Senior Research Associate – Market Intelligence

Role Overview

This role keeps several market research studies moving from initial planning through fieldwork and data handover, coordinating internal colleagues and external partners as day-to-day work progresses. You will also help strengthen the surveys, digital tools and quality practices used across studies, so research is consistent, dependable and suited to the decisions it needs to inform.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate the delivery of two or three assigned studies at a time, maintaining workplans, milestones and deliverable schedules and raising risks that could affect scope, quality, budget or timing.
• Connect research, country and procurement teams with external partners, keeping study requirements, decisions, changes and next steps clearly documented and shared.
• Support the preparation of study implementation plans, budgets, terms of reference, scopes of work and partner deliverables.
• Help develop and adapt quantitative, qualitative and experimental research approaches, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, concept testing and other suitable methods.
• Review questionnaires for clear wording, consistent response options, sound survey logic and manageable respondent burden; maintain agreed templates, question banks, variable conventions and data dictionaries.
• Test digital surveys before launch, support piloting and user acceptance testing, document defects and coordinate agreed fixes while keeping instrument versions under control.
• Coordinate partner onboarding, translation, enumerator and supervisor training, field launch and follow-up; track progress and deliverables against the agreed plan.
• Review field and data-quality checks for missing values, outliers, inconsistencies and unusual interview patterns; raise concerns and help improve research protocols, tools and workflows.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, development studies, marketing, market research, social sciences, statistics, data science or a related subject. A relevant bachelor’s degree with directly applicable research experience may also be considered.
• Five to seven years of relevant professional experience in applied, market, survey, development or related research.
• Experience delivering quantitative, qualitative or experimental research and adapting methods to different research questions and respondent groups.
• Practical experience developing research instruments and supporting fieldwork, including activities such as piloting, training or implementation follow-up.
• Experience with questionnaire development, digital survey programming and research quality assurance; familiarity with SurveyCTO, ODK, KoboToolbox or similar platforms.
• Understanding of survey logic and validation, variable construction, coding conventions, data dictionaries and data structures used for analysis.
• Ability to coordinate external research agencies, consultants, field teams or implementation partners and follow up on agreed actions and outputs.
• Openness to learning new methods and tools. Experience testing digital, AI-assisted or other emerging research approaches is an advantage.