Project Lead I - Thought Leadership

Job description

### About Zinnov Zinnov is a global management consulting firm that helps organizations make decisions that actually get used — and deliver results that matter. For over two decades, we’ve partnered with leading enterprises, high-growth technology companies, and investors to answer some of the toughest questions they face: - Where should we invest? - How do we scale globally? - What capabilities will win in the next decade? Our work shapes market entry strategies, global operating models, M&A decisions, and long-term growth bets. We’re known for being **data-led, execution-focused, and outcome-driven** — not opinion-heavy slideware. At Zinnov, how you work matters as much as what you deliver. We value independent thinking, crisp communication, and early ownership. With 450+ professionals across 10 global offices, we work across industries including Digital Services, ER&D, Enterprise Software, Semiconductors, Healthcare, BFSI, Automotive, Media & Telecom, and Private Equity. Zinnov isn’t for everyone. It’s for people who want steep learning curves, honest feedback, and the chance to see their work influence real business decisions — not just presentations. **Why Globalization Excellence (GE)** Zinnov's Globalization Excellence practice helps enterprises build and scale Global Capability Centers end-to-end, from Design & Discovery to Build, Scale, and Run. In GE, you don't work in silos. You own complex, end-to-end client journeys, work across GCC advisory, managed services, and BOT/outsourcing models, and influence leadership decisions that shape long-term talent and operating strategies. This is where strategy meets execution, and talent plays a defining role. **About The Role** The GE practice is building a dedicated Thought Leadership & Research function, modelled on the internal think tanks of the world's leading consulting firms. As Research Lead, you are the intellectual engine of this function. You won't be rotating across client engagements. You will go deep: spending months on a focused research agenda, developing original frameworks and methodologies that the GE practice can deploy with clients, and producing work that is credible enough to be published, cited, and recognised in the GCC ecosystem. This role sits at the intersection of rigorous research and practical consulting impact. You will work closely with a rotating bench of consultants who bring ground-level client context, and with senior GE leadership who will channel your outputs into the practice's go-to-market, advisory, and capability agenda. *Zinnov isn't for everyone, and this role especially isn't. It's for someone who thrives on intellectual ownership, is energised by building something new, and wants their ideas to shape how the GCC market thinks.* **WHAT YOU'LL DO** **Research Agenda & Intellectual Development** - Define and own the GE practice's annual thought leadership research agenda, identifying the 2-3 big questions worth answering deeply and the frameworks or methodologies worth building around them - Design and execute multi-month research projects on GCC-relevant themes: workforce models, operating design, capability building, technology adoption, and ecosystem dynamics - Build original, named frameworks and diagnostic tools grounded in empirical evidence, synthesising primary research, practitioner interviews, datasets, and literature into outputs that stand independently of any single engagement - Develop a structured, evolving point of view on signature topics over time, deepening expertise rather than breadth-hopping **Analysis & Synthesis** - Lead rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis: econometric modelling, survey design and analysis, benchmarking, regression, and systematic synthesis of qualitative data - Extract genuine insight from complex, multi-source data rather than repackaging conventional wisdom, and build defensible, evidence-backed conclusions - Validate findings with a calibrated eye: know when a result is strong enough to publish and when it needs more rigour **Output Development & Communication** - Author long-form research reports, white papers, and thought pieces to a publishable standard: structured arguments, original claims, and evidence-based reasoning throughout - Translate research findings into practitioner-facing formats: frameworks, diagnostic tools, executive briefings, and visual storytelling suitable for CXO audiences - Contribute to practice-facing content: capability decks, website-ready pieces, conference presentations, and knowledge assets that build Zinnov's GCC thought leadership profile - Represent research outputs at external forums, client briefings, and industry roundtables **Collaboration & Practice Development** - Work closely with the rotating consultant bench, providing research direction, reviewing outputs, and maintaining the intellectual integrity of the team's work - Partner with senior GE leaders to connect research insights to live client opportunities, BD solutioning, and engagement design - Build reusable research infrastructure: data repositories, methodology playbooks, literature maps, and research templates that make the function more scalable over time - Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and capability development within the Thought Leadership team as it grows **WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR** **Technical & Research Skills** | | | | --- | --- | | **Research Design** | Ability to formulate a focused research question, choose appropriate methodologies, and run a multi-month project with clear milestones and testable hypotheses, with