Tongston is a multi-award-winning brand providing entrepreneurial education, media, enterprise & finance services for sustainable socio-economic development. T-World is Tongston’s AI powered digital entrepreneurial thinking ecosystem providing integrated media, enterprise, finance and entrepreneurial education services to K-12 Students, HE Students, Entrepreneurs, Intrapreneurs and their institutions globally to become Valuable, Influential & Profitable.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Research & Intelligence Fellow

Location: Remote
Employment Type: Internship

Overview

• Tongston is looking for a Research & Intelligence Fellow to support our Data team. This is a learning-focused role for someone curious about rigorous cross functional research that drives how organisations make decisions across multiple areas and functions.
• The role helps the organisation understand users, markets, countries, regulations/laws, products, partners, talent sources, funding opportunities, products, operational implications and more.
• The purpose of this role is to support Tongston’s ability to make better decisions, build better products, manage risks, grow faster, and remain internally intelligent by turning research and data into usable organisational knowledge and decisions.
• The Fellow will support research that helps teams know what to do, what the clientele and key stakeholders want/need/object to, why it matters, what the evidence says, what the risks are, what options exist, where the opportunities are, where the threats are, what comparators/competitors are doing, and what actions should be considered next.
• You’ll join a team working on an AI-powered super app and ecosystem delivering education, enterprise, media, and finance solutions to users including K-12 & higher education students, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs.
• Fellows are expected to be available throughout the week, with defined deliverables set in weekly meetings and participation in wider weekly project management / team / other such meetings as required.

What You’ll Do
You will:

• Support research and ongoing tracking of trends, developments, and external signals relevant to Tongston and T-World, including users, competitors, partners, regulators, markets, technologies, and other ecosystem actors.
• Support research and ongoing tracking of trends, developments, and external signals relevant to Tongston and T-World, including users, customers, competitors, partners, regulators, markets, technologies, institutions, governments, funders, investors, talent sources, and other ecosystem actors.
• Convert broad questions into clear research questions, source plans, data requirements, assumptions, and expected outputs.
• Collect, organise, clean, compare, validate, and summarise information and datasets from approved, traceable, and relevant sources.
• Prepare research notes, market scans, competitor summaries, policy update notes, economic tracking sheets, strategic memos, persona updates, country briefs, issue logs, management briefings, and stakeholder-ready summaries.
• Synthesize findings into clear insights, implications, risks, opportunities, options, and recommended next steps for internal use and stakeholder-facing materials where required.
• Maintain structured research trackers, source lists, assumptions logs, data logs, licensing notes, sensitivity classifications, issue registers, recommendation trackers, decision logs, and research workflow documentation.
• Support the team in developing charts, tables, simple analytics, dashboards, briefing packs, and reporting templates in Excel, Google Sheets, PowerPoint, Google Slides, Power BI, Looker Studio, or other approved tools.
• Escalate issues early where data, sources, outputs, or materials appear sensitive, unclear, restricted, low quality, contradictory, outdated, biased, or not permitted for use.
• Keep research, evidence, and source files organised and easy to retrieve, with clear naming, versioning, ownership, and traceability.
• Fulfil additional tasks as required incidental to the above.

How This Role Illustratively Feeds Each Team
The role is cross-functional. Research outputs must be tailored to the team that will use them. THe below shows what this could be like illustratively!

Enterprise – Operations, Media and Finance Teams:

Core Teams:

Knowledge, Skills & Attitude Requirements
Knowledge:

• ND / HND / Bachelor’s Degree, or currently studying, in Economics, Finance, Data/Analytics, Statistics, Business, Public Policy, Political Science, Social Sciences, Research, Development Studies, Law, or related fields is helpful.
• Basic understanding, or strong willingness to learn, market research, policy and regulatory tracking, strategic research, competitor scanning, stakeholder mapping, and economic trend monitoring.
• Familiarity with, or willingness to learn, charts, tables, dashboards, trackers, registers, workflow documentation, research templates, and internal reporting formats.
• Basic familiarity with, or strong willingness to learn, themes such as credit, lending models, fintech, digital finance, SME finance, financial inclusion, economic indicators, education technology, AI governance, data protection, product research, and commercial strategy is useful but not required.
• Understanding how to work with approved sources, traceable evidence, structured research documentation, assumptions, gaps, limitations, and confidence levels is useful but not required.
• Awareness of responsible data handling, source quality, sensitivity, confidentiality, licensing, and internal governance requirements is useful but not required.

