Analyst, Consumer Insights

Job description

Job Description: Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses, and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, Rakuten International’s business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications, and entertainment. The company creates products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community. Rakuten Advertising provides advertising technology and consumer insights to the world’s leading brands and retailers. Working with agencies and brands globally, Rakuten Advertising brings together technology, client strategy, and consumer insights to deliver advertising experiences that drive increased brand awareness and marketing performance. With access to Rakuten’s diverse media properties and audiences, combined with an award-winning performance network and proprietary consumer research, it creates the right conditions to reach new customers and sustain long-lasting loyalty. Job Summary: The Analyst, Consumer Insights (Advanced Analytics) is an early-career role responsible for the execution, improvement and operational scaling of research-based deliverables, powered by licensed and internal data. This position focuses on building high-quality, repeatable analytical outputs (e.g., QBR decks/microsites, category scorecards/benchmarking, and ad hoc client questions) and strengthening the underlying workflows that produce them. This role is not expected to be client-facing. The Analyst partners closely with the VP of Consumer Insights and internal stakeholders to ensure insights are accurate, decision-oriented, and production-ready. The Analyst will also contribute to automation and modernization of the team’s workflow, including exploration and development of AI-enabled and agentic solutions that accelerate reporting, analysis, and presentation production. Responsibilities: Insights Production - Execute analyses using consumer panel data, internal affiliate network data, and other approved datasets to answer business questions related to e-commerce performance, category dynamics, shopper behavior and competitive benchmarking. Apply an understanding of research panel fundamentals (e.g., sampling, weighting/projections, bias considerations, panel stability) to interpret outputs responsibly and flag limitations in data or methodology. Support synthesis across disparate signals (panel vs. network vs. public/licensed sources), identifying where measures are directionally consistent, where they diverge and why. Recurring Deliverables and Content Development: Build and maintain standardized deliverables including QBR decks and/or microsites (structured narrative, consistent charts/tables, clear takeaways), category scorecards and benchmarking assets (definitions, consistent time windows, comparable cuts), and high-priority ad hoc analyses for internal teams supporting client questions. Maintain a strong focus on “what the client would want to know”, ensuring deliverables answer the underlying strategic question, not just the stated request. Reporting and Dashboard development: Utilize Looker, Strategy and BigQuery to build, QA and maintain dashboards and/or recurring reporting views. Perform basic-to-moderate updates and optimizations of existing reporting assets (e.g., trend views/cards), ensuring accuracy and usability. Support consistency between tool outputs and manual analysis, escalating discrepancies and proposing fixes. Data Quality, QA and Documentation: Perform data pulls, transformations, and structured QA checks to ensure accuracy and repeatability of deliverables. Investigate and reconcile discrepancies across toolsets, source extracts, and Excel-based outputs; document root causes and recommended remediation. Contribute to internal documentation regarding metric definitions, data source differences (panel vs. network), methodology notes, and reporting processes/templates. Workflow Automation & AI/Agentic Enablement: Identify repetitive workflows suitable for automation (data refreshes, table creation, charting, slide production, QA checks, documentation). Build or support lightweight automation using SQL and/or Python, and explore agentic workflows leveraging tools such as Claude Code to accelerate production and reduce manual effort. Maintain appropriate controls and review processes for any AI-assisted outputs to ensure accuracy, confidentiality, and reproducibility Specific tasks: QBR, Account Review and Microsite production support: Pull and QA recurring cuts (category, retailer, brand, channel, time period) and translate them into standardized story components Draft and format charts/tables in Excel; translate into PowerPoint or microsite-ready visuals aligned to internal templates. Produce first-pass insight write-ups (headlines + “what changed” + “why it matters” + “watch-outs/limitations”) for internal review. Category Scorecards / Benchmarking: maintain consistent benchmarking definitions (time windows, category mappings, retailer definitions, KPI logic). Refresh scorecards on a recurring cadence; ensure comparability across periods and across data sources Flag structural breaks (taxonomy changes, panel shifts, data availability changes) and propose mitigation. Ad Hoc requests: Respond to time-sensitive internal questions by quickly scoping the best available data source(s), producing a defensible read, and documenting assumptions Provide clean supporting exhibits (tables/charts) that can be dropped into client-facing materials after internal review. Strategy Dashboard Maintenance & QA: Build and maintain basic BI dashboards in Strategy. Investigate divergence between Strategy dashboards and 3rd party data sources Monitor recurring refreshes and validate that dashboards populate as expected. Automation / Agentic Workflows : Prototype automation workflows for repeatable steps in the production of insights (e.g., standardized exports, chart builds, slide assembly, QA checklists, brand kit adherence). Create maintainable internal assets (scripts, templates, prompt/playbooks) that reduce cycle time and improve consistency. Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Advanced Analytical Skills – Expert in analyzing and synthesizing complex information to understand issues, identify root causes, and propose optimal solutions. Demonstrated ability to independently translate ambiguous business requirements into precise analytical questions and comprehensive solution designs. Proven ability to utilize and expand prospective business models. Technical Abilities - Proficiency in Microsoft Excel (including advanced functions, VBA), Microsoft Powerpoint (clear slide structure, chart/table presentation, template discipline, speed). Experience with Strategy (MicroStrategy) or strong ability to learn it quickly is important, along with familiarity with BI concepts. Proficient in basic SQL – candidate is comfortable pulling/aggregating data; joins and basic transformations. Familiarity with Google BigQuery and basic Python is a plus. AI/Automation – demonstrated interest in applying modern AI tools (e.g., Claude Code) to improve analytical workflow efficiency and reduce manual production burden, plus interest in building or supporting agentic workflows with appropriate QA and controls. Organizing and Planning - Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent deliverables with deadlines (e.g., recurring QBR content plus ad hoc requests) with high attention to detail and version control discipline to ensure accuracy in repeatable outputs. Adaptability - Adaptable and proactive in responding to changing circumstances, effectively managing, solving problems, and providing innovative solutions in ambiguous environments. Communicating Effectively – Written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to adjust messaging to fit diverse audiences and deliver compelling presentations that drive action. Team Player – Proven ability to manage strong working relationships within the company, and actively contribute to team knowledge sharing, mentorship, and best practices. Critical Thinking – understanding how different data sources and signals may or may not reflect “truth” in e-commerce strategy; articulating limitations and confidence levels; and familiarity with concepts like regression and causality at a high level (not required to run advanced models). Understanding the Business – Working knowledge of digital advertising and specifically affiliate advertising is important in order to contextualize findings and recommendations for clients. Minimum Requirements: 1–3 years of experience in analytics, reporting, insights, consulting, or a related field. Consumer research panel literacy is required - understanding of how consumer research panels work and why weighting/projections, sampling, and bias matter Bachelor’s degree required. Five Principles for Success Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success. Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best H ypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team