Senior Insights and Market Engagement Manager (Connected Women) at GSM Association (GSMA)

About the Role

• The Senior Insights and Market Engagement Manager will support mobile operators to better reach women micro-entrepreneurs and shape and deliver frontier research on the digital and financial inclusion of women micro-entrepreneurs in Africa, understanding their needs and the barriers they face to using mobile technology and opportunities for addressing them. You will shape experimental testing and evaluation to inform the design and delivery of initiatives by mobile operators to meet the needs of women micro-entrepreneurs. Bringing together quantitative and qualitative research, you will share actionable insights that can help mobile operators identify commercially sustainable and socially impactful actions to better reach and support female micro-entrepreneurs.
• The Senior Insights and Market Engagement Manager will also produce and present research syntheses, and briefs on key topics related to mobile and digital access and how it benefits women’s economic empowerment, plus support convening and knowledge sharing among key stakeholders.

Key roles and responsibilities include: 

• Lead Connected Women’s research on addressing the mobile gender gap among micro-entrepreneurs in Africa; understanding the barriers women micro-entrepreneurs face and how their needs can be met.
• Manage experimental testing and evaluation, with third parties, to identify scalable approaches to increasing uptake and use of mobile products and services by women micro-entrepreneurs in key African markets.
• Pro-actively engage with and manage the relationships with selected mobile operators and support commercially sustainable approaches to scaling the digital and financial inclusion of women micro-entrepreneurs.
• Engage with mobile operators and other relevant internal and external stakeholders to gather needs prior to research, disseminate learnings and make actionable recommendations.
• Synthesise and disseminate key findings and recommendations through written reports, case studies and virtual or in-person workshops with relevant stakeholders, clearly communicated and ensuring the findings are tailored to the target audience.
• Work effectively with other members of the Connected Women team as well as across the GSMA, including other Mobile for Development programmes such as the Mobile Money Team, to shape insights.
• Contribute to shaping the digital and financial inclusion agenda for female micro-entrepreneurs, to ensure the programme delivers value to the industry and achieves its targets.

About You

• The right candidate will be able to draw on a solid foundation of research, mobile industry knowledge and stakeholder management to produce compelling and persuasive thought leadership content. You will be excited to join a diverse team that shares a passion for the ways mobile technology and frontier tech can empower people, especially women. You must have the right to work in the UK.

You will have most or all of the following:

Essential 

• Experience of driving digital and financial inclusion for women in low- and middle-income countries including understanding the commercial and social opportunities this presents.
• Excellent strategic and analytical skills, including the ability to isolate and translate problems/research requirements into analytical frameworks, while also identifying commercial opportunities and their potential impact. 
• Demonstrated experience in both qualitative and quantitative research methods including analysis and familiarity with experimental research and evaluation approaches and managing suppliers.
• Prior experience of managing externally commissioned research projects from end-to-end.
• Demonstrated ability to plan and manage research projects, driving them through to completion with minimal guidance from your manager.
• Demonstrated experience in establishing and managing (often remote) productive work relationship with external stakeholders at all levels, including C-level, across a range of geographies.
• Fluent and compelling written and oral communications skills in English, including an ability to articulate often complex issues in plain language, without losing the important points.
• Ability to present persuasively and negotiate programmatic actions with key stakeholders.
• A self-starter, highly motivated to develop initiatives and drive through to completion who is able to work independently with an entrepreneurial, creative, can-do orientation.

Desirable                                                                                                           

• Strong commercial experience working with or for the private sector including in the mobile industry. 
• Experience in technology solutions to empower women entrepreneurs.
• Knowledge of key gender issues and the barriers that women in low- and middle-income countries face to participating equally in the digital economy