Technical Skills:

• Good spreadsheet skills (Excel/Google Sheets): organising data, data cleaning, formatting etc.
• Ability to create clear research trackers, tables, charts, dashboards, briefing packs, reporting templates, and presentation materials.
• Ability to use web research, regulatory portals, public databases, market intelligence sources, academic sources, professional body websites, internal repositories, and approved platform data sources.
• Familiarity with, or willingness to learn, Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio, or similar dashboarding and visualisation tools is useful but not required.
• Familiarity with, or willingness to learn, basic SQL or structured data querying concepts where required for extracting, validating, or interpreting data from approved systems is useful but not required.
• Ability to use approved AI tools to structure research, design workflows, test thinking, summarise evidence, and support productivity without replacing judgement or traceability is useful but not required.

Core Soft Skills & Attitude:

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Good communication and collaboration abilities
• Ability to manage tasks and meet deadlines in a remote environment
• High attention to detail and design quality
• Curious, proactive, and committed to continuous learning
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, cross-functional team
• Strong alignment with Tongston’s mission, values, and culture. Learn more about Tongston’s culture and values.

What You Get

• 100% remote role as part of a structured 12-month fellowship (minimum).
• A monthly Remote Productivity Support Package of NGN 50,000 stipend and discretionary, pre-approved support for minor laptop upgrades (e.g. RAM/SSD replacement) within an approved cap where required for productivity. You are expected to have your own laptop.
• A fast-track progression pathway into longer-term employment/contractor engagement with Tongston subject to final performance review outcomes, fit, role availability and organisational needs. Such engagements may include health insurance, paid leave (paternity, maternity, exam, casual etc.), pension, increased L&D support, performance bonuses, improved productivity support and laptop provision.
• A defined learning pathway through live product delivery, with hands-on experience working on solutions that combine research, analytics, data protection and next-generation digital systems, together with exposure to how products are improved through user insight, data-informed decision-making and feedback within an AI-powered super app ecosystem.
• Team-based execution and support with weekly work reviews (data team cadence) and defined weekly deliverables.
• A structured learning and growth pathway supported through twice-yearly performance review, development and growth conversations (January & July). If you join after a review cycle, your first review will take place in the next review window. The review helps you document and communicate how you’ve grown, developed and demonstrated being Valuable, Influential & Profitable. This could fast track consideration to an IC role in the case of exceptional performance.
• Learning & Development (L&D) budget to pre-approved L&D initiatives to meet your needs: NGN 50,000.
• A Tongston-approved Proof-of-Work Portfolio developed through your fellowship work, presented as a capstone at your final performance review. It may include:
  • Cross-Functional Research Deliverables Log: high-level trends, issues, and decisions supported across LPRGC, Media/Information, Admin & PM, Strategy, HRM, Finance, Data, AI, Tech, and Education.
  • Research-to-Action Case Notes: 2-4 structured case notes showing Problem -> Sources -> Approach -> Analysis -> Insight -> Team Feed -> Recommendation -> Outcome.
  • Governance & Traceability Evidence: sample source lists, assumptions logs, data logs, licensing notes, sensitivity classifications, and approval/escalation notes.
  • Team Feed Samples: examples of team-specific briefs, such as a finance funding scan, media messaging guidance, LPRGC regulatory implication note, AI knowledge-base input, education content validation note, or tech/product requirement implication.
  • Persona, Market & Country Intelligence Evidence: samples of buyer/stakeholder personas, country profiles, competitor matrices, market entry scans, or user insight refreshes.
  • Charts/Tables/Slides Samples: examples of reporting formats, dashboards, briefing packs, or management-ready summaries you produced.
  • Research Workflow & AI-Agent Evidence: documented workflows, prompts, memory/source structures, reusable templates, and quality checks that help the team repeat research work consistently.
  • Skills Evidence Matrix: research synthesis, spreadsheet discipline, data governance awareness, strategic thinking, AI-supported workflow design, presentation quality, and cross-functional communication.
• A Certificate of Contribution plus a verifiable digital badge (OpenCPD-enabled) for completed cycles subject to satisfactory performance (shareable on LinkedIn and verifiable by third parties).
• Professional Visibility: listed on Tongston’s website as a Fellow.
• Complimentary premium access to T-World, Tongston’s integrated digital platform.
• Participation in Tongston Academy sessions (scheduled periodically):
  • Personal branding (includes CV/LinkedIn review)
  • Personal finance & investing
  • Sales, communication & networking
  • Business development & strategy
  • Project management, Cybersecurity awareness & Digital automation tools
• Participation in end-of-year company gifting.

Application Closing Date
31st August, 2026.