Head of Market Research
BURN Manufacturing Open · verified Sep 21, 2026 Nairobi Full-time Director Market Research
At a glance
Leadership Market Research role at BURN Manufacturing. Nairobi · full-time.
Pay not stated Market Research salary
RoleMarket Research
SeniorityDirector
LocationNairobi
EmploymentFull-time
PostedJul 23, 2026 · 2mo ago
Role brief
Growth Roles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- You'll set the research agenda with stakeholders and choose efficient methods for product and commercial decisions
- You'll run studies from needs assessment and design through fieldwork, analysis, reporting, and quality control
- You'll oversee focus groups, surveys, interviews, home visits, usability work, and remote or phone research
- You'll turn research findings and product data into clear recommendations for product, commercial, expansion, and carbon teams
- You'll build team and field capacity through training, supervision, ethical standards, and better research practices
What you bring
- You bring at least eight years in market research, consumer insights, or applied social research, including three leading a team
- You bring strong quantitative and qualitative skills across surveys, sampling, focus groups, ethnography, and statistical analysis
- You have managed multi-country fieldwork in African or comparable emerging markets and external research agencies
- You use advanced Excel, one of SPSS, Stata, R, or Python, plus digital data collection platforms
- You hold a relevant bachelor's degree and can turn complex findings into recommendations for senior leadership
Who this fits
You'll thrive if you connect rigorous field research with customer, product, commercial, expansion, and carbon decisions. The role is based in Nairobi and requires regular travel across BURN's markets. It also suits a people leader who can strengthen the team, adapt studies to local contexts, languages, and channels, and improve research quality over time.
From the employer
About the Role
The Head of Market Research owns BURN’s consumer insight capability. The role turns field research, user feedback, and product data into evidence that shapes decisions across new product development, commercial strategy, carbon programs, and market expansion. The role leads the full research lifecycle — from framing the question, through fieldwork, to the insight that changes a decision — and builds the team, standards, and methods to do this consistently across all BURN markets.
Key Responsibilities
Research strategy and methodology
Candidate Profile
Required
BURN does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, processing, training, or any other fees).
The Head of Market Research owns BURN’s consumer insight capability. The role turns field research, user feedback, and product data into evidence that shapes decisions across new product development, commercial strategy, carbon programs, and market expansion. The role leads the full research lifecycle — from framing the question, through fieldwork, to the insight that changes a decision — and builds the team, standards, and methods to do this consistently across all BURN markets.
Key Responsibilities
Research strategy and methodology
- Own BURN’s research agenda: work with stakeholders to identify what the organization needs to learn, prioritize studies collaboratively against upcoming product and commercial decisions, and advise on the most cost- and time-efficient methodologies, techniques, and approaches for each question.
- Take leadership of the entire research process end to end — needs assessment, study design, sampling, data acquisition, analysis, and reporting — to consistent quality standards across markets.
- Spearhead the preparation and execution of field activities, including focus groups, household surveys, in-person interviews, home visits, usability sessions, and remote or phone-based surveys across BURN’s operating markets.
- Build and quality-control field research capacity — in-house enumerator teams and third-party agencies — with rigorous training, supervision, and research ethics standards.
- Produce reports and briefings that clearly and compellingly summarize results, draw out insights, and drive data-driven decisions — insight delivery, not just data delivery.
- Triangulate primary research with BURN’s connected-product data (cooking telemetry, app engagement, PAYGO repayment behavior) to build a complete picture of the customer.
- Lead evaluations of completed projects and studies, and feed lessons on best practice back to management and the research team to sharpen future project execution.
- Serve as the voice of the customer for internal client departments — new product development, commercial, expansion, and carbon — playing a leading role in relaying user feedback and embedding research in their decisions.
- Work closely with country teams to localize research design to each market’s context, language, and channels.
- Provide thought leadership in addressing emerging challenges, developing the team’s skills, and continuously improving the quality and impact of the department’s output.
- Provide strategic input and direction on restructuring and building up the team over the first six months to achieve the organization’s planned goals.
- Perform any other duties reasonably assigned by the manager.
Candidate Profile
Required
- 8+ years’ experience in market research, consumer insights, or applied social research, including 3+ years leading a research team.
- Deep command of quantitative and qualitative methods: survey design and sampling, focus group moderation, in-home and ethnographic research, and statistical analysis.
- Proven track record managing multi-country field operations in African or comparable emerging markets, including management of third-party research agencies.
- Strong analytical toolkit — advanced Excel plus at least one of SPSS, Stata, R, or Python — and hands-on experience with digital data collection platforms (e.g., SurveyCTO, KoboToolbox/ODK).
- Exceptional written and verbal communication, with the ability to turn complex data into clear, decision-ready recommendations for senior leadership.
- Bachelor’s degree in statistics, economics, social sciences, marketing, or a related field.
- Willingness to travel regularly across BURN’s markets.
- Experience researching clean cookstoves, household energy, PAYGO/asset finance, or last-mile distribution.
- Experience combining primary research with behavioural or product data (IoT telemetry, app analytics, transaction data).
BURN does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, processing, training, or any other fees).
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