Job Vacancy: Research Manager
Background: Jacaranda Health is a non-profit organization focused on ensuring that all women and their families have access to affordable, high quality and patient-centered maternal and newborn healthcare.
Jacaranda Health’s non-profit arm partners with government facilities to adapt tools for impact in the public sector. Our program partnerships with public facilities have grown from 3 facilities in 2015, to 200 facilities serving over 250,000 women and babies across 7 counties in 2020.
We currently run two large programs which focus on increasing health-seeking behavior amongst pregnant women/new moms through digital health (“PROMPTS”) and improving provider knowledge and skills to handle emergency obstetrics through a mentor model (“MENTORS”).
Jacaranda has research and design components within each of these programs.
Our key metrics include:
- Increasing antenatal care attendance, postpartum care-seeking, skilled delivery care, postpartum family planning uptake, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, and knowledge of danger signs amongst pregnant women/new mothers
- Decreasing rates of maternal and neonatal mortality through proper management of delivery and immediate postpartum/newborn care, as well as through facility-level quality improvements
Please visit www.jacarandahealth.org for more details.
Job Summary: Jacaranda Health is seeking a Research Manager to support a rigorous evaluation of Jacaranda’s two core programs together with researchers from Harvard University.
The USAID-funded study will take place across ~40 health facilities in multiple counties in Kenya over ~18 months. The Jacaranda research manager will be a key focal point for the researchers,
data collection partners, Jacaranda program teams & leadership, making sure all parties successfully execute study activities and reflect on lessons in the process.
The Research Manager will report to the Senior R&D manager, working closely with Jacaranda’s research and design team. It is expected that 50-75% of the Research Manager’s time will be spent on the evaluation study, whereas the remaining 25-50% will be contributing to other Jacaranda research and design initiatives, especially supporting the development of M&E processes across projects.
Primary Responsibilities
This role will include the following responsibilities:
- Provide management of USAID-funded program evaluation study, including liaising with data collection partners and research advisors, and supporting planning and coordination with Jacaranda’s government partnerships team and programs teams to implement study interventions.
- Oversee piloting of tools, ensure overall data quality, and help refine and manage process evaluation.
- Contribute to various write-ups, reports, and publications from the evaluation.
- Actively participate in team of Jacaranda Health, providing informed opinions for strategic direction, internal culture-building, and operations
- Supports the development of monitoring & evaluation (M&E) systems across Jacaranda’s programs
- Potentially manages 1-2 research assistants or research coordinators
- Participates in Jacaranda R&D activities such as designing and testing new health messages, A/B testing surveys, analysis on key indicators for the programs teams, etc.
Requirements
Professional Qualifications
- Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH, MSC) or related field
Experience and Expertise
- Minimum of 3 years of experience in project management including supervising teams
- Previous experience coordinating/managing large research projects
- Expertise with quantitative research designs and methods
- Expertise with statistical analysis in STATA, R, SPSS or similar program
- Proficient in computer skills including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Drive
- Experience working with the Kenya MOH and/or county governments
- Experience with grant-writing and reporting to international donors/funders
Personal Characteristics
- Demonstrated high level written and verbal communication skills including reports and advice for key internal and external partners.
- Knowledge of health indicators and outcomes, especially related to MNCH
- Passion for maternal and child health
What would get us excited?
- Fluency in Kiswahili
- Clinical knowledge of maternal and newborn health
- Experience and expertise in M&E for organizations and projects
- Previous experience working with USAID
- Knowledge or experience with mobile health programs
Contract Period: This position is expected to be for an initial contract of 12 months, based in Nairobi, with up to 25% travel within Kenya.
Interested candidates should apply through this link: https://my.hirehive.io/jacaranda-health/jobs/69888/research-manager-nairobi
No hard copies required or accepted.
Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Application Deadline: November 20, 2020
Preferred Start Date: January 11, 2020