Post-Doctoral Research Scientist in Impact Evaluation at United States International University Africa (USIU)

Duties and responsibilities

Technical leadership and support

• Leading the design and implementation of development-related impact evaluations and research studies;
• Support NIERA members in adoption of impact evaluation designs in research studies including complex impact evaluations based on modern practices such as Interrupted time series (ITS), Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), cluster-randomized designs, step-wedge designs among others; and
• Develop and deepen innovative approaches to impact evaluation e.g., through training of researchers at the center in IE methodology, developing and writing papers that utilize IE methodologies in peer-reviewed journals, engaging with IE communities of practice to strengthen NIERAs’ visibility in IE practice, etc.

Fundraising for IE sustainability

• Lead the resource mobilization for IE projects to ensure that NIERA sustains its IE mandate to the foreseeable future;
• Support proposal writing and other fundraising activities geared towards leveraging funds to broaden the current mandate of NIERA and
• Actively collaborate with and contribute to the work of other objective areas to strengthen NIERA’s impact evaluation mandate.

Management of Impact Evaluation Projects

• Establish, monitor, and update work plans and budgets for Impact Evaluation projects;
• Oversee mobilization of evaluation teams, including organizing and managing team planning meetings and overseeing all necessary logistical preparations for field data collection;
• Support Country Leaders to identify, recruit and train the research assistants, support teams technically, assist in orienting consultant team members to the procedures of working with NIERA;
• Assure high-quality deliverables and evaluation reports;
• Support development of IEs including background and supporting research for ongoing/upcoming IEs and oversight of survey development;
• Manage IE datasets throughout the evaluation life-cycle from coordination of local data collection partners to data management and cleaning to preliminary analysis;
• Support the impact evaluation team to develop, review and finalize evaluation analysis plans, evaluation frameworks, and contribute to drafting of work plans, data collection tools, and field monitoring tools for each IE activity;
• Work with Project Evaluation Team to provide timely updates and reports on evaluation activities as needed;
• Participate and/or support the dissemination of findings; and
• Perform any other tasks required to advance the Network’s objectives.

Key Competencies, qualifications and experience

• PhD in Social Sciences including Development Economics, Public Health, Epidemiology with specialization in Impact Evaluation of development projects.
• Advanced skills in econometrics/statistics and quantitative methods.
• Ability to conduct large-scale surveys in developing countries and handle large datasets using standard econometric software (STATA, SAS, R, etc.).
• Work experience (of at least 3 years) in project evaluation and impact analysis is essential.
• Demonstrated experience in in-depth impact analysis methods, and experimental and quasi-experimental methods applied in impact evaluation (RCT, Instrumental Variable, propensity score matching, and interrupted time series).
• Experience designing and implementing one or more of the following: implementation research, process evaluations, formative research, qualitative research.
• Excellent written, presentation, and communication skills; ability to present arguments and analysis in a structured and succinct manner.
• Strong quantitative skills and ability to work with large data sets.
• Ability to work independently; self-starter and highly motivated.
• Strong statistical knowledge in particular for the design of impact evaluations.
• Proficiency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of the East African region.

Deadline:by 5.00pm, Monday, May 9, 2022