Title: Principal Market Research Specialist
Sacramento, CA, US, 95817-1899
Minimum Pay Rate: $123,531.20
Maximum Pay Rate: $163,592.00
Civil Service Status: Civil Service
Apply by Date: 06/11/2025
Posting Type: Open
This posting intends to fill one (1) full-time regular position, and establish an eligibility list which may be used to fill future regular full-time or limited term vacancies over the next two (2) years.
At SMUD, we’re more than just a utility—we’re a nationally recognized leader in clean energy, customer experience, and innovation. As we drive toward our bold 2030 Clean Energy Vision, we're investing in people, tools, and technologies that help us serve our community and lead the way in sustainability.
We are seeking an experienced and skilled market research professional who can bring strategic thinking and an expert grasp of consumer research, analytics and industry intelligence. In addition to conducting primary research (qualitative and quantitative), you will leverage internal operational data and secondary reports to triangulate a clear consumer narrative for key initiatives. Your work will turn data into insights—and insights into actions that improve our customer experience and move us closer to our clean energy and program goals.
You will have the skillset to work dynamically across the organization and be a key representative of market research. The selected candidate will have the opportunity to engage directly with leaders across SMUD including Marketing, Programs & Services, Customer Experience, Digital, Strategy, and Research & Development to support our 2030 Clean Energy Vision and other strategic priorities.
Key responsibilities:
- Design and execute end-to-end qualitative and quantitative research projects
- Use internal operational data, secondary research, and AI tools to create rich customer narratives
- Provide actionable recommendations to leadership and cross-functional teams
- Build compelling dashboards and data visualizations that drive decision-making
- Partner with internal stakeholders to foster a research-driven culture
- Stay ahead of emerging research methods and technologies
What Qualities Make You an Excellent Candidate
You’re a natural connector of ideas, data, and people. You’re just as comfortable facilitating a customer focus group as you are building a Power BI dashboard—or presenting findings to executives. You thrive in fast-paced environments, and you’re driven to make research meaningful, relevant, and actionable.
Why You’ll Love Working Here
- Purpose-Driven Mission: Be part of a clean energy transformation that puts community first.
- Flexible Work Environment: Hybrid work schedule with a minimum of two days in the office (Tuesday/Wednesday) every week and others as required.
- Competitive Benefits: We offer medical, dental, vision, generous retirement contributions, and more.
- Growth & Learning: Our employees have access to tuition reimbursement, ongoing training, and leadership development resources.
- Inclusive Culture: We welcome diverse perspectives and value every employee’s contribution.
We encourage all qualified candidates to apply. We value diverse backgrounds and experiences and encourage you to share your story.
Purpose
Directs projects and provides technical expertise in the collection and dissemination of marketing and customer information and the conduct of market research studies that form the basis of SMUD's marketing decisions, strategies and policies; analyzes current market trends and evaluate current and potential product and service offerings in light of market conditions.
Nature and Scope
Serves as a technical or functional expert or consultant providing expertise and/or direction in one or more areas of a professional discipline and assumes responsibility for resolving complex problems and overseeing complex projects. May also serve in a Lead role and assist in planning, coordinating, prioritizing, monitoring and evaluating the work results in assigned area and in selecting, training, motivating, evaluating and developing lower-level personnel.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Identifies customer needs, preferences and priorities for product and service attributes; measures SMUD performance on product and service attributes for continuous improvement process; models customer loyalty and satisfaction; develops and manages a system for on-going measurement and monitoring of customer satisfaction and loyalty; prepares and presents understandable and informative reports to management and the Board.
- Conducts market research studies to determine customer segmentation strategies, and support development of appropriate service and product strategies for different customer segments.
- Develops marketing information through the coordination and integration of customer databases that contain information pertinent to customer purchasing behavior and ensure the integration of marketing databases with corporate data and data structure.
- Generates new product ideas by conducting ideation sessions with outside experts, industry leaders, and SMUD staff; identifies existing products, ideas and trends in the marketplace; evaluates the feasibility and viability of potential product and service offerings for SMUD.
- Supports the design of new product/service features and offerings and development of product-specific marketing strategies and materials through identification of desirable product and service attributes, competitor offerings and appropriate target markets.
- Evaluates market potential by estimating customers willingness to pay for services, demand and price modeling to determine optimal price, and estimating elasticities and effects.
- Conducts preliminary screenings to test initial customer reactions to new and redesigned products and services.
- Performs competitive analysis to determine competitors' existing strengths, weaknesses and product strategies; assesses and compares SMUD's strengths and weaknesses with competitors; assists in the development and assignment of probabilities to various strategic marketing planning scenarios.
