Project Lead II - Thought Leadership

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.