Market Intelligence Expert

About the Role

We are seeking a Market Intelligence Expert to serve as the analytical engine behind our strategic decision-making in the East African residential solar market. In this role, you will transform raw market data into actionable intelligence — tracking competitor movements, decoding consumer behavior, monitoring regulatory shifts, and sizing market opportunities — to give our leadership team the clarity needed to win in one of the world's fastest-growing off-grid solar markets.

Note: This is not a marketing execution role. You will not be running campaigns or managing social media. Your core mission is to see what others miss — build the intelligence infrastructure that enables our product, pricing, channel, and market entry strategies to be one step ahead of the key competitors.

Key Responsibilities

1. Competitive Intelligence

• Build and maintain a comprehensive competitive intelligence database tracking key players in the Kenyan and broader East African residential solar PV market.
• Monitor competitors' product portfolios, pricing strategies, distribution models, PAYG (Pay-As-You-Go) offerings, marketing campaigns, and partnership activities on an ongoing basis.
• Conduct regular competitor profiling and benchmarking analysis — identify their strengths, vulnerabilities, strategic priorities, and likely next moves.
• Track competitor hiring patterns, funding activities, and organizational changes as early indicators of strategic shifts.

2. Market Research & Consumer Insights

• Design and execute quantitative and qualitative market research studies to understand end-user needs, purchasing behavior, brand perception, and willingness to pay for residential solar PV systems.
• Conduct field research — including household surveys, focus group discussions, distributor/installer interviews, and retail audits — across urban, peri-urban, and rural Kenya.
• Segment the addressable market by income level, energy access status, geographic region, and usage patterns to support targeted strategy development.
• Build and maintain a consumer insight repository, regularly updating buyer personas and customer journey maps.

3. Market Sizing & Forecasting

• Develop and continuously refine market sizing models for the Kenyan residential solar PV market — including Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM), and market share projections.
• Track key market indicators: household electrification rates, solar adoption trends, PAYG penetration, mobile money (M-Pesa) integration patterns, and macroeconomic factors affecting purchasing power.
• Produce quarterly market forecasts with scenario analysis (base case, optimistic, conservative) to support business planning.

4. Policy & Regulatory Monitoring

• Monitor and analyze Kenya's renewable energy policy landscape, including:

Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) — product certification, quality standards, import regulations

Ministry of Energy policies and Kenya National Electrification Strategy updates

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) — VAT exemptions, import duties, and tax incentives for solar products

East African Community (EAC) trade policies and their impact on cross-border solar trade

• Track policy changes in neighboring East African markets (Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda) as relevant to potential expansion.
• Provide early-warning intelligence on regulatory changes that could affect product compliance, pricing, or market access.

5. Pricing Intelligence

• Maintain a dynamic pricing tracker for competitor products across all major distribution channels (retail, PAYG installments, online).
• Analyze price elasticity, financing terms (PAYG deposit amounts, installment durations, total cost of ownership), and seasonal pricing patterns.
• Provide data-driven pricing recommendations to support product positioning and competitive response strategies.

6. Intelligence Reporting & Strategic Advisory

• weekly competitive intelligence brief - Produce a weekly competitive intelligence brief covering competitor movements, market developments, and actionable insights.
• monthly market intelligence report - Deliver a monthly market intelligence report with deep-dive analysis on selected topics (e.g., channel dynamics, consumer trends, regulatory updates).
• quarterly strategic intelligence reviews - Present quarterly strategic intelligence reviews to the leadership team, synthesizing market data into clear strategic recommendations.
• Serve as an internal consultant — respond to ad-hoc intelligence requests from product, sales, and leadership teams with structured, data-backed analysis.

Key Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Market Research, Economics, Business Analytics, Statistics, International Business, or a related field. A Master's degree is an advantage.
• Professional certifications in market research or data analytics are a plus.

Experience

• 3-5 years of professional experience in market research, competitive intelligence, business analytics, or strategy consulting.
• Direct experience in the renewable energy, FMCG, or consumer electronics sector in Kenya or East Africa is strongly preferred.
• Prior experience working with or analyzing companies in the off-grid solar / PAYG solar space is a significant advantage.
• Experience in a market research firm or strategy consulting firm with Africa-focused projects is also valued.

Language

• Fluent in English and Swahili (both written and spoken) — essential for field research and local stakeholder engagement.
• Additional Kenyan and East African local languages are a plus for deeper community-level research.

Key Skills & Competencies

Analytical & Technical Skills

• Market research methodologies — proficient in both quantitative (survey design, sampling, statistical analysis) and qualitative (FGD facilitation, in-depth interviews, ethnographic research) methods.
• Data analysis tools — advanced Excel (pivot tables, complex formulas, data modeling); proficiency in at least one BI tool (Tableau, Power BI, or Google Data Studio). Basic Python or R for data processing is an advantage.
• Competitive intelligence frameworks — working knowledge of Porter's Five Forces, PESTEL, SWOT, competitive benchmarking matrices, and war-gaming methodologies.
• Market sizing techniques — bottom-up and top-down estimation, demand modeling, and scenario forecasting.

Professional Competencies

• Strategic thinking — ability to connect disparate data points into coherent market narratives and translate analysis into actionable business recommendations.
• Structured communication — excellent report writing and presentation skills; ability to distill complex data into clear, compelling insights for non-technical audiences.
• Cross-functional collaboration — ability to work effectively with product, sales, marketing, and leadership teams, serving as a trusted internal advisor.
• Self-direction — ability to independently identify intelligence priorities, design research approaches, and execute without requiring constant direction.
• Ethical judgment — commitment to ethical intelligence-gathering practices and compliance with Kenya's Data Protection Act (2019) in all research activities.

Market Knowledge

• In-depth understanding of the Kenyan residential solar PV market — including the PAYG business model, last-mile distribution dynamics, mobile money integration (M-Pesa), and the rural electrification landscape.
• Familiarity with Kenya's energy sector stakeholders — EPRA, Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC), Kenya Power, and key industry associations.
• Understanding of the competitive landscape — product positioning, pricing tiers, and channel strategies of major players in the off-grid solar sector.