Research Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action, Lusaka, Zambia

In this role, you will oversee the implementation of research projects and lead project development efforts. Research Managers manage a portfolio of between three to five projects depending on the nature and the level of involvement necessary. 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 adequate 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, and capacity building. Research Managers are assigned projects based on their experience and particular skills best suited to those projects.

As a Research Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), the role will involve overseeing the implementation of research projects and leading project development efforts across multiple country offices.

Responsibilities

Project Management:

You will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of research projects, ensuring adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards. This will involve coordinating with field staff, Principal Investigators (Pls), and partner organizations.
Keep the Country Directors apprised of all developments on the projects in their portfolio and serve as the vital 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.
Keep track of progress and delays of all assigned assessments throughout the research cycle. Ensure that delays or identified challenges for specific reviews are promptly reported in writing and orally.
Ensure that projects under your direction adhere to all IPA policies and procedures, both at the global and country office levels.

Research Project Development:

Play a crucial role in identifying new research opportunities and contributing to the design of innovative studies addressing poverty-related challenges. This will involve collaborating with experts, formulating research questions, and creating project proposals.
Support the Country Directors in the development of new research studies in cooperation with principal investigators and partner organizations.

Financial Management:

Oversee project financial management, including creation and monitoring of project budgets, and ensure smooth integration of projects into IPA financial systems.
Maintain an oversight of budget availability and expenditure for assessment activities for which s/he is responsible.

Team Leadership:

Lead and support teams of Pls, field staff, and data analysts to ensure the successful execution of research initiatives. Effective communication and team management skills are essential in this role.
Conduct induction for new staff members, including training in basic technical competencies for assessment design, implementation, and analysis.
Work with field office staff to ensure sound human resource and operational management of projects.
Be responsible for supervising and appraising project staff.
Be available to provide regular support and technical backstopping.

Stakeholder Engagement:

Building and maintaining relationships with donors, government agencies, NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders is important to facilitate research project implementation and garner support for future initiatives.
Attend meetings with local government officials and partners to ensure the success of both project-specific and key IPA programmatic activities.
Ensure that external communications with partners and key stakeholders, including relevant local and government and NGOs have been conducted and documented as appropriate.

Data Collection and Reporting:

Overseeing data collection and reporting to derive meaningful insights from research findings. You will also be responsible for communicating results to various audiences through reports, presentations, and publications.
Ensuring the proper monitoring of research projects to measure their impact and identify areas for improvement. Ensure that all research projects adhere to IPA’s research quality standards.
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 the 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 global research support.
When requested. support the dissemination of results via presentations and reports to academic and non-academic audiences

Qualifications

Required

Master’s degree in a related field, such as development economics, public policy, public health, or education policy
Four years of research or project management experience in collaborating with and managing people remotely.
Strong budgeting and financial management skills; experience with writing donor reports and grant proposals
Strong written and oral communication skills and complete fluency in the English language are required, French is an added advantage.
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.
Quantitative skills: working knowledge of Stata is essential.
A desire to commit to this position for two ears.
Flexible and proactive work ethic with a demonstrated interest in the vision and mission of IPA

Preferred

Advanced experience with data management and applied statistics.
Experience with electronic data collection platforms
Demonstrated ability to work with donors and/or partner organizations; experience with grants management.
Experience with presenting research findings at public forums, including to non-research-focused audiences, is preferred.

Compensation

IPA’s compensation structure is designed based on the labor market for the specific geographic location where the employee is located. We are offering the following salary ranges for this position:
– Research Manager is classified as “C3” on IPA’s global job structure.
– For US-based employees, the starting annual gross salary is $35,243 with a maximum of – $76,250 USD
– The salary for locations outside of the US will vary depending on IPA’s salary scale ranges for that specific location.

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, base salary of internal peers, business sector, and geographic location.