Regional Advisor, Anglophone Africa at Population Services International (PSI)

Join us!

PSI is seeking a skilled, creative and dynamic candidate with significant diversity of experience and historical success in conducting quality research and using evidence for decision-making. Candidates should have experience in designing, implementing, and analyzing rigorous quantitative and qualitative research, have strong communication and technical writing skills, and a record of capacity building. The Research Advisor will be responsible for providing the vision, technical oversight, management, and quality assurance of the research, evaluation and monitoring activities across the region. A key function of this position is to strengthen the PSI network by being a technical and regional resource for information sharing and thought leadership. An anticipated start date is October 2019.

Sound like you? Read on.

Your contribution

• Ensuring technical excellence in research planning and execution
• Providing technical and strategic oversight by ensuring that all research and evaluation activities are well planned, strategic, and rigorous. This includes: developing or providing inputs to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plans and budgets, developing or strengthening evidence inputs during program design, approving and supporting the quality execution of annual research plans in each country, engaging with senior country leadership to identify research needs, ensuring ethical and data protection policy compliance in human subjects and high risk program research, and ensuring that study documentation is introduced into PSI’s knowledge management systems. On strategic projects, the research advisor leads or engages with local teams and external consultants on logical framework development, study design, questionnaire development, data collection, data analysis, report writing or review, dissemination, and data use.
• Supporting data use and thought leadership initiatives
• PSI network members conduct several research studies and data collection activities to inform, adapt and evaluate PSI programs. The Research Advisor facilitates and supports local researchers and program teams to use and transform research findings into evidence-informed program actions by implementing data to action frameworks, facilitating data use workshops, and developing appropriate formats to communicate research results to different audiences. The Research Advisor also contributes to learning agendas and facilitates contributions to thought leadership workstreams, including conducting evidence synthesis review workshops, drafting or reviewing conference abstracts, engaging with and contributing to external communities of practice, and writing and submitting manuscripts for peer review.
• Managing Human Resources Effectively
• Our work relies on the skills, talents, and motivation of our teams. Strong research teams are built through effective recruitment, camaraderie, identifying opportunities for collaboration and information sharing, encouraging creativity, and investing in staff development and through training and performance management. The Research Advisor fosters close relationships with PSI’s global Evidence and health area research teams to ensure that network members receive appropriate technical support, learn from global trends in research, and contribute to PSI’s knowledge base and strategic research agenda with their research products. The Research Advisor also supports recruitment, engages in onboarding activities, provides mentorship and technical guidance, and builds the technical capacity of country research and project research staff.
• Strengthening the Network
• A strong organizational network requires proactive engagement by every network member. Regional and technical resources serve as a bridge to access network resources across the globe and to contribute lessons and experiences with others. The Research Advisor plays a key role in strengthening the network by supporting teams in identifying internal and external skills and talent, managing relationships with research consultants or stakeholders, supporting platform-to-platform capacity building within the region and across the PSI global network. The Advisor also strengthens the network as a coordinator and communicator between country research staff, program research staff, program teams, marketing teams, health area researchers, and Global Evidence.

Serve as Technical Expert

The Research Advisor will also bring their specialized skillset to the global evidence team at PSI, which could range from expertise in sampling, poverty and equity measurement, cost-effectiveness analysis, pricing, market mapping, digital health research, or health area expertise in HIV, malaria, or family planning / reproductive health.

What are we looking for?

• Master’s degree (MA, MPH, MSc) in public health, behavioral sciences, population studies, psychology, anthropology, communication, or a related field preferred; PhD a plus.
• At least five years of professional experience in applied research, monitoring, and evaluation of public health programs, including field experience in Southern or Eastern Africa
• Demonstrated ability to design, analyze, disseminate, and manage qualitative and quantitative research.
• Experience analyzing quantitative research in Stata software, including analysis of DHS data
• Experience analyzing qualitative data using software (e.g., n-Vivo, Atlas TI, Dedoose, or similar program)
• Experience in designing, fielding and monitoring quality of data collected through mobile devices. Experience with SurveyCTO or similar platform.
• Proven experience in successfully building capacity of and mentoring researchers
• Ability to develop partnerships with internal senior management, program and marketing teams, external stakeholders, and donors
• Ability to manage and provide quality assurance to work performed by external research agencies or providers
• Experience managing multiple studies and teams in challenging, resource constrained environments
• Extensive familiarity with research ethics procedures and submission of studies to local and international IRB boards
• Experience developing M&E plans, logical frameworks and contributing to new business development
• Excellent writing and communication skills in English
• Fluency in Portuguese preferred
• Repertoire of desired expertise/skills includes:
• Experience with marketing research and design research
• Experience conducting market landscaping activities
• Experience with data visualization software
• Familiarity with donor-funded international development projects