Head of Data Driven Insights, Square Enix
Developing, publishing, and marketing interactive entertainment titles
Job no longer available
Developing, publishing, and marketing interactive entertainment titles
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
1001+ employees
Company mission
To spread happiness across the globe by providing unforgettable experiences.
Role
Who you are
- 12+ years of leadership experience in consumer insights, marketing science, analytics, or business intelligence, with global scope
- Proven ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams spanning research, forecasting, analytics, and data culture or BI functions
- Deep expertise in qualitative and quantitative consumer research, including global market segmentation and cultural insight translation
- Strong command of forecasting methodologies and business planning processes for entertainment or digital content slates
- Demonstrated track record in applying advanced analytics, statistical modeling, and AI or machine learning to real business outcomes
- High level financial literacy, including ability to connect insight outputs to P&L impact, investment allocation, ROI, and TSR drivers
- Practical experience with BI ecosystems and data governance, including data pipelines, data quality standards, and scalable visualization platforms
- Exceptional executive communication skills, with ability to frame complex data into strategic narratives for the CEO, CMO, and leadership committee
- Strong cross-functional influence and stakeholder management capability in Japanese HQ and global matrix environments
- Fluency in English required; Japanese proficiency strongly preferred
- Passion for gaming and deep respect for player communities and cultural dynamics in global markets
What the job involves
- The Head of Data Driven Insights is a direct report to the Global CMO and serves as the leader responsible for transforming consumer, market, and business data into strategic advantage and measurable enterprise growth
- This role owns the global insights agenda for the publishing organization and acts as the company’s primary authority on consumer and player understanding, market intelligence, forecasting, and data-enabled decision making
- Leading three core functions, Consumer and Market Research, Forecasting and Analytics, and the Data Culture Office, the Head of Data-Driven Insights ensures that the company’s creative and commercial decisions are powered by rigorous insight, predictive intelligence, and scalable data infrastructure
- The role integrates qualitative and quantitative consumer learning, advanced analytics and stochastic forecasting, and enterprise-wide data-driven culture development, enabling the organization to maximize franchise performance, optimize investment allocation, and future-proof the business against volatility in platforms and consumer behaviour
- As a senior member of the global marketing leadership team, this position is expected to influence executive decisions beyond marketing, including portfolio prioritization, launch and lifecycle strategy, and long-term business model evolution
- The Head of Data Driven Insights is accountable for elevating insights from a support function to a strategic growth engine, directly contributing to shareholder value through improved forecasting accuracy, higher marketing ROI, and stronger player lifetime value
- Define the global insights strategy in alignment with the CMO’s brand, franchise, and TSR-oriented growth agenda
- Lead and integrate the three Director organizations to operate as one coherent decision-intelligence engine
- Oversee global Consumer and Market Research to translate consumer/player needs, motivations, and cultural signals into actionable business direction
- Ensure research excellence across qualitative and quantitative methods, including global segmentation, concept testing, brand tracking, and conumser journey insight
- Govern the end-to-end forecasting process led by Forecasting and Analytics, ensuring high-confidence evaluation of future slate business potential
- Drive advanced analytics and data science applications including statistical modeling, machine learning, generative AI-enabled insight discovery, predictive modeling, and optimization
- Establish enterprise standards for data governance, BI practices, and insight delivery through the Data Culture Office
- Champion a scalable, future-proof BI ecosystem spanning data acquisition, pipelines, modeling, visualization, and democratized access
- Embed data-driven behaviors and operating rhythms into Publishing and global marketing processes, reducing reliance on intuition-only decisions
- Translate insights into executive narratives that influence portfolio, launch strategy, lifecycle investments, and commercial forecasting
- Partner with cross-functional leaders in Sales, Market Development, Game Development, IT, and Finance to align decisions to shared metrics and priorities
- Build high-performing global capabilities by mentoring directors and developing next-generation insight talent
- Forecast accuracy for launch and lifecycle revenue across regions and franchises
- Marketing investment efficiency improvements such as Marketing expense deduction rate
- Player LTV, retention, and engagement improvements driven by insights-backed actions
- Strength and adoption of standardized BI and data governance practices across functions
- Measurable increases in insight usage in executive and publishing decision processes
- Speed and quality of insight delivery for launch, live operations, and portfolio planning
Salary benchmarks
Our take
SquareEnix was formed as a merger between the two Japanese video game giants Square and Enix in 2003. The company has risen to popularity and is now widely known for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Tomb Raider role-playing video game franchises whic has sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide, amongst numerous others.
Its business model is based on the idea of ‘polymorphic content’, consisting of building franchises on multiple potential hardware rather than being restricted by a single gaming platform.
While Square Enix reported a 25% drop in revenue from its games division in Q1 2025, reflecting a broader trend of slower growth driven by a focus on 'safe' releases. However, there is still bright spots - Final Fantasy XI, one of the company's longest-running MMOs, has seen a resurgence in players so strong that new account registration had to be temporarily suspended. With the ongoing support for it's iconic franchises, the company still has potential to turn momentum in its favor.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
-9% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Company HQ
London, UK
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