Insights & Research Manager

A newly established UAE holding company is building national-scale platforms across a diversified portfolio of strategic, high-growth sectors. It is now creating a world-class group marketing function, and needs someone to build its research and insights capability from the ground up.

Your job: own the insights agenda, turning market, customer, brand and stakeholder data into clear insight that shapes strategy and investment across the group and its portfolio companies.

WHY THIS ROLE

• Multi-sector exposure – research across a portfolio of businesses, sectors and audiences, not a single brand.
• Build, don’t inherit – set up the research plan, trackers, agency roster and insights library yourself.
• Senior visibility – your insight goes straight to executive leadership, portfolio heads and government stakeholders.
• Real impact – inform decisions that build long-term economic capability for the UAE.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Set the agenda. Build and run an annual research plan, turning questions from Brand, Digital, Communications, BD and portfolio teams into sharp research briefs.
• Read the market. Track sectors, competitors, government priorities and macro trends, and deliver regular intelligence packs to leadership.
• Measure the brand. Design and run brand health, awareness and reputation tracking across government, institutional, partner and public audiences, for the group and its portfolio brands.
• Know the audience. Lead quant and qual research, from surveys and focus groups to interviews, and build the segmentation, personas and journey insights that drive marketing, product and CX decisions.
• Get the best from agencies. Brief, manage and evaluate research agencies, panels and data providers on quality, timelines and value for money.
• Tell the story. Combine primary research, secondary sources, campaign and business data into crisp recommendations for senior leaders, and track what gets actioned.
• Build the engine. Create a central insights repository, and use AI and analytics tools for desk research, social listening and reporting, validated against credible sources.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED

• Research plan delivered on time and on budget
• Insight quality and adoption
• Strategic decisions informed by research
• Stakeholder satisfaction
• Agency performance
• Repository usage

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• 7-10 years in market research, consumer or customer insights, brand research, strategy or analytics, whether client-side, agency-side or in consulting.
• Hands-on experience designing quantitative and qualitative research and managing research agencies.
• Strong in survey design, brand tracking, segmentation and data storytelling; confident with Excel, PowerPoint and Power BI or Tableau.
• SPSS, R or Python and social listening tools are a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, economics, statistics, psychology, social sciences or a related field; postgraduate qualification a plus.
• Fluent English; Arabic is desirable.
• UAE/GCC market and multi-sector experience is a strong advantage.

Salt is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.