Market Intelligence, Research and Development Lead
About the role
We are looking to hire a Market Intelligence, Research and Development Lead to drive NBC Bank’s research and development agenda by providing deep market insights, monitoring economics & competitive dynamics, understanding customer insights & behaviour, and identifying emerging trends that influence product design, operational efficiency, and strategic decision-making. This role will lead transformation initiatives to streamline processes, accelerate time-to-market, optimize products, and enhance customer experience, ensuring the bank remains competitive, agile, and customer-centric. Responsibilities: - Lead end to end market intelligence, including industry scanning, competitive analysis, regulatory trends, and macroeconomic monitoring. - Conduct research on consumer behaviours, customer needs, and emerging market expectations. - Identify strategic opportunities, threats, and unmet customer needs to inform business strategy. - Produce insights and reports that support senior leadership decision making. - Evaluate external trends such as fintech innovations, payments evolution, digital banking practices, and global banking benchmarks. - Drive NBC’s Research and Development agenda by exploring new technologies, business models, and product opportunities. - Partner with product teams to validate ideas using market research, customer insights, and competitive benchmarking. - Develop business cases, concept notes, and feasibility assessments for new product or process initiatives. - Facilitate experimentation, prototype testing, and pilot implementation of new concepts. - Conduct customer segmentation, journey analysis, and experience research to uncover friction points and improvement opportunities. - Develop customer personas, needs analysis, and behavioural insights to influence product roadmaps. - Track customer sentiment, usage patterns, and product performance to advise on optimizations. - Lead transformation initiatives that simplify processes, reduce operational inefficiencies, and improve turnaround times. - Apply different methodologies to propose lightweight, efficient, customer-centric processes that improve TAT and overall business output. - Collaborate with Operations, Technology, and Business Units to smoothen processes and improve service delivery. - Assess and optimize time to market for new products, ensuring speed, agility, and compliance. - Work with Product Teams to ensure alignment between market needs, customer expectations, regulatory shifts, and product offerings. - Evaluate product performance and recommend improvements or repositioning strategies. - Support the development of pricing strategies, value propositions, and go to market frameworks. - Present research outcomes, transformation recommendations, and strategic insights in clear, actionable formats. How to apply: Apply via the NBC careers portal: https://absa.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NBC_Careers/job/Head-Office-NBC/Market-Intelligence--Research-and-Development-Lead_R-15983599
Key requirements
- Bachelor's Degree or Advanced Diploma in Business, Commerce and Management Studies
- Experience in a similar environment at junior specialist level
- Knowledge of management information systems
- Digital familiarity
- Openness to change
- Strong personal mastery and reasoning skills
- Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas
- Management information systems
- Personal mastery
- Reasoning