Senior Electric Mobility Research Associate, Cities Program at World Resources Institute (WRI)

As the Senior Electric Mobility Research Associate, you will lead the development of knowledge products that evaluate potential paths toward multi-modal urban transport electrification in East Africa with a particular focus in Kenya, including the assessment of the economic, employment, health, and fuel savings benefits of this transition. You will be responsible for organizing events to communicate research findings to relevant target stakeholders, including potential e-mobility investors, government agencies, private sector transport firms, OEMs, and urban residents who use public transport vehicles daily. You will also be responsible for organizing targeted meetings with government agencies to raise awareness about benefits and synergies around multi-modal e-vehicle service provision, including integrated transport planning involving non-motorized transportation alternatives in cities.

You will be working closely with our teams in Africa and in our international offices, local governments, and other organizational partners. You will directly report to the Urban Mobility Project Manager for WRI Africa and the Director of Thriving and Resilient Cities for WRI Africa. This position will be a hybrid model of remote and in-office. The working schedule will be determined together with your line manager.

What you will do:

Project Management (25%)

• Manage day-to-day research and project implementation including preparing work plans, following up on project implementation and preparing of progress reports
• Support coordination of urban mobility projects in Kenya, in particular the electric mobility projects
• Coordinate diverse teams of researchers, decision makers, and practitioners to advance research and implement projects within the WRI Africa Cities program
• Report weekly or bi-weekly on progress of projects to WRI Africa Cities Program Director and Urban Mobility Project Manager.

Research and Knowledge (40% time)

• Author a WRI Knowledge Product on evaluating potential paths toward multi-modal urban transport electrification in Kenya, including assessment of the economic, employment, health, and fuel savings benefits of this transition
• Conduct transport, environmental, public health, and financial data collection, verification and visualization.
• Conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses
• Support the production of blogs, reports, and other informational content on sustainable urban mobility in particular electric mobility.

Communication/Outreach (30% time)

• Organize events, meetings, and workshops to communicate research findings to relevant target stakeholders
• Attend external functions and events to serve as a representative of WRI’s Electric Mobility Team
• Represent the Electric Mobility Team in WRI meetings
• Coordinate and attend targeted meetings with government agencies to raise awareness about benefits and synergies around multi-modal e-vehicle service provision
• Prepare presentations, concept notes, one-pagers etc. for meetings and events
• Help coordinate visits of international staff to Kenya and other travel activity of partners.

Grants and Financial Management (5% time)

• Coordinate project funding and budgets, support for draft grant proposals
• Prepare and send donor and project/grant status reports.

What you will need:

• Education: You have a completed master’s degree in transportation studies, urban/city planning, sustainable energy, engineering/data analytics, economics or a related field
• Experience: You have 6+ years of full-time relevant work experience in urban mobility areas, with at least one of those years working on electric mobility topics in the East African region
• You have experience working with institutions and government agencies in Kenya
• You have contributed to producing research papers for academic journals or major conferences related to urban mobility
• You have experience organizing meetings and workshops
• You have academic or professional experience supporting quantitative analysis
• Languages: You have verbal and written proficiency in English and Swahili
• Requirements: existing work authorization is required for this position.