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.