Research Lead at Nendo

Background

Nendo is an award-winning research and marketing services firm based in Nairobi that works on projects across Africa and emerging markets. Nendo has built a reputation for itself thanks to consumer and market trend reports that discern internet users' online habits. Nendo’s approach delivers what

they describe as grounded African insights and trends to the world. Since Nendo began in 2015, the company has embarked on various forms of research and made a name for itself as a go-to specialist research outfit for the mobile phone, social media, and internet spaces with an emerging interest in artificial intelligence. Nendo has delivered research outputs on projects spanning over 20 countries across the continent for clients, big and small. From digital landscaping work to help show the challenges and opportunities of reaching connected women in different African societies to delivering consumer and market trends, digital behaviour forecasts, and online platform predictions that come to pass repeatedly. Nendo’s research, through its freely available reports, blog, and publishing, has won accolades and features from mentions in the New York Times, The Daily Nation, and hundreds of the world’s top media publications.

The role of Research Lead at Nendo opens up a unique opportunity to join Nendo to lead a range of memorable and impactful research projects for private-sector and nonprofit clients while growing the portfolio of Nendo’s research business.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

As the Research Lead, you will oversee end-to-end market, consumer, digital, and AI-related research projects and contribute to Nendo’s growth through executional excellence, team leadership, client engagement, and thought leadership.

1. Research Planning and Delivery

● Create and codify Nendo’s key approaches and contribute towards development and use of mixed methods intellectual property practices of delivering effective, efficient, and valuable research outcomes for client projects.

● Own and drive consumer, market, and digital forms of research end-to-end within Nendo from first client interaction to final presentation and submission of deliverables.

● Lead and coordinate qualitative research including preparation, recruitment, moderation, and synthesis of findings.

● Lead and coordinate quantitative research in collaboration with the in-house team and relevant consultants or external partners.

● Select and engage part-time in-country researchers and collaborators for various projects.

● Drive the use and learning of new research tools, such as social media listening platforms (e.g., Brandwatch, Synthesio, Sprout Social, Talkwalker, Meltwater, among others).

● Analyse raw data to uncover findings and present outputs dynamically with relevant visualisations, diagrams, and charts.

● Mine and uncover insights across Nendo’s various deliverables, polishing existing findings, reports, and conclusions to be market-ready and to drive value for Nendo’s clients and the marketplace.

● Lead in sharpening, editing, and refining Boolean queries, comparing and contrasting data, and synthesising takeaways to inform findings and encourage insight generation within the team

● Lead, guide, and shape research delivery, strategy, and capacity to upskill the team and transfer skills and expertise to grow standard operating procedures for delivering research projects and strengthen Nendo’s research offerings.

2. Business Development, Client Engagement, and Reporting

● Create, originate, and contribute to business development pitches for prospective clients and presentations to existing clients.

● Lead discovery meetings with prospects and clients, especially where framing of the research questions are still evolving.

● Create, proofread, and perform quality assurance on technical and financial proposals and submissions for new business.

● Present insights and recommendations to stakeholders in actionable and persuasive formats.

3. Project Management and Strategic Contribution

● Prepare and deliver project plans using available resources to prioritise and schedule timely delivery based on the brief and objectives.

● Track project milestones, keep project documentation current, and manage relationships with clients and partners.

● Review and improve processes and ways of working at Nendo.

● Evaluate the Profit and Loss status of projects and the Research business unit and share insights in regular management meetings.

4. Team Leadership and Talent Development

● Manage the data/research team in terms of workload distribution, utilisation, and overall productivity.

● Managing the growth, performance management, and professional development of the department through one-on-ones, feedback, coaching, and delegation.

● Conduct internal training(s) with the team on relevant topics, including uptake of artificial intelligence. This has been a key priority for the past 2 years..

● Contribute thought leadership to Nendo’s trend reports and public-facing research experiments.

Qualifications and Experience

● An entrepreneurial spirit and keenness to join a firm with the opportunity to build and grow the team and its larger contribution towards Nendo’s Pan-African mission.

● 7 to 10+ years of experience in a market/consumer research or consulting firm. Specific attention will be paid to your hands-on experience running qualitative and quantitative projects.

● Experience with social media listening, other forms of digital landscaping, and secondary research. Nendo partners with and works with tools such as Brandwatch, Sprinklr, Synthesio, and Sprout Social.

● Business development experience pitching and selling market, consumer, and digital research services to for-profit and nonprofit (development, philanthropy, and grant funder) clients.

● Delivering profitable research projects and recruiting full-time or part-time talent to assist in delivery. Tailor-making Nendo’s offering and options to the heart of the problem for the prospect or customer.

● Presentation experience sharing insights in working sessions with senior leaders on the client side that can solve problems, illuminate opportunities, and address challenges.

● A portfolio of research projects demonstrating the breadth of your skills with specific contributions in active roles on those projects.

● A network of collaborators and partners to call upon for different short-term research assignments, depending on the scope, is an added advantage.

● High proficiency with Google Workspace (Slides, Docs, Sheets, and Drive) is what Nendo uses. Transferable experience from Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) counts, and research tools such as Excel, SPSS, STATA, NVivo.

● Experience working in and across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is strongly preferred.

● Optional: A Master’s degree in a relevant research-related field such as Social Sciences, Communication, Public Health, International Development, Marketing, or Economics.

Application Process

Nendo’s hiring process is designed to identify candidates who are both technically qualified and culturally aligned with our core values. The recruitment will involve several stages, including simulated real-world tasks, a written assignment, and a panel interview.

If you believe you are the right fit, we invite you to submit the following to our recruitment partner, Steps Ahead Consulting:

● An up-to-date CV

● At least two writing/presentation samples or research products in which you were the primary author

● A cover letter expressing why you are uniquely suited for this role, your motivation for joining Nendo, your salary expectations and must include a daytime telephone number for easy communication. Mention how you have been exploring/incorporating artificial intelligence, if applicable, into your workflow recently.

● Your availability, including notice period and potential start date.

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Please DO NOT attach certificates or testimonials at this stage. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The application deadline is Friday, 6th June 2025 at 5:00 PM East Africa Time.

Nendo is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based on an individual's sex, age, race, colour, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, and other personal characteristics protected by

law. All applications will receive consideration for an employment opportunity. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.