Director, Research & Data Strategy

We give strategy the human edge™.
FranklinCovey (NYSE: FC) is the world’s most trusted leadership and organizational performance partner that gives strategy the human edge. We help organizations achieve the breakthrough results that matter most. Using proven, principle-centered frameworks and practices, we build high-trust leaders, teams and cultures and help clients translate strategy into consistent execution. For more than 40 years, we have tested this approach with thousands of clients from Fortune 100 companies to educational and government institutions, providing professional services across 160 countries.

To learn more, visit franklincovey.com.

Title: Director, Research and Data Strategy
Global Title: Director, Research and Data Strategy
Division & Department: Corporate Product Development
Status: Full-Time Exempt
Reports to: EVP, Solutions Strategy and Product Architecture
Location: Remote – Anywhere in the contiguous US
Compensation: Anticipated compensation for this position is $148-192k* plus 15% variable pay.
Date Posted: 11/13/2026**

Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced Director of Research and Data Product Strategy to lead and expand the research and measurement initiatives at the FranklinCovey Institute—the market-facing research function for FranklinCovey’s Enterprise division. In this position, you will play a pivotal role in advancing our research, strengthening our thought leadership, and building a research, measurement, and data product strategy that creates meaningful value for FranklinCovey and its clients. You will be responsible for overseeing a focused team of talented researchers, personally writing and presenting high-quality thought leadership content, and applying advanced research and quantitative methodologies to generate insights that inform our strategy, solutions, and innovation.

You will also lead efforts to evaluate and leverage FranklinCovey’s existing data assets, develop rigorous approaches to measuring behavior change and organizational outcomes, and identify opportunities for benchmarking, personalization, and AI-enabled solutions. Working closely with Product and Technology teams and other internal and external partners, you will help translate research findings and advanced analytical methods into innovative products, actionable insights, and measurable client impact. You will also partner with FranklinCovey’s data intelligence team and data analysts to draw on enterprise data insights that inform the research agenda. In addition, you will serve as a primary strategist for our data products, identifying how FranklinCovey’s proprietary data can be mobilized to create new value for clients through offerings such as benchmarks, diagnostics, personalized insights, and impact reporting, and guiding Product and Technology teams, who own product delivery, on the data, measurement, and AI foundations those offerings require.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in applied research and quantitative methods, with expertise in human and organizational performance and an understanding of how leadership, culture, and human productivity translate into improved business results. You will bring a combination of strategic thinking, analytical rigor, exceptional communication skills, and the ability to translate complex data into meaningful business insights and client-facing data products. This is a key leadership role that will have a direct impact on FranklinCovey’s growth, innovation, and reputation in the market.

