Research Officer – Statistics / Epidemiology at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

The  Epidemiology Research Officer will play an important and active role in the QuEST project that broadly aims at building the evidence base to support the transformation to high-quality health systems by improving measurement, testing solutions, and creating generalizable knowledge in partnership with changemakers in low- and middle-income countries. One of the major objectives of the QuEST project is to deliver critical research expertise to strengthen the evidence on improving health systems. The goal is to have a health system that is responsive to the people that they aim to serve by developing and validating a new instrument to understand the population's view on health system confidence and outcomes. The People’s Voice Survey (PVS) will be a population-representative phone survey to bring people’s perspectives into health system performance measurement. The project is seeking a research officer to support activities related to the population voice survey and analysis of data from the survey and other routine data collection systems as directed by supervisors

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

For the Public Health Unit in Nairobi and under the direction of supervisor to:

• Collate, clean and archive data and associated meta-data
• Undertake statistical analysis of the survey data with appropriate support and appropriately document these analyses
• Develop written reports on the analyses conducted and their interpretation
• Develop peer-reviewed manuscript quality reports for submission for publication
• Support consultations with local, regional and national governments and key donors
• To provide support in analysis to less experienced research staff / interns / collaborators
• And any other duties that may be assigned from time to time.

CRITERIA:

The successful applicant will have:

• Recognised Postgraduate qualification (Masters) relevant to the field of epidemiological research, statistis, global health and/or public health
• At least 3 years relevant work experience in research
• Demonstrated experience in collecting, analysing and interpreting a range of quantitative data
• Experience in the analysis and interpretation of complex and/or large data sets, specifically health survey data
• Proficiency in one or more statistical packages 
• Highly developed oral and written communication skills
• Experience in undertaking research in a cross-cultural context
• A record of publishing and presenting research results, relative to opportunity
• Demonstrated interest in public health and Demonstrated knowledge and working experience of Kenyan Health system added advantage
• Demonstrated ability to act with sound judgement, sensitivity, and flexibility, and to exercise initiative in adapting preferred approaches when and where required
• Demonstrated experience in undertaking national/ subnational surveys (preferable)

COMPETENCIES:

• Experience in use of STATA and / or ‘R’ for analysis of health data.
• Have high energy, clear goal orientation and strong work ethics
• Strong organisation/programme management skills with the ability to prioritise workloads and work within tight deadlines
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment and to multi-task
• Ability to interact with users/ office use in simple non-technical language