The AVP, Customer Research leads the enterprise customer research function, ensuring high-quality, decision-ready insights that shape strategy, enable growth priorities, and embed the customer voice across Canadian Tire Corporation. Reporting to the VP, Customer Strategy & Enablement, this role oversees research strategy, vendor and panel ecosystems, and insight delivery in support of CCG, Lighthouse initiatives, category strategy, and enterprise performance management. The AVP partners deeply with Marketing, Merch, Digital, Loyalty, Owned Brands and Corp Dev to ensure research investments are prioritized, actionable, and clearly linked to business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Own enterprise customer research strategy and portfolio aligned to True North Strategy, CCG, Lighthouse enablement, and key enterprise priorities, including intake, prioritization, design, execution, and synthesis of insights.

Ensure research directly informs decision-making by partnering with business leaders to shape problem statements, clarify trade-offs, and deliver actionable recommendations tied to business outcomes.

Oversee the research ecosystem across vendors, partners, and the company's owned research panel, ensuring strong panel health, quality, representativeness, value, and innovation.

Advance modern research methodologies including always-on tracking, micro-occasion insights, and agile learning approaches.

Manage research budgets to drive efficiency and reinvest in higher-value learning.

Strengthen insight storytelling, activation, and change enablement so outputs are clear, compelling, and build confidence in customer-led decisions across the enterprise.

Create a high-performance,



customer-obsessed culture that values curiosity, rigor, and collaboration.

What You Bring

10+ years of progressive experience in customer research, insights, strategy, or analytics within a complex organization.

Strong leadership and stakeholder influence, including leading senior practitioners and external partners and influencing at AVP, VP, and executive levels.

Deep expertise across qualitative and quantitative methods, including syndicated, custom, advanced analytics, trackers and agile research approaches.

Hands-on panel management experience, including overseeing an owned research panel and maintaining robust panel health to ensure quality, representativeness, and reliability of insights.

Strong strategic and commercial orientation, connecting insights to enterprise strategy, business priorities, and financial outcomes.

Communicate with clarity and impact, simplifying complexity and delivering clear, compelling insights to senior, time-constrained audiences.

Manage research budgets and vendor portfolios effectively to maximize efficiency, value, and impact.

Experience applying AI in research, including using AI-enabled tools to accelerate insight generation, improve synthesis, enhance research operations, and identify opportunities to modernize how customer learning is delivered.

Bachelor's degree required; a graduate degree (MBA or equivalent) is an asset.

10+ years of progressive experience in customer research, insights, strategy, or analytics. Deep expertise across qualitative and quantitative methods. Hands-on panel management experience. Experience applying AI in research. Bachelor's degree required; MBA or graduate degree is an asset.

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📌 AVP, Customer Research (Ontario)
🏢 Canadian Tire Corporation
📍 Ontario