Intelligence Systems Lead

Contract: Full-time; two years fixed term, renewable

Remuneration: Competitive, based on experience and competence

Location: London, UK

As the Intelligence Systems Lead, you will create an intelligence platform that integrates our HUMINT network as a critical source of primary insights, complementing our existing data and open-source intelligence (OSINT) capabilities. You will play a pivotal role in shaping our understanding of complex stakeholder relationships, political dynamics, and emerging trends, providing our clients with a unique competitive advantage. This position requires a unique blend of strategic thinking, operational expertise, strong interpersonal skills, and a deep understanding of the African context. You will be responsible for integrating our HUMINT network insights with our existing and expanding OSINT system, creating a unified and powerful intelligence platform that is optimised for executive decision-making. This will include developing our internal capability and overseeing the delivery of the highest quality insights and analysis to clients.

• Platform design & development
  • Design and implement a robust intelligence platform across key African countries combining our growing HUMINT, OSINT and data capabilities.
  • Establish clear protocols for source and knowledge management in the intelligence platform, ensuring ethical and legal compliance.
  • Manage and empower the existing insights team to contribute to these activities proactively and in a coordinated and accountable manner.
• Risk management & compliance
  • Ensure compliance with all relevant legal and ethical standards, including data privacy regulations and human rights principles.
  • Develop and deliver training programs for team members on knowledge management, integrity, security protocols, and ethical considerations.
• HUMINT/OSINT integration
  • Develop and implement strategies for integrating HUMINT and OSINT data to create a holistic intelligence picture.
  • Identify opportunities to leverage OSINT to validate and enrich HUMINT, and vice versa.
  • Work with the engineering team to ensure seamless data flow and analysis across both HUMINT and OSINT sources.
• Data quality management
  • Hold accountability for the quality of all data created, used, or managed by the consulting team.
  • Identify and investigate data quality issues, working to resolve them promptly and effectively.
  • Develop and implement data cleansing and correction procedures, as needed.
  • Proactively identify potential data quality risks and develop mitigation strategies.
  • Document data quality issues, resolutions, and processes.
• Data documentation & metadata management
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation of data sources, definitions, and processes relevant to your team.
  • Ensure that metadata is properly captured and maintained for all key data assets.
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of the firm's data catalogue.

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in corporate intelligence, forensics, or strategic analysis, with a deep understanding of African political, economic, and stakeholder dynamics.
• Proven track record acting as a "bridge" or Product Owner between intelligence analysts and technical teams (Data Engineers / Data Scientists) to build, refine, or optimise internal analytical platforms.
• Experience designing information workflows, specifically turning unstructured text (e.g., HUMINT field reports, OSINT articles, transcripts) into structured, queryable data models.
• Demonstrated experience leading data-quality initiatives, including designing protocols for manual data cleaning, data annotation, and establishing "ground truth" benchmarks for analytical systems.

• Deep conceptual understanding of how to build data taxonomies, ontologies, and entity-relationship maps so that messy human data can be systematically ingested by a pipeline.
• Strong theoretical grasp of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Text Mining. While programming (Python/SQL) is not required, you must speak the language of Data Scientists fluently enough to guide pipeline logic and define extraction rules.
• Ability to direct and train an intelligence team on how to clean, tag, and format data manually before it feeds into the ingestion pipeline, ensuring data integrity at the source.
• Experience defining user requirements, mapping analyst workflows, and conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure that the data team's outputs are presented in an intuitive, actionable interface for executive decision-making.

• Deep familiarity with the political and business cultures of at least two major African sub-regions (e.g., West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa).
• Native or professional fluency in English is required; French, Portuguese, Arabic, or major languages local to key geographies (e.g., Swahili, Hausa) are highly desirable.
• A flawless track record of operating within ethical and legal boundaries in challenging environments.

We offer the successful candidate an opportunity to develop a rewarding career within a dynamic pan-African consultancy advising a prestigious portfolio of clients and shaping how leaders perceive and react to the world around them. This position offers:

• Competitive remuneration
• Immediate opportunities for growth
• Collaboration with a diverse and experienced team of colleagues