Job Opportunities at The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Responsibilities

The incumbent will join a dynamic international team to implement the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock, and will be responsible for strengthening its performance management and supporting interdisciplinary research teams in the program’s target countries to be more effective and to engage with a wide range of partners and stakeholders.

To strengthen the program’s performance management, the incumbent will work closely with the ILRI Research Methods Group and impact assessment research team in:

• Completing the design and implementation of the program’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Impact Assessment (MELIA) framework, including overseeing the finalization and roll-out of the related computer or web-based systems
• Managing MELIA components in the program’s planning and reporting processes and supporting program staff in their implementation, including facilitating regular review and strengthening of Theories of Change and their evidence base and guiding research teams in defining and monitoring their Change Pathways
• Defining and overseeing data collection for program performance indicators
• Coordinating internal and external evaluations and impact assessments
• Representing the program in CGIAR processes related to monitoring and evaluation

For country research teams:

• Supporting country coordinators to strengthen interdisciplinary interaction within their teams
• Updating and overseeing implementation of a partnership strategy, especially with respect to improving the partnership skills of the country research teams
• Strengthening the rigor and quality of action research conducted at country level including ensuring adequate cross-country research design, integrated into MELIA planning and reporting processes

For overall program implementation:

• Contributing to the development of the management strategy led by the Program Director and Program Management Committee.
• Supporting the Livestock Program Director,Program Management Committee, Independent Steering Committee and representing the Program Director when needed
• Assisting in overseeing the day-to-day operations of the program management unit and working closely with the Program Management staff ensure alignment with the Project Management Framework by
  • Designing and implementing systems to track, monitor, report program calendar and deliverables, and coordinate with flagship leaders to ensure timely delivery of products and reports. Also through contributing to routine reporting with the Consortium on Program research deliverables, program briefs and financial reports.
  • Responding to internal/external project information requests.

Requirements

• A Masters Degree in Evaluation, Social Sciences or related field, with a PhD in one of these fields an advantage
• At least 10 years relevant experience managing complex programsinternationally in research or development organisations
• Experience of working in both Africa and Asia a distinct advantage.
• Proven experience in coordinating complex global programmes with numerous partners
• Demonstrated ability to support change processes and promote uptake of new management and evaluation systems
• Excellent managerial and multi-tasking skills
• Track record of showing initiative and making decisions at program level
• Flexibility and agility to deliver within short timeframes
• Willingness to travel internationally
• Excellent English language skills, with French or Spanish an advantage.

Post location: The position is based at ILRI’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Position level: The position level is 5B.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.

Benefits: ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 15% Pension, Medical insurance, Life insurance and allowances for: Education, Housing, Relocation, Home leave, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days + public holidays.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development by clicking on the "Apply Now" tab above in the link provided before 2 December 2016. The position title and reference number PP/CRP/10/2016 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

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The Position

The position will involve research and capacity building activities geared towards enhancing the understanding of the origin and dynamics of the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus. The Incumbent will be involved in training and mentorship of postgraduate students from the Afrique One-ASPIRE (African Science Partnership for Intervention Research Excellence) consortium on bioinformatics. Afrique One-ASPIRE is a consortium developing research within the One Health framework, targeting zoonotic and emerging diseases and taking into account human, animal and environmental components to identify integrated solutions for elimination.

Responsibilities

• Combine computational biology/functional genomics information with genetic approaches to understand origin and dynamics of ASF
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams to manage and ensure quality control of genomics and other metadata
• Design, establish and manage databases to store and share sequencing data
• Lead the development of pipelines for genome assembly, annotation and other computational analyses
• Contribute to the Hub bioinformatics infrastructure upgrade
• Contribute to capacity building activities
• Supervision and mentorship of junior staff, students and visiting scientists
• Technical support to scientists both at the Hub and institutions in the region
• Contribute to resource mobilization
• Remain at the cutting-edge on technical and biological advancements by participating in professional meetings, career development activities and by encouraging others to bring information into agricultural research and development activities.

Requirements

• PhD degree obtained not more than five years ago in computational biology/functional genomics, molecular biology, genetics or related scientific field
• Three - five years’ work experience in a bioinformatics position
• Demonstrated competency to effectively prioritize projects, manage multiple project deadlines and allocate resources accordingly
•  Ability to work both independently and contribute significantly as a team member.
• Knowledge of genetics, biotechnology and their applications to agricultural research
• Experience in managing and using relational databases
• Experience in the design and statistical analysis of experimental data
• Familiarity with commonly used bioinformatics databases, and bioinformatics tools (samtools, IGV, ANNOVAR, GATK) and file formats (BED, VCR, FASTQ, BAM) preferred
• Proficiency in the use of bioinformatics tools (e.g. IGV, GATK, BLAST, SAMtools, etc.), file formats (e.g. FASTQ, BED, BAM, VCR), and publicly available genomics databases (e.g. GEO, ExAC, ESP, ClinVar, GenBank, Ensemble, KEGG, HGMD, OMIM).
• Experience in management of capacity building activities both individual and institutional
• Strong programming skills in either R or Python
• Demonstrate experience working and developing in a Linux environment
• Knowledge in SQL and scripting languages (PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby)
• Experience working in an advanced biotechnology research group
• Knowledge of genome sequencing strategies
• Solid working knowledge of various bioinformatics packages used for genome data analysis
• Strong technical science writing skills as demonstrated by publications in at least 4 peer-reviewed journals and other publications
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to perform in a multicultural research environment and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Interest in international agricultural research and development
• Proficiency in spoken and written English
• Knowledge of French is an added advantage.

