Project Associate

The MissionDubai Design Lab is an action lab under the Dubai Future Foundation, harnessing the power of design and creativity to position Dubai among the world’s most livable cities. The lab (re)designs, prototypes, and tests policies, strategies, and systems aligned with Dubai’s vision ; creating a platform where individuals and organizations come together to imagine and shape a better future.

By combining experimentation, collaboration, and human-centered design, the lab drives innovation and contributes to Dubai’s growth as a leading global hub.

Overview

Dubai Design Lab, an action lab within the Dubai Future Foundation, is seeking a Project Associate to serve as a sector-agnostic analyst across its portfolio of projects.

Operating as part of the Dubai Design Lab, the Project Associate works in the manner of a management consultant — deployed flexibly across projects, sectors, and problem types, and responsible for the research, analysis, and synthesis that underpin the Lab’s work.

The role suits an early-career professional who thinks in a structured, hypothesis-driven way and is equally comfortable conducting a benchmarking exercise, facilitating a research circle, analysing data, and translating findings into clear, decision-ready insight.

You will bring a rigorous consulting toolkit to whatever a project requires — from desk research and primary fieldwork through to quantitative analysis and executive-ready deliverables — and will adapt quickly to unfamiliar subject matter as you move between engagements.

Key Responsibilities

• Research and Benchmarking○ Conduct desk and secondary research across sectors, industries, and themes, developing a working command of unfamiliar subject matter at pace.○ Design and deliver benchmarking, landscape, and comparative analyses, identifying relevant comparators, best practices, and reference points.○ Gather, organise, and quality-assure evidence from a wide range of sources to establish a sound factual basis for each project.
• Primary Research and Fieldwork○ Plan and conduct interviews, contextual conversations, and stakeholder engagements to gather first-hand insight.○ Design and facilitate research circles, focus groups, and workshops that surface user and stakeholder perspectives.○ Support the design and administration of surveys and other primary-research instruments, capturing both qualitative and quantitative signal from the field.
• Analysis, Personas and Use-Case Development○ Undertake structured analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, decomposing complex problems into clear, testable components.○ Perform quantitative analysis as required — cleaning, structuring, and interrogating data, and building models to quantify options and trade-offs.○ Develop personas, user segments, and use cases grounded in research evidence, translating behavioural and market findings into actionable profiles that inform design and strategy.○ Apply analytical rigour throughout, ensuring conclusions are evidence-based rather than assumed.
• Synthesis and Insight Development○ Synthesise qualitative and quantitative findings into clear insights, patterns, and implications.○ Develop insight frameworks, opportunity areas, and hypotheses that translate evidence into strategic direction.○ Distil complexity into structured, compelling narratives that leadership and project teams can act upon.
• Deliverables and Project Support○ Produce executive-ready deliverables — memoranda, briefings, and well-structured presentations that communicate a clear and persuasive narrative.○ Support project leads with day-to-day delivery, including workplanning, task tracking, and maintaining momentum across workstreams.○ Work flexibly across multiple projects and teams, adapting readily to new sectors, problems, and ways of working.
• Who We're Looking For?
• Qualifications○ Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Business Administration, Economics, Engineering, Finance, Social Sciences, Design, or a related discipline; a relevant master’s degree is an advantage.○ 1–2 years of experience in management consulting, strategy, research, design, or a comparable analytical role.
• Skills and Competencies○ Intellectual curiosity and adaptability, with the ability to develop command of any subject matter quickly and to work across markedly different problems.○ Exceptional structured problem-solving, with the ability to break ambiguous challenges into clear hypotheses and workplans.○ Strong research capability across both secondary methods (desk research, benchmarking) and primary methods (interviews, research circles, surveys).○ Sound analytical and quantitative ability, comfortable working with data and building models and analyses in Excel.○ Strong synthesis skills, able to convert qualitative and quantitative inputs into clear insight, personas, use cases, and frameworks.○ Excellent PowerPoint and Excel skills, with the ability to produce clear, well-structured, and compelling deliverables; familiarity with business-intelligence or data-visualisation tools is an advantage.○ Outstanding written and verbal communication, with the ability to construct a clear and persuasive narrative from analysis.○ Ability to work natively with AI tools and emerging technologies to accelerate research, analysis, and synthesis.○ Comfort with ambiguity and a strong bias for action, together with a collaborative approach across diverse teams, cultures, and seniority levels.