AI, Analytics and Digital Marketing talent that moves as fast as the consumer market does.
Consumer goods and retail analytics have never been more complex — or more competitively decisive. The organizations winning on shelf, in-store, and online are the ones deploying the right analytical talent against the right problems.
Demand forecasting, customer analytics, pricing intelligence, and supply chain optimization — Burtch Works connects CPG and retail organizations with the specialists who move the metrics that matter.
Insights & Analytics deliver the edge. CPG brands winning on data are winning online and at shelf.
The global AI in retail market is projected to reach $85 billion by 2032 — growing at nearly 32% annually from a $9.36 billion base in 2024. But market growth doesn't automatically translate into organizational capability.
The organizations capturing that value are deploying the right talent across the full consumer data and technology stack: data scientists who build demand sensing models that reduce waste without sacrificing service levels, data engineers who construct the infrastructure those models require at consumer-market speed and scale, ML engineers who operationalize personalization systems that actually improve with every customer interaction, and digital marketing analysts who connect the analytical output to trade promotion, channel performance, and customer acquisition decisions that drive measurable revenue. They're also hiring product managers who ensure that data capability gets embedded in product decisions rather than remaining in analytical reports, and technology professionals who build and maintain the platforms consumer data runs on.
Burtch Works has placed talent across all these disciplines in CPG and retail organizations for 15+ years, with a candidate network built specifically within the consumer sector. We know what great looks like across every discipline in this industry. And we attract the experienced candidates who deliver it.
RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS - CPG & Retail
Tailored for the CPG / Retail operating environment.
Whether you need a senior analytics leader deployed within the week, a full managed delivery team, or a strategic advisory engagement — we have the right path for your timeline and structure.
Specialized Analytics Talent Search
Contingency placement of data scientists, ML engineers, demand planners, and customer analytics specialists from our consumer-sector candidate network.
Retained Executive Search
Dedicated search for VP Analytics, Head of Consumer Insights, Director of Pricing Analytics, and senior data science leadership in CPG and retail.
Analytics Operating Model Advisory
Design the right analytics structure for your organization — COE model, talent architecture, and operating model aligned to omni-channel business goals.
Staff Augmentation
Deploy specialized analytics practitioners for project phases — demand sensing buildouts, personalization engine development, or supply chain analytics sprints.
Recruiter & Talent Intelligence - CPG & RETAIL
What the market is telling us about data science, engineering, and analytics talent in consumer goods and retail right now.
118%
Average wage premium for AI-skilled workers in Consumer Markets—the highest of any industry studied globally.
PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer
76%
Of consumer products executives say their companies are increasing investment in AI, with marketing and sales expected to deliver the highest returns.
Deloitte 2025 Consumer Products Industry Outlook
64%
Consumer products companies plan to use precision analytics to identify new brands and growth opportunities.
Deloitte Consumer Products Industry Outlook 2025
51%
of new AI job postings occur outside traditional IT occupations.
Lightcast, 2025
MARKET SIGNALS - CPG & RETAIL
Consumer sector AI roles now command the highest wage premium of any industry — 118% above non-AI equivalents.
PwC's 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer — which analyzed more than one billion job advertisements across 27 countries — found that AI-enabled roles in consumer markets command a 118% wage premium, the highest of any sector studied. In practical terms, this means CPG and retail organizations that are benchmarking analytics compensation against traditional consumer salary surveys are systematically underpricing the talent they need most. The market has moved. Most salary survey data hasn't caught up.
Supply chain data scientists are the fastest-moving role in CPG hiring — and the hardest to close without real-time compensation intelligence.
Post-pandemic supply chain complexity has permanently elevated supply chain analytics as a C-suite priority. The practitioners who combine operations research depth with production ML deployment experience — specifically in demand sensing, inventory optimization, and logistics analytics — are being recruited simultaneously by CPG firms, retail organizations, and technology companies that have built supply chain analytics products. Without current market intelligence on what these candidates actually earn, CPG organizations consistently lose at the offer stage.
The personalization engine gap in retail is a combined data science and ML engineering talent gap — not a technology gap.
Most retail organizations have invested in personalization technology. The limiting factor is almost never the platform — it's the data scientists and ML engineers who can build, tune, and operationalize the models on top of it. Customer analytics talent who combine behavioral modeling expertise with production deployment experience in real-time recommendation environments are among the scarcest profiles we place. Organizations that conflate 'we have the platform' with 'we have the capability' consistently underestimate how long it takes to hire the people who make the platform work.
Digital marketing analytics is the fastest-growing hiring requirement in CPG organizations — and the hardest discipline to staff without industry-specific sourcing.
The convergence of physical retail, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer channels is creating analytics environments where data is fragmented, attribution is contested, and the candidate who can bring coherence across all three is genuinely scarce. What CPG and retail organizations describe as a 'measurement problem' is almost always a talent problem — they don't have the person who can design a unified measurement architecture across channels. We know what that profile looks like and where to find it.