minimal external direction | | **Quantitative Analysis** | Proficiency in statistical methods including regression, survey analysis, benchmarking, and descriptive statistics; comfortable with R, Python (pandas/statsmodels), Excel, or Stata | | **Qualitative Methods** | Skilled in structured expert interviewing, thematic analysis, and synthesis of qualitative evidence into defensible, structured conclusions | | **Literature Synthesis** | Ability to map and critically assess academic and grey literature; extracts genuine insight, identifies gaps in existing thinking, and positions original work relative to the field | | **Framework Development** | Track record of translating empirical research into named, structured frameworks (models, matrices, or diagnostic tools) that can be applied independently of the underlying study | | **AI Fluency** | Comfortable using AI tools (LLMs, AI-assisted research platforms, synthesis and coding tools) as a core part of the research workflow; evaluates AI-generated outputs critically; and where needed, can scope or build lightweight AI tools or prompting frameworks to accelerate and scale research tasks | | **Data Visualisation** | Competence with Tableau, Power BI, or Python-based visualisation to communicate findings clearly; strong instincts for visual communication in long-form reports | | **Secondary Research** | Facility with databases including OECD, World Bank, IMF, academic journals (JSTOR, SSRN), and business intelligence platforms (Capital IQ, Statista, industry-specific sources) | | **Report Writing** | Demonstrated ability to produce long-form analytical documents with well-structured arguments, original claims, and evidence-based reasoning, to a publishable or near-publishable standard | **Mindset & Soft Skills** | | | | --- | --- | | **Comfort with Ambiguity** | Makes meaningful progress before the full picture is clear; structures uncertainty rather than waiting for it to resolve; distinguishes productive open questions from misdirection | | **Structured Problem Decomposition** | Breaks large, ill-defined questions into component parts instinctively; builds issue trees, isolates the crux of a problem, and works from hypotheses rather than open-ended exploration | | **Abstract-to-Actionable Translation** | Moves fluently between the conceptual and the concrete; takes a nuanced research finding and shapes it into something a senior executive can act on without losing intellectual integrity | | **Intellectual Curiosity** | Reads across disciplines; draws unexpected connections; brings genuine interest in ideas, including those outside management consulting, into the research agenda | | **Independent Drive** | Manages own research agenda with minimal supervision; sets milestones, holds to them, and proactively flags blockers; does not need the structure of a client-facing project to stay focused | | **Collaborative Depth** | Works openly with rotating consultants, academic collaborators, and senior partners; shares thinking before it's polished; elevates others' outputs without losing ownership of quality | | **Persuasive Communication** | Writes and speaks in a way that makes complex findings feel accessible and urgent to non-technical, senior audiences, in reports, briefings, and live presentations | | **Calibrated Scepticism** | Questions assumptions, including their own; does not overstate certainty, does not cave to seniority pressure; knows when a finding is ready to go external and when it isn't | **QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE** *We are open about background. This role can be filled from consulting, academia, a research institute, think tank, or policy. What matters is the quality of thinking and the track record of original output.* - 5-8 years of experience in a research-intensive role: management consulting (knowledge or research function), economic research, policy analysis, think tank, or academia - Bachelor's degree from a top-tier university (Engineering or related discipline preferred); MBA/PGDM or Master's in Economics, Strategy, Public Policy, or equivalent is an advantage; PhD welcome - Demonstrable track record of original research outputs: published reports, working papers, frameworks, or equivalent knowledge products that have been used or cited externally - Exposure to the GCC / MENA business context is a strong advantage - Experience working with or presenting to senior stakeholders; comfortable giving and receiving rigorous intellectual challenge across CXO and working-team levels - International experience is a plus **WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE** In your first 6-12 months, you will have: - Defined and delivered at least one end-to-end research project resulting in a published or externally-presented report - Developed at least one original framework or diagnostic tool that has been tested with clients or in a live GE engagement - Established a recognised area of intellectual depth within the GCC thought leadership landscape - Built the research function's core infrastructure: methodology playbooks, data repositories, and repeatable research templates - Contributed visibly to BD through at least one thought leadership-linked client conversation or proposal input - Coached and calibrated the quality of at least one rotating consultant cohort through the research process ***You're not joining a team. You're building one, and defining what GCC thought leadership looks like.*** **Zinnov is an equal opportunity employer.** We celebrate diversity and are committed to building an inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, communities, and experiences.