Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), is an international non-profit research organization. Based in New Haven, CT, with offices in New York, NY, Washington, D.C. and worldwide, IPA works with development partners and academic researchers to create and evaluate approaches to solving development problems, to communicate “what works” in development and to scale up successful projects in a variety of fields, including health, education, microfinance, governance and agriculture.
IPA is currently seeking a Research Manager to join one of its country programs to oversee a portfolio of projects. IPA regularly recruits Research Managers, as new projects are continually opening within country programs.
Research Manager positions are available in the following locations:
- Kenya
- Sierra Leone
- Rwanda/Uganda
- Ghana
- Bangladesh
- Zambia-Malawi
Position Summary:
Research Managers manage a portfolio of up to five projects. These projects will include both research and project implementation components. They span a range of sectoral areas, such as finance, agriculture, health, education and gender issues. As part of their supervisory role, the Research Manager works closely with the country office to ensure effective support is provided to projects, and that projects are working within the relevant policies and procedures. Research Managers are members of country program management teams, thus they play a senior management role through contributions to country program development, project development, policy conversations as well as capacity building.
Responsibilities:
The Research Manager will:
- Keep the Country Director apprised of all developments on the projects in their portfolio, and serve as key link between the field office, project staff, and Principal Investigators
- Ensure project adherence in the field to general research design, sample selection, data management and analysis, and overall project management
- Oversee project financial management, including creation and monitoring of project budgets, and ensure smooth integration of projects into IPA financial systems
- Work with field office staff to ensure sound human resource and operational management of projects
- Directly supervise project research staff (Project Associates, Research Associates and Field Managers), and help with transitions, on-boarding of new research staff and maintaining “institutional memory” of project activities
- Ensure that project deliverables, such as reports and financial statements, are submitted to donors and partners on time
- Lead training on data management and general project management for new/incoming project research staff
- Promote inter-project best practices and take a lead in sharing best practices with projects through formal and informal training opportunities
- Be the point of contact for data management and analysis support for project staff by serving as the link between projects and IPA headquarters
- Attend regular meetings with local government officials and partners to ensure success of both project specific and key IPA programmatic activities
- Support the dissemination of results via presentations and reports to academic and non-academic audiences
- Assist the Country Director in developing the research designs for new studies in cooperation with principal investigators and partner organizations
Required Qualifications:
- Masters in development economics, public policy, global health, international education or a related field
- At least two years of project management experience
- Strong budgeting and financial management skills; experience with writing donor reports and grant proposals
- Strong written and oral communication skills and complete fluency in English is required
- Experience supervising data collection, teams of field workers, survey design and implementation and data management. Background in randomized control trials is strongly preferred
- Cultural sensitivity and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies required; developing country experience required
- Strong quantitative skills and working knowledge of Stata or other statistical packages such as SPSS or R
- An ability to commit to this position for at least two years
- Flexible and proactive work ethic with a demonstrated interest in the vision and mission of Innovations for Poverty Action
Additional Desired Qualifications:
- Advanced knowledge of Stata or any statistical packages preferably SPSS and/or CSPro
- Experience with electronic data collection platforms
- Demonstrated ability to work with donors and/or partner organizations; experience with grants management
- Experience with data management, econometrics, and applied statistics
- Experience with presenting research findings at public forums, including to non-research focused audiences, is preferred
Application Instructions: To apply, please click here.
Innovations for Poverty Action is an EO Employer-MF/Veteran/Disability. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class.
IPA will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation to a qualified applicant with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of our business. If you believe you require such assistance to complete this form or to participate in an interview, please contact us at jobs@poverty-action.org or via phone at 1-203-772-2216.
DISCLAIMER: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work to be performed by Research Manager. The statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. Please note that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant. Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization.
