How To Become A Market Research Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a market research manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Giovanna Percontino

Market research managers design a research project's major questions, like "how does a consumer view a product?" Their end goal is to provide other marketing professionals or organizations with information that will help drive marketing campaigns. They help teams to define the goals of a product or service and allow marketers to see how those goals fit into the bigger picture of the marketplace.

Some of the duties that they perform include interface between market research and business analytics to synthesize internal database information. Moreover, they display commitment to high-quality, cost-effective, and timely research, develop and execute customer opinion studies and quantitative and qualitative market research studies, and create reports and findings. Market research managers should have a bachelor's degree in communication, marketing, or a similar field. They should also be comfortable with using computers to record, sort, and analyze collected data. Most managers begin their career working as part of market research staff and work their way up to a supervisory position.

The average hourly salary for the position is $36.27, which amounts to $75,447 annually. In addition, the career is expected to grow 20% in the following years to come and create new opportunities across the United States.

What general advice would you give to a market research manager?

Giovanna Percontino

Communication Career Coach, M.Ed.

Research the industries that really speak to your values and philosophies. Look for the companies you want to work for not necessarily the role. Align your skills with the roles you are interested make sure you are a good fit. Ask questions to those who are in the industry or jobs you would love to be. These are just conversations with successful people.

ScoreMarket Research ManagerUS Average

Salary

7.0

Avg. Salary $89,450

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 19%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.13%

Asian 11.94%

Black or African American 5.14%

Hispanic or Latino 12.28%

Unknown 4.99%

White 65.52%

Gender

female 50.36%

male 49.64%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a market research manager

Explore market research manager education requirements

Most common market research manager degrees

Bachelor's

69.4 %

Master's

23.8 %

Associate

3.5 %

Start to develop specific market research manager skills

Skills	Percentages
PowerPoint	6.31%
SPSS	6.29%
Data Analysis	6.09%
Data Collection	5.95%
Healthcare	5.10%

Complete relevant market research manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New market research managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a market research manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real market research manager resumes.

Research market research manager duties and responsibilities

Manage syndicated data (Nielsen).
Manage Nielsen syndicate contract ($ 2.5MM annually), and four client team on-sites.
Lead customer and competitor research, functional acquisition due diligence, and portfolio management of existing products/services and new investments.
Work with clients to design research and analyze data using SAS statistical software.

Prepare your market research manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your market research manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a market research manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable market research manager resume templates

Build a professional market research manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your market research manager resume.

Apply for market research manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a market research manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do market research managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Market research manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Compiling data of organization and implementing strategies to measure growth in business

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2019