Essential Job Functions

• Research and Measurement Agenda: Develop and execute an integrated research and measurement agenda for the FranklinCovey Institute, aligned with FranklinCovey’s business priorities, thought leadership, solution innovation, and client outcomes.
• Data Product Strategy: Define and lead the strategy for how FranklinCovey mobilizes its proprietary behavioral, assessment, learning, and outcome data to create value for clients. Identify, size, and prioritize data product opportunities, such as benchmarks, diagnostic insights, impact reporting, and AI-enabled recommendations, and partner with Product, Technology, and commercial teams, who own product delivery, by defining the data, evidence, and value propositions those offerings require.
• Writing and Thought Leadership: Serve as a lead author of white papers, research reports, and other significant publications that communicate findings accurately and strengthen FranklinCovey’s market reputation.
• Research Operations and Leadership: Lead and develop researchers and analytical contributors; scope, prioritize, and manage projects, external research partnerships, budgets, timelines, and quality standards.
• Research Data Fitness: Partner with FranklinCovey’s data intelligence team and data analysts to determine whether available behavioral, assessment, learning-completion, and goal data can support credible research, published findings, and client-facing data products; evaluate coverage, consistency, and the ability to link datasets for research and product use.
• Measurement and Impact Research: Design rigorous approaches to measure behavior change over time, including baselines, appropriate comparison methods, validity, and links to meaningful business outcomes. Define the limits of causal or outcome claims.
• Applied Research and Benchmarking: Personally conduct and guide statistical analyses, study design, segmentation, and modeling; determine when sample sizes and data quality support credible benchmarks and external publication.
• Assessment and Personalization Research: Evaluate whether diagnostic and assessment results can reliably guide personalized learning or development recommendations; quantify predictive performance, uncertainty, and limitations.
• AI and Methodology Research: Explore and validate approaches for applying AI, machine learning, and other advanced analytical methods to FranklinCovey’s proprietary content, methodologies, and data. Develop frameworks and models that enable accurate, contextually relevant insights and recommendations.
• Product and Platform Innovation: Partner closely with Product and Technology teams to translate research findings, data science methodologies, and analytical models into product requirements and capabilities. Help shape, test, and refine data-driven features, including assessments, personalized learning experiences, benchmarking, AI-enabled recommendations, and measurement of client outcomes.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with product, platform, technology, legal/privacy, sales, marketing, and strategic planning to turn evidence into useful product requirements, client-facing insights, and business decisions.
• Market and Customer Intelligence: Monitor research, market trends, client needs, and competitor activity and data offerings in leadership, learning, human performance, data science, and AI.
• Executive Communication: Present findings, recommendations, methodological tradeoffs, and confidence levels to senior leaders and external audiences in accessible, decision-ready language.
• Research Ethics and Responsible Data Use: Work within FranklinCovey’s enterprise data governance framework to ensure appropriate data access, privacy, security, consent, and responsible use in research, publication, and data products; assess what analyses and products are feasible under differing customer-data and personally identifiable information (PII) constraints.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. in quantitative social science, psychology, organizational behavior, economics, statistics, or a related field; or a master’s degree in a relevant field with substantial experience in advanced quantitative and behavioral research methods
• 7+ years of relevant experience (10+ years for candidates with a master's degree) in applied behavioral or social science research, measurement, psychometrics, or data science applied to people, learning, or organizational data, including ownership of complex studies or analytical programs
• Experience leading research teams and producing published research or market-facing thought leadership

• Demonstrated experience shaping the strategy and data foundation of data-driven products, insights, or services that create measurable value for clients or end users
• Demonstrated hands-on proficiency with statistical analysis tools used for research (for example, R, Python, Stata, or SPSS, with working SQL for data access), research design, data quality assessment, and interpretation of observational data
• Strong writing and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate findings and limitations to nontechnical business audiences
• Expertise in longitudinal measurement, psychometrics, causal inference, experimentation, predictive modeling, and/or benchmark development
• Ability to balance scientific rigor with practical commercial priorities, and to state clearly when evidence is insufficient
• Experience with enterprise learning, leadership development, organizational behavior, talent analytics, or human performance
• Experience collaborating with product and technology teams to translate data science, research, and analytical insights into the design and development of data-driven products, platforms, or digital tools, including assessments, personalized learning, and AI-enabled decision support
• Experience defining strategy for data products or data monetization, including identifying where proprietary data can create client value, shaping value propositions and business cases, and partnering with product and commercial teams to launch and scale data-driven offerings
• Experience developing, training, fine-tuning, or integrating AI models and expert systems against proprietary content, assessment, and research data to generate insights, deliver personalized recommendations, and create measurable value for users
• Familiarity with data governance, privacy-preserving analytics, and responsible use of customer data

Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, HSA, employee stock purchasing program, 401(k), paid time off, holiday pay, and more. Please visit https://franklincoveybenefits.com/ for details.

*Actual offer may be outside of this range and will be determined by education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as geographic location, internal equity and alignment with market data.

**Unless otherwise noted, applications will be accepted for a minimum of three (3) days from the initial published date on the FranklinCovey job board, but the posting may close at any time after the specified duration.

Employer Information
For an overview of our Interview Process, please visit https://www.franklincovey.com/about/careers/working-at-franklincovey/.

FranklinCovey is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. Please visit https://www.franklincovey.com/careers/notices-and-provisions/ for our full Equal Employment Opportunity policies and Nondiscrimination Provision.

Direct Reasonable Accommodation requests to [email protected].

For our Privacy Policy, please visit https://www.franklincovey.com/privacy.

#LI-Remote
#LI-CL1