Director, Portfolio & insights, NEF

Job Description: Director, Portfolio Insights – NEF, Africa Operating Unit 

Reports to: NEF Marketing Lead – Africa OU 
Location: In market within assigned Franchise (country bound), Nigeria, Egypt 

Role Purpose 

The Africa OU is transforming into a more insight led, consumer centric, data empowered marketing organization. Within this transformation, Portfolio Insights plays a critical role in driving strategic clarity, opportunity identification, and evidence based decision-making across brands, categories, demand spaces, and markets. 

The Director, Insights & Portfolio Management – Franchise leads the development of actionable, forward-looking insights that shape business strategy, brand planning, innovation priorities, marketing execution, and commercial performance. This leader ensures the Franchise Marketing Lead and cross functional partners have the intelligence needed to unlock growth, optimize investments, and build stronger brands across the system. 

Operating within the OU–Market model, the Director partners closely with OU Insights, Category Leads, Marketing, Commercial, RGM, Finance, and the broader system to translate data into meaning, meaning into insight, and insight into choices that deliver measurable business impact. 

Focus, Scope & Impact 

1. Portfolio Strategy & Growth Insights 

• Lead insights that shape the Franchise portfolio strategy, including category role, brand role, demand spaces, consumer jobs, and whitespace opportunities. 

• Partner with Brand/Category teams to build evidence based brand strategies, positioning, and portfolio allocation. 

• Identify growth opportunities grounded in consumer behaviour, market performance, portfolio diagnostics, and competitive landscapes. 

2. Consumer & Demand Space Understanding 

• Build a rich, ongoing understanding of Franchise consumers—needs, rituals, motivations, tension points, culture, and consumption contexts. 

• Deploy OU/Global frameworks including:  

• Demand spaces 

• Consumer segmentation 

• Jobs-to-be-done 

• Occasion & ritual mapping 

• Ensure insights are used to shape brand strategy, channel strategy, and innovation pipelines. 

3. Market, Shopper & Commercial Insights 

• Lead insights that connect consumer, shopper, and customer behaviour across channels, customers, and geographies. 

• Partner with Commercial/RGM to identify drivers of:  

• Conversion 

• Basket mix 

• Pricing elasticity 

• Channel growth 

• Provide insight-led guidance on retail execution, shopper marketing, and customer-facing strategies. 

4. Performance Analytics & Decision Support 

• Embed robust analytics into Franchise performance management: brand health, penetration, share, NSR, margins, equity, and campaign effectiveness. 

• Partner with OU/Global teams on:  

• Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) 

• Predictive analytics 

• Foresight & scenario planning 

• A/B testing and performance tracking 

• Translate complex data into simple, actionable recommendations that inform marketing choices. 

5. Insights to Action: Influence & Cross Functional Leadership 

• Provide strategic counsel to the Franchise Marketing Lead and leadership team. 

• Lead insight integration in:  

• Annual Business Planning (ABP) 

• Brand Planning 

• Innovation sprints & pipeline reviews 

• Integrated Marketing Experience (IMX) briefs 

• Collaborate with Studio X, Content, Media, and IMX leads to ensure consumer insights shape creative and connections. 

6. Research & Intelligence Agenda Ownership 

• Lead the Franchise research roadmap across qualitative, quantitative, U&A, brand health, shopper, and commercial analytics. 

• Ensure test and learn, experimentation, and agile insight cycles are built into the way the Franchise operates. 

• Manage agency partners and research vendors to deliver high-quality, on-time, cost-effective outputs. 

7. Capability Building & Culture of Curiosity 

• Build insight literacy across Marketing, IMX, Commercial, and Franchise teams. 

• Create playbooks, training, dashboards, and storytelling frameworks. 

• Champion a culture of learning, curiosity, consumer obsession, and data driven decision-making. 

What Success Looks Like 

• Clear, insight-led decisions shaping portfolio, brand, innovation, and commercial strategies. 

• Strong linkage between insight recommendations and measurable business outcomes (penetration, NSR, margin mix, brand equity). 

• Meaningful demand-space and consumer understanding embedded across planning cycles. 

• Franchise teams consistently using insights to drive creative excellence and superior execution. 

• Faster, more accurate decision-making supported by predictive analytics and performance data. 

• Highly respected advisory role with strong influence on cross-functional partners. 

• Elevated insight capability and literacy across the Franchise. 

Experience & Critical Requirements 

Functional Experience 

• 10+ years in insights, analytics, consumer strategy, market research, human sciences, or related fields—ideally within FMCG/CPG. 

• Strong experience translating data into insights and insights into strategic recommendations. 

• Knowledge across:  

• Consumer research (qual & quant) 

• Portfolio & brand strategy 

• Market & shopper understanding 

• Predictive analytics & modelling frameworks 

• Creative & IMX processes 

• Proven track record leading multi-country, cross-functional teams in matrixed environments. 

Technical Expertise 

• Mastery of:  

• Consumer insights frameworks 

• Portfolio diagnostics 

• Marketing analytics (brand health, MMM, forecasting) 

• Research design & agency management 

• Storytelling with data 

• Good to have:  

• AI enabled analysis 

• CRM & digital journey analytics 

• Cultural insights & anthropology 

Leadership & Behavioural Expectations 

• Growth mindset—curious, experimental, strategic. 

• Strong influencing skills with senior leaders. 

• Enterprise-first approach to decision-making. 

• Excellent storytelling and synthesis capabilities. 

• Collaborative and inclusive leadership style. 

• High level of rigor, problem-solving, and strategic clarity. 

Communication & Influence 

• Ability to simplify complexity and land clear strategic recommendations. 

• Skilled presenter with strong narrative and insight storytelling capability. 

• Ability to challenge constructively and provide a fact-based point of view. 

• Strong relationship-building skills across IMX, Marketing, Commercial, RGM, Finance, and OU/Global Insight teams. 

Other Requirements 

• Must be based in the assigned Franchise market. 

• Culturally fluent with a deep understanding of local consumer psychology and market dynamics. 

• Able to travel within Franchise and across the Africa OU as needed.