Head of Market Research at BURN

Job Description

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

• 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.

Field execution

• 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.

Insight and decision support

• 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.

Stakeholder partnership

• 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.

Team leadership

• 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.

Desirable

• 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).