Senior Technical Advisor (Research and Learning), Adolescents 360 at Population Services International (PSI)

Department: Sexual and Reproductive Health

Reports to: Deputy Director, Adolescents 360

Timing: October 2020

Travel: Up to 25% travel

Location: Nairobi, Kenya (local hire)

Join us!

PSI’s flagship adolescent program, Adolescents 360 (A360) is hiring new talent to support the next phase of the project. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), A360 has partnered with young people and government health systems to design, pilot and scale adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) interventions which position contraception as a tool to achieving girls’ self-defined goals. In 2½ years of implementation it has supported over 360,000 adolescent girls adopt modern contraception. A360 is set to embark on an ambitious new phase which will focus on making adaptations to support continuation, strengthening the enabling environment, providing more substantive economic empowerment opportunities and embedding A360’s approaches in the government health systems in which we work. Cutting across this will be a comprehensive research and learning agenda designed to advance ASRH evidence and practices.

As A360 enters its next phase, PSI is looking for a Senior TA lead A360’s research and learning agenda. This position is based in reports to the Deputy Director and is based in Kenya. It will have a dotted line into the SRH Department’s Senior Research Advisor.

Interested? Read on.

Your contribution

• Technical
  • Collaborate with government, donors and other stakeholders to develop and adapt a research and learning agenda at a global and country level.
  • Collaborate with the Senior Technical Advisor (ASRH) and M&E Advisor to ensure there is a monitoring, evaluation, research and learning framework for each of the major areas of adaptation (continuation, the enabling environment, economic empowerment, meaningful adolescent engagement, and integration into government health systems).
  • Collaborate with the country teams and their Regional Research Advisor to ensure A360’s research and learning agenda is integrated into the country’s annual research plans.
  • Build the capacity of each country team to execute A360’s research and learning agenda, in a deliberate and concerted manner.
  • Oversee the development of research protocols. Ensure research protocols use high quality quantitative and qualitative methods and participatory methodologies and are aligned with the project’s human centeredness and employ participatory methodologies.
  • Oversee the ethics approvals process by the country teams and PSI’s regional research advisors.
  • Oversee the development and execution of the annual client exit interviews and mystery client visits by the country teams.
  • Manage the day-to-day relationship with the process evaluators, ensuring their activities are aligned with the research and learning agenda, the learning is disseminated across the team, and where appropriate course corrections are made.
  • Manage consultants hired at a global level to support the research and learning agenda, shaping their scopes of work, overseeing the procurement process, managing their delivery, and tracking spend against budget.
  • Collaborate with the SRH department’s Senior Research Advisor and Senior Technical Advisor (Learning and Implementation Science), and PSI’s Evidence Team to ensure strategic alignment, leverage departmental capacity, and advance PSI’s thought leadership. Leverage their expertise and give weight to the direction they provide.
  • Organize regular after-action reviews to elicit and document learning, using independent facilitators drawn from within the SRH department.
  • Keep abreast of the latest relevant literature and ensure key learning is shared across the global and country teams.
• Documentation and dissemination
  • Ensure A360’s learning repository is updated by the global and country teams periodically and the learning reviewed periodically.
  • Identify critical knowledge gaps and strategize with the project team how to address this.
  • Facilitate knowledge sharing between country teams via monthly calls and other mechanisms.
  • Contribute to the production of knowledge products to support adoption of A360 approaches by third parties, ensuring all technically sound, use plain English, and are tailored to the intended users.
  • Coordinate the writing of A360’s peer reviewed journals, technical publications, conference abstracts and papers, authoring where appropriate and feasible.
  • Contribute technical content to external communications organized by the Communications Manager.
  • Help foster a learning culture across A360 and one that embraces psychological safety.
  • Represent A360 in external fora, including technical working groups and regional / global conferences.
• Donor relations
  • Be responsive to the requests from donors – whether direct from the donors or relayed by the Senior Program Manager – and produce quality deliverables in a timely manner.
  • Support new business development as appropriate.

What are we looking for?

You should be client-focused and embody PSI’s corporate values:

• Measurement: You use hard evidence to make decisions and guide your work. You set clear goalposts in advance and explain clearly if you need to move them.
• Pragmatism: You’ll strive to deliver the best possible result with the resources available. You won’t be paralyzed by a need to make things perfect.
• Honesty: You own your mistakes and are open about your shortcomings – it’s the only way you’ll learn and improve.
• Collaboration: You’ll quickly establish a mental map of whom you can rely on for what, on your team, at headquarters, and in our country offices – if you try to do it all yourself, you won’t succeed.
• Trust: You accept limits to your sphere of control and give colleagues the benefit of the doubt.
• Commitment: You are in it for the long-haul and want to grow with the organization, just like PSI serves its consumers and partners with host-country governments through thick and thin.

Our ideal candidate will possess:

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) roles, including 5 years in the sexual and reproductive health field.
• Strong technical expertise in quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
• Experience working on HCD projects and projects that have embraced adaptive implementation.
• Experience working on complex multi-country projects with substantial research and learning agendas.
• Experience developing research protocols, securing ethics approvals and supervising research.
• Authentic individual with strong emotional intelligence, especially self-management and strong interpersonal skills.
• Experience of writing technical publications and peer review journal articles.
• Strong technical writing skills, including the ability to communicate with brevity and in plain English.
• First-hand knowledge of some or all of the A360 geographies.
• An aptitude for being highly organized, diligent, and reliable.
• Strong computer literacy and proficiency in relevant software (e.g. Excel, DHIS2, PowerBI, Stata, SPSS, etc.).
• A higher education qualification such as a Master’s degree in a relevant field (public health, epidemiology, international development, etc.).
• A commitment to PSI’s mission and its sexual and reproductive health strategy.

Please note:

This role will be based in Nairobi with local terms applicable.
References will be required and a background check will be performed.

PSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of actual or perceived race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, personal appearance, matriculation, political affiliation, family status or responsibilities, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or breastfeeding, genetic information, amnesty, veteran, special disabled veteran or uniform service member status or employment