Senior Manager, Insights and Strategy - Santa Monica, 90404

Senior Manager, Insights and Strategy - Santa Monica, 90404, United States of America

How We LEAD:

Merchandise and ecommerce are part of the fabric of music culture. For artists, it’s a way to develop and further articulate their brand. For fans, it’s a pathway to connecting more deeply with the artists and the culture they represent.

Famehouse, UMG’s eCommerce division, powers direct-to-consumer businesses for UMG’s labels, artists, and partners—delivering creative storefronts, innovative product programs, and data-driven growth strategies.

The Insights & Strategy team sits at the center of this work. We transform data into direction, build the frameworks and tools that guide decision-making, and raise the strategic bar for D2C across UMG.

We are looking for a Senior Manager, Insights & Strategy —a hybrid strategist, analyst, and communicator who can lead complex workstreams, mentor junior team members, and directly influence the creative, operational, and technical decisions that shape our business.

This role can flex in multiple directions depending on the person’s strengths—strategic, analytical, technical, or some combination. We don’t expect mastery across all domains on day one; we do expect strong fundamentals and a desire to grow.

How You’ll CREATE:

Turn Ambiguity into Strategic Clarity

• Independently translate open-ended business challenges into structured analyses, insights, and actionable recommendations across product strategy, merchandising, marketing, forecasting, audience research, and more.
• Build clear narratives that resonate across a wide range of stakeholders—from creatives to executives to technical partners.

Build Tools, Frameworks & Business Intelligence

• Develop and refine scalable data models, dashboards, templates, and planning frameworks that improve decision-making for internal teams and label partners.
• Identify inefficiencies, gaps, data issues, or recurring pain points; design solutions that reduce manual work and increase quality.

Partner Deeply Across the Organization

• Develop trusted cross-functional relationships with label teams, creative stakeholders, operational leaders, and technology groups.
• Act as a strategic thought partner, leveraging insights and business intel to push work forward and elevate decision quality.
• Guide and mentor analysts, overseeing the quality, clarity, and impact of their work.

Advance Data & Technical Foundations

(The depth of this will depend on the candidate’s skill set—strong engineering experience is a plus, not a requirement.)

• Work with data engineering, product, and tech teams to influence data models, schemas, pipelines, QA processes, and upstream improvements.
• Help ensure our data infrastructure matches our strategic needs—connecting tools, enhancing data reliability, and improving accessibility.

Bring Your VIBE:

Fundamental Skills

• Strategic & analytical acumen: You can break down ambiguous questions, design rigorous analyses, and turn data into clear recommendations.
• Technical competency across:
  • SQL querying (intermediate to advanced)
  • Excel (pivot tables, modeling)
  • Data visualization (Tableau, Looker, Data Studio, or similar)
• Strong communication skills —verbal, written, and visual—tailored to executives, creatives, operators, and technical teams.
• Business fluency: Basic understanding of finance, marketing, operations, or business performance levers.
• Project management excellence with comfort juggling multiple deadlines.

Experience & Background

• 3–5+ years in analytics, business strategy, consulting, eCommerce, media/entertainment, data product, or similar data-driven roles.
• Experience leading workstreams, managing stakeholders, and mentoring analysts.
• Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally in fast-paced environments.

Preferred but Not Required

(Experience in any of these could shape your focus area.)

• Experience in entertainment, media, retail, or direct-to-consumer eCommerce.

• Data engineering, BI development, or data architecture experience (Python, dbt, Airflow, schema design, QA).
• Experience with Shopify, Google Analytics, BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar platforms.
• Personal passion for music, creative industries, or fan culture.

You Are Someone Who:

• Thinks in systems and structures, not just tasks.
• Enjoys solving complex, open-ended problems.
• Can zoom in to debug data and zoom out to build a strategic story.
• Loves improving processes and eliminating busywork.
• Is energized by both creative and technical domains.