Fresh Jobs at Jacaranda Health

About the team

• The Research Design & Evaluation (RD&E) team is the heart of Jacaranda Health, providing evidence for product design, implementation, scale and expansion of Jacaranda’s programming. We pride ourselves on being data and technically adept, working with cutting edge technology to drive high value solutions for maternal health. 

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Timeline & Resourcing Management

• Maintain a consolidated view of active studies/projects across Product Research and Implementation and ImpactResearch, tracking timelines, dependencies, and team capacity.
• Coordinate sprint-aligned planning for Product Research and fieldwork-driven scheduling (data collection windows, enumerator/partner logistics) for Impact and Implementation Research, with understanding of varying team cadences.
• Flag resourcing conflicts or at-risk timelines to the Head of Department early, with proposed options.
• Accountable for portfolio-level delivery visibility.

Budget & Stakeholder Management

• Manage budget planning, tracking, and reporting for all research streams.
• Own vendor and partner-contract coordination (survey/usability tools, enumerator rosters, external data-sharing agreements), in partnership with Operations/Finance as needed.
• Accountable for budget accuracy and timely vendor management across the research portfolio.
• Accountable for donor reporting needs and timelines- owns the reporting processes and outputs in collaboration with Comms and Finance.

Process, Tooling, Administration & Compliance

• Build and maintain shared research operations infrastructure: intake processes, reporting templates, documentation standards, and tooling that serve both streams. 
• Support administrative coordination for fieldwork logistics (facility/partner scheduling, ethics/IRB submission tracking) and for product-side research administration (participant recruitment scheduling, tooling access)
• Ensure legal and ethical compliance – manage data sharing and storage, in full compliance with all legal requirements. 
• Accountable for research operations being repeatable and well-documented.

Cross-Functional Coordination & Reporting

• Serve as the operational point of contact between Research and other departments (Product, Tech, Data, Finance/Ops) on scheduling, budget, and process. 
• Prepare routine portfolio-level status reporting for the Head of Department and Technical Leadership, flagging risks and challenges early. 
• Accountable for keeping both streams’ stakeholders informed and coordinated.
• Accountable for timely internal communication of research insights organization–wide, improving the visibility of research learnings. 
• Support the development of external research communications, championing external visibility.  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in a relevant field (for example public health, social sciences, business or management)
• 5+ years in program/project management, research operations, or operations management; direct research operations experience.

Skills and Competencies:

• Functional understanding of research methods and requirements, including study design, data quality, and interpretation and reporting 
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets, vendors, and timelines across multiple concurrent workstreams
• Comfort operating across two different delivery cadences (fast-cycle/product-style and longer fieldwork/donor-driven cycles) 
• Strong organizational and cross-functional communication skills; experience building or maintaining shared operational processes/tooling

Desirable

• Experience managing donor-funded projects and reporting, preferably within global health, maternal and newborn health, or digital health. 
• Experience with research ethics and regulatory processes in Kenya (for example IRB and NACOSTI submissions) and with data protection requirements.
• Project Management certification. 

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Key Responsibilities

Product Research Delivery

• Design and conduct mixed-methods research (usability testing, lightweight surveys, message and feature experiments, engagement/retention analysis) across PROMPTS, DELTA, and PULSE, answering the reach, engagement & retention, and effectiveness questions in Jacaranda’s Research & Learning Agenda.
• Translate product usage data + research insights into clear, actionable recommendations for product, engineering, and design stakeholders.
• Prioritize which questions warrant a full study versus a lightweight test, balancing rigor against product delivery timelines.
• Accountable for the technical quality, credibility, and actionability of product research findings.

Function & Process Building

• Design, implement and own the operating model for product research: intake process, success criteria, templates, and documentation standards.
• Build the enablement layer (guides, templates, training) that allows product managers to run their own lightweight studies over time.
• Manage the function’s own timelines, budget, and resourcing during its build-out phase.
• Accountable for product research operating as a credible, repeatable practice, being integrated into Product lifecycles 

Stakeholder Partnership & Technical Representation

• Partner with Product, Tech, Medical and Data leads, embedding research into the product delivery lifecycle (sprint planning, roadmap reviews).
• Represent product research findings to the Head of Department and Technical Team Leadership, connecting product-level insights to Jacaranda’s broader product goals 
• Accountable for product research being seen as a trusted, embedded partner to product teams

Team Leadership 

• Define the scope for, and hire, 1-2 Product Research Analysts as demand grows.
• Provide day-to-day technical guidance, structure and quality review of that role’s output. 
• Accountable for the analyst’s ramp-up, professional growth, and the quality of work.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in product/UX research or a closely related mixed-methods research role; experience in digital health, behavior-change, or messaging-based products is an advantage
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s in a relevant field (e.g. HCI, behavioral science, public health, social science) preferred

Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrated experience building and managing a research practice or function from (templates, process, prioritization)
• Strong quantitative literacy: comfort with engagement/retention/usage data (e.g. SMS or product logs), alongside qualitative methods (usability testing, interviews)
• Experience in product decision making and influence 
• Experience partnering directly with product managers, designers, developers, analysts and engineers inside a product/agile delivery cadence