• Comfort with Ambiguity — You know how to make progress when things are unclear, and when to escalate rather than push through alone.

• Strong Editorial Instincts — You write and edit well. You know the difference between a finding and a story, and you can close that gap. You've worked in or alongside communications, content, or PR — or you've just always written like it mattered.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.

Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates’ resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.