Global Research & Evidence Manager at Human Capital Synergies Africa Ltd

Your Charge

• Living Goods is looking for an experienced researcher to lead research projects from end to end across the organization. This position reports to the Director of Performance, Evidence and Insights and is a part of the Global Programs Team, working cross functionally with our country programs and MEL teams to build evidence and insights to drive the organization’s impact and advocacy goals. Living Goods research portfolio includes operations research, process evaluations, and impact evaluations, and leverages vast amounts of program monitoring data as well as externally collected data.
• You are a strong project manager and a research technical expert, fluent across quantitative and qualitative methods and approaches. You will roll up your sleeves to design, conduct, analyze and package up research for advocacy. You will also identify, contract and manage high quality external Principal Investigators and research partners to collaborate and deliver. And you will train, mentor and support colleagues across the organization in research methods and management. You will develop evaluation strategies and research approaches to answer priority questions associated with Living Goods’ learning agenda, striking the balance of impact, feasibility, cost and rigor. You will also contribute to business development proposals, and you will strategically package up key evidence, learning and insights for advocacy.
• You have deep research technical experience and have a well-developed network of research colleagues and collaborators. You are intellectually curious, learning oriented and collaborative. You are motivated to produce high-quality research, evidence and insights that will drive impact deepening and advocacy.  You enjoy being challenged and delivering excellence to colleagues and partners.

Research Project Management

• Manage priority internal and external research projects from end to end including developing the evaluation strategy, drafting RFPs, identifying and contracting research partners (where appropriate), project management and oversight, data analysis report writing, dissemination, and ensuring translation of evidence and insights for program improvement and advocacy.
• Provide technical guidance/management to other LG and partner staff to adhere to research systems/processes/protocols to ensure high-quality research design, implementation, and analysis.
• Conduct analysis of internal program data and external evaluation data to answer priority learning questions or develop key evidence and insights for advocacy.

External Research Partnerships & Business Development

• Expand and deepen strategic global research partnerships
• Identify Principal Investigators and high-quality research partners for collaboration on specific projects.  
• Package up key evidence, learning and insight to share externally for advocacy, thought leadership and business development.
• Represent the organization externally with government partners, academia, funders
• Lead the technical input on evaluation and research sections of funding proposals.
• Partner with the business development team to identify specific opportunities for research funding aligned with the strategy.
• Participate in relevant external coalitions and technical working groups

Knowledge Pieces and Publications

• Publish key research, analysis, evidence and insights in peer-reviewed journals.
• Write knowledge pieces including blogs, policy briefs, and other articles to drive LG thought leadership, fundraising and advocacy goals.

Professional development & capacity-building

• Provide technical mentorship and capacity building across staff in research design, management and dissemination.
• Share relevant literature and research with team to enable and encourage evidence-informed decision making.

Administrative/Other

• Contribute to Global Program Team and country-level research strategy, annual planning and  budgeting.
• Lead or participate in internal and external steering committees and technical working groups as assigned and appropriate.

Minimum Qualifications

• Advanced degree in public health, epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, health systems strengthening, health policy with quantitative research specialization
• Demonstrated research technical experience with 7-9 years of total work experience with ideally 1-3 years at managerial level

Skills and Competencies:

• Excellent research & analytical technical expertise including in Epidemiology, bio-statistics, health economics, health systems research, quantitative & qualitative methods, survey design and management, data management,
• Experience managing multiple research projects from end to end with a high degree of quality and excellence. 
• Strategic thinking and analysis, ability to synthesize and interpret evidence and data into relevant, strategic recommendations
• Track record of packing up evidence and insights into high quality knowledge and learning outputs, policy briefs, peer-reviewed publications etc.
• Ability to foster research collaboration internally and externally across an established personal network of research colleagues. 
• Experience in team management, technical capacity building and mentorship.
• Excellent written, verbal and inter-personal communication skills. Demonstrated ability to communicate and engage effectively with a range of stakeholders including team members, external partners, funders and government partners.
• Strong interpersonal skills including cultural sensitivity. Experience working cross-functionally across teams