Research & Evaluation Lead at Founders Factory Africa (FFA)

What You'll Do

• We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced researcher with diverse quantitative and qualitative skills to spearhead the design and implementation of a number of research and M&E projects. This role offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the impact assessment of innovative medical devices in low-resource settings and drive evidence-based decision-making. As the Research and Evaluation Lead, you will work closely with Neopenda senior management and take ownership of the company’s research and impact measurement strategy. The position is fast-paced and continuously evolving with emerging projects.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the design, planning, execution, and evaluation of clinical validation studies, feasibility assessments, and impact evaluations
• Leading formative and summative evaluations for new products or product changes. This will include spearheading voice of customer research for our new cloud service neoCloud and conducting summative evaluations for our intermittent vital signs monitor, neoSpot
• Update and align Neopenda’s clinical evaluation procedures with ISO 13485:2016 standards and other relevant guidelines, ensuring Neopenda's commitment to the highest quality and regulatory standards
• Driving Neopenda's research, M&E and impact measurement strategy along our theory of change, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and objectives
• Providing management and leadership, both internally and externally, to the research coordinator and various implementation partners, ensuring smooth collaboration between cross-functional teams and project success
• Leading the development and submission of grant applications to secure funding for additional research and business development objectives focused on new and existing products
• Supporting accurate data collection through training of on-site research staff and provision of technical oversight to ensure projects are implemented with fidelity
• Fostering and improving research and data management best practices at Neopenda, including adherence to research ethics, and optimization of data analysis, security and utilization procedures
• Managing databases and preparing data sets from a variety of sources; conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses to translate into actionable insights
• Developing compelling data visualizations, study reports, abstracts, peer-reviewed publications and other research products to communicate our research findings
• Participating in management and reporting of grant-funded projects, ensuring compliance with deliverables and timelines
• Strengthening and expanding Neopenda’s partnerships with a variety of external stakeholders including community partners, government officials, research collaborators and regulatory agents

Requirements

• A Master’s degree in public health, medical statistics, epidemiology or related field
• Advanced quantitative and qualitative skills and a strong understanding of a range of research methods
• 7+ years of healthcare research experience, with at least 2-3 years in a management role
• Experience at a startup, preferably in a medical technology or healthcare-related domain
• Demonstrated success in grant writing, with previous experience as a lead author and/or co-author
• Ability to effectively organize, self-manage and prioritize diverse tasks with minimal supervision
• Proficiency with analytical software and visualization tools, including Excel, R, STATA and Tableau
• Experience with electronic data capture systems such as REDCap, TrialKit and CastorEDC
• Strong analytical and communication skills (written and oral) with a demonstrated ability to distill and disseminate research findings to a wide public audience
• Strong interpersonal skills, with high effectiveness in influencing, networking and problem solving to overcome project bottlenecks
• Capacity to work collaboratively across teams and flexibility to occasionally operate outside regular hours to support team members and external partners across different time zones
• Excitement for building impactful technology and ability to thrive in a startup environment
• Openness to learning and growing in a dynamic role, and be comfortable wearing multiple hats