Post location: The position is based at ILRI’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Position level: The position level is 4C.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.

Benefits: ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 15% Pension, Medical insurance, Life insurance and allowances for: Education, Housing, Relocation, Home leave, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days + public holidays.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development by clicking on the "Apply Now" tab above in the link provided before 24 December 2016. The position title and reference number:  SB/ BecA /11/2016 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

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Key Responsibilities

• Preparing timely and accurate donor financial reports as per specific donor and ILRI guidelines
• Management of sub grantees by ensuring financial reports are received on time as per specific contracts and properly filed for future reference, reviewing their vouchers and financial reports, facilitating funds transfers and follow up on any matters arising from received documentation
• Preparing monthly financial management reports for the program
• Support annual budget preparation and periodic project budgets
• Assist in implementing audit comments as per the management letter
• Reconcile donor receivables and payables to the general ledger
• Work with Grant Officers to ensure full cost items are charged to the projects as per agreements such as research support, ICT, space and overheads
• Participate in project closures
• Prepare proposals budgets as per donor and ILRI guidelines
• Prepare invoices for fellows, donors or any other services to be offered by the BecA-ILRI hub
• Ensure all services revenues are collected and posted correctly in the financial system:- recharges, hub placement fee, bench fee
• Review financial documents of the unit e.g. payment requests, purchase requisitions travel advance forms, travel expense reports, advance settlement forms to ensure they are accurate , charges are to the correct grants and that the spending is within budget
• Maintain an effective filling system for financial and related documents for document retention, ease of reference and retrieval

 Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting
• Full accounting qualifications- CPA (K) or ACCA
• Minimum of three years of relevant working experience
• Good personal organizational skills, accuracy and attention to detail
• Good communication and interpersonal skills
• Highly effective multi-tasking skills, with ability to coordinate, prioritize and organize workload and meet deadlines

Terms of Appointment

This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Nairobi campus. It is open to Kenyan nationals only. This is a temporary position up to a period ending 15 June 2017.

Job Level

This position is job level 2C.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development through our recruitment portal in the link provided on or before 7 December 2016. The position title and reference number REF: PA/BecA /11/2016 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

go to method of application »

Responsibilities

The incumbent will join a dynamic international team to implement the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock, and will be responsible for strengthening its performance management and supporting interdisciplinary research teams in the program’s target countries to be more effective and to engage with a wide range of partners and stakeholders.

To strengthen the program’s performance management, the incumbent will work closely with the ILRI Research Methods Group and impact assessment research team in:

• Completing the design and implementation of the program’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Impact Assessment (MELIA) framework, including overseeing the finalization and roll-out of the related computer or web-based systems
• Managing MELIA components in the program’s planning and reporting processes and supporting program staff in their implementation, including facilitating regular review and strengthening of Theories of Change and their evidence base and guiding research teams in defining and monitoring their Change Pathways
• Defining and overseeing data collection for program performance indicators
• Coordinating internal and external evaluations and impact assessments
• Representing the program in CGIAR processes related to monitoring and evaluation

For country research teams:

• Supporting country coordinators to strengthen interdisciplinary interaction within their teams
• Updating and overseeing implementation of a partnership strategy, especially with respect to improving the partnership skills of the country research teams
• Strengthening the rigor and quality of action research conducted at country level including ensuring adequate cross-country research design, integrated into MELIA planning and reporting processes

For overall program implementation:

• Contributing to the development of the management strategy led by the Program Director and Program Management Committee.
• Supporting the Livestock Program Director,Program Management Committee, Independent Steering Committee and representing the Program Director when needed
• Assisting in overseeing the day-to-day operations of the program management unit and working closely with the Program Management staff ensure alignment with the Project Management Framework by
  • Designing and implementing systems to track, monitor, report program calendar and deliverables, and coordinate with flagship leaders to ensure timely delivery of products and reports. Also through contributing to routine reporting with the Consortium on Program research deliverables, program briefs and financial reports.
  • Responding to internal/external project information requests.

Requirements

• A Masters Degree in Evaluation, Social Sciences or related field, with a PhD in one of these fields an advantage
• At least 10 years relevant experience managing complex programsinternationally in research or development organisations
• Experience of working in both Africa and Asia a distinct advantage.
• Proven experience in coordinating complex global programmes with numerous partners
• Demonstrated ability to support change processes and promote uptake of new management and evaluation systems
• Excellent managerial and multi-tasking skills
• Track record of showing initiative and making decisions at program level
• Flexibility and agility to deliver within short timeframes
• Willingness to travel internationally
• Excellent English language skills, with French or Spanish an advantage.

Post location: The position is based at ILRI’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Position level: The position level is 5B.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.

Benefits: ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes 15% Pension, Medical insurance, Life insurance and allowances for: Education, Housing, Relocation, Home leave, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days + public holidays.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV explaining their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development by clicking on the "Apply Now" tab above in the link provided before 2 December 2016. The position title and reference number PP/CRP/10/2016 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.