- Provides technical expertise to staff in the areas of quantitative research methods, statistical analysis, and market and customer research methodologies.
- Performs related duties as required.
Required Education
A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in marketing, business administration, economics, statistics or a related field.
Required Experience Qualifications
Five (5+) or more years of relevant experience in directing market research projects, coordinating interdepartmental teams responsible for the ongoing collection and dissemination of marketing and customer data and making presentations of technical material to senior management, governing boards and outside agencies.
Knowledge Of
Skills To
Work effectively across all departments and engage the cooperation of all functional areas of SMUD in the development of customer information and information databases; plan and design research projects including sampling methods and development of survey instruments; apply appropriate statistical and analytic techniques; seek out and apply new and improved techniques and industry practices; coordinate with contractors in the performance of research projects; operate office equipment including computers and supporting word processing, spreadsheet, and database applications; prepare clear and concise analytical reports; communicate effectively orally and in writing internally/externally; establish and maintain effective working relationships internally/externally.
Desirable Qualifications
- Seven (7+) or more years of experience in market research, customer insights, or related fields
- Deep experience with primary research methodologies (quantitative and qualitative)
- Ability to synthesize complex data into strategic insights
- Experience working cross-functionally and influencing stakeholders
- Experience with CTV, digital, and social media analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, Amazon, Disney+, Hootsuite)
- Familiarity with online insight community platforms (e.g., Alida, Fuel Cycle)
- Experience using AI tools for survey design, sentiment analysis, or auto-tagging
- Experience with integrating multiple data sources using tools like Statistical Analysis System (SAS), Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel
- Strong data visualization skills and experience with Power BI or similar
- Experience with third party research vendors and reports such as Forrester, Gartner, Quirks, Neilsen, US Census, PEW Research and similar.
- Experience in user experience (UX) research techniques and tools such as UserTesting
- Strong storytelling, presentation, and communication skills for relaying technical information to a range of audiences
- Master’s degree in a related field such as market research, marketing analytics, psychology, business, behavioral science or similar.
Physical Requirements
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) - Who We Are
As the nation's sixth-largest community-owned electric service provider, we're proud of our reputation as one of the best places to work in Sacramento. Our employees tell us in our engagement surveys they're "Happy, satisfied and engaged" which helps create a workplace that best serves our customers. Sacramento was named as the 2nd happiest place to work in America by Forbes Magazine. Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and the world-renowned Napa Valley are within easy driving distance of our locations.
Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
SMUD celebrates diversity, and inspires an inclusive culture based on trust and respect to create belonging and connection among our employees, customers, and communities. By working together, we are powering positive, equitable opportunities for all. We aspire to be a workplace where you can be yourself, achieve your best, and thrive together.
An example of our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging is when SMUD signed the California Equal Pay Pledge in 2020. This requires equal pay for employees who perform “substantially similar work,” when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility at the time those employees started within that classification. As such, initial hiring salary range is not subject to negotiation and salaries will vary over time based on performance.
SMUD is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, gender (including pregnancy), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, veteran status, or any other applicable legally protected characteristic. All employment decisions are made on the basis of individual qualifications, merit, and business needs and interests.
Why Sacramento, California?
The capitol of California, Sacramento is the state's sixth-largest city, and the 35th largest in the U.S. Local universities include California State University, University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, and the University of California, Davis and several competitive community colleges. The UC Davis Medical Center, a world-renowned research hospital, is one of more than a dozen hospitals and shared services centers in the Sacramento region. Part of the agriculturally-rich Central Valley, Sacramento is at the forefront of the farm-to-fork food movement. Northern California is home to some of the country's top technology companies, including Google and LinkedIn, and a multitude of startups in many industries. Sacramento is home to the NBA Kings, the River Cats (AAA baseball), the Republic FC (soccer) and the San Francisco Giants, NBA Warriors and NFL 49er's aren't far away. Sacramento offers an affluent liberal arts community with Broadway, Mondavi Center, Crocker Museum and summer musical theater to name a few.
Hybrid Work
This position may be eligible for SMUD's remote work employee benefit, the schedule of which will be determined by the successful candidate and the Hiring Manager. SMUD takes pride in powering the Sacramento region community where we live and work. We value the strong working relationships we develop with our colleagues. Our approach to remote work will continue to evolve. Please be aware that should SMUD’s business needs change, emergencies occur, or various other reasons arise, you may be required to report onsite on a part-time or full-time basis.