What are the responsibilities and job description for the Head of Insights and Data position at ians?
About Us
IANS is the go-to trusted resource for CISOs and their teams, delivering practical, real-world insights that help security leaders make better decisions, drive business value, and lead with confidence. Our unique model blends expert-driven research, peer-to-peer collaboration, and curated content to address the evolving challenges of cybersecurity and risk management.
At the heart of IANS is our Faculty—a dynamic network of over 150 seasoned practitioners, industry veterans, and domain specialists. These experts power our research and advisory services, offering deep technical knowledge and strategic guidance across a wide range of topics, from threat intelligence and cloud security to governance, risk, and compliance.
Our content is designed to be actionable, relevant, and timely. Whether through custom inquiries, strategic reports, leadership development programs, or our flagship Decision Support service, we deliver insights that are grounded in experience and tailored to the needs of today’s security teams.
Position Summary
The Head of Insights and Data will lead the vision, strategy, and execution of IANS’ client-facing research and content portfolio. This includes proprietary reports, benchmarking data, insight-driven events, and timely analysis of emerging cybersecurity issues. This executive will oversee the creation of high-impact deliverables that empower CISOs and their teams to make better decisions, navigate complexity, and stay ahead of threats. The ideal candidate brings deep analytical expertise, experience with data products, editorial excellence, and a passion for innovation, along with strong leadership and collaboration skills.
*requires minimum of 6 days a month onsite in Boston, MA office
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Define and lead the company’s research & data strategy, aligning with business objectives, faculty expertise and client needs.
- Shape the multi-year content roadmap, identifying and prioritizing key topics for our CISO clients, and developing a scalable data acquisition strategy.
- Collaborate with other members of the management team (e.g., Chief Product Officer) to create content for new product offerings and advisory services.
- Ensure research outputs reflect IANS’s brand and value proposition: practical, timely, and deeply relevant to cybersecurity leaders.
Research Management
- Lead a multidisciplinary research team (reporters, quantitative analysts, editors, visual designers, data scientists, event programmers, subject matter experts).
- Design and implement more data-intensive research methodologies (quantitative surveys, market modeling, data analysis) than IANS currently offers.
- Maintain editorial excellence and analytical integrity across all published outputs.
- Manage external research partnerships, association collaborations (e.g., ISACs), and data vendors.
Faculty & Client Engagement
- Partner with IANS’s Faculty of ~170 independent cybersecurity experts to co-create content that resonates with our client base of ~1,000 North American CISOs and their teams.
- Ensure Faculty insights are effectively captured, synthesized, and translated into actionable client deliverables.
- Represent IANS as a thought leader at industry events, webinars, and executive briefings.
- Contribute to the development of event agendas and keynote themes.
Operational & Commercial Impact
- Work closely with the faculty, as well as product, marketing, and sales teams, to ensure research outputs drive client engagement, retention, and growth
- Oversee research budgets, timelines, and quality assurance processes.
- Monitor performance metrics and continuously improve research operations for scale and impact.
Qualifications
- 15 years of experience in B2B research, analysis, consulting or strategy for busy senior executives
- Strategic thinker with the ability to translate complex technical topics into actionable insights.
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and exceptional analytical, writing, and presentation skills.
- Strong leadership and people development capabilities. Proven experience leading research or analyst teams in a professional services, advisory, or information services firm to produce influential, data-driven reports and frameworks.
- Skilled in survey design, data visualization, and research tools (e.g., Tableau, SPSS, Qualtrics).
- Strong understanding of cybersecurity markets, enterprise security functions, and regulatory environments is a plus.