Research Manager | - 2015

BBC

Research Manager

Juba, South Sudan

12 Months Fixed Term Contract

Competitive salary

Job Reference: BBC/TP/394285/11890

Job Introduction

BBC Media Action is the independent international charity of the BBC which uses media to advance development worldwide. Our mission is to improve the quality of people’s lives in developing and transitional countries through innovative use of media. We do this through our focus on health, governance, livelihoods, climate change and humanitarian response. We work in partnerships that include governments, broadcasters, civil society institutions, donor agencies and international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s).

We are largely funded by external grants, mainly from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the European Union, UN agencies and charitable foundations. We work to inform, connect and empower people around the world. To support this, we are recruiting for a Research Manager who will manage and mentor the Juba-based research team of at least three national Research Officers, and provide them with technical support and personal development opportunities.

Main Responsibilities

The Research Manager in South Sudan plays a key role in ensuring that research conducted in BBC Media Action is delivered to the highest quality, providing great value for money, and offering contextual insights and products to meet the organisation and the sector’s needs. The Research Manager therefore works to make sure that our research is relevant, applied and useful to stakeholders across the organisation both in London and in country.

As a Research Manager, the role will require you to lead research projects from ‘planning’ all the way to ‘reporting’, ensuring that all research is technically well designed, resourced, implemented, reported and disseminated to a range of audiences on time and to budget.

Furthermore, as a manager in the team you will play a key role in managing, coaching and mentoring local staff to support their development and to ensure that we are delivering research to the highest standard in this environment.

You’ll also be engaging proactively and collaboratively with non-research staff in the country office and the Country Director and creative, production and finance teams to support the development and use of research in the production of BBC Media Action’s creative outputs. The role supports the organisation’s new business development, and also to represent Research and Learning to external and internal stakeholders.

The Ideal Candidate

This position requires strong qualitative and/or quantitative research skills, and experience of designing and managing mixed methods research to support and inform practical outcomes. You will have a strong understanding of the application and value of different quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques (making sure they are fit for purpose and of value), experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis and experience of writing research reports for external audiences.

You will have excellent project management skills, including planning and coordinating research and analysis with multi-disciplinary teams, undertaking or managing fieldwork and adapting methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions, and a track record of delivering research findings on time, on budget and to a high standard. You will also ideally have experience in conducting research in difficult conditions and be solution focussed.

You will have experience in managing and motivating staff, and be able to juggle multiple needs and deadlines and creatively solve problems, through being: proactive, forward looking and solution-oriented. You will have excellent communication skills, being able to communicate complex research and results to non-research audiences (including those whose first language is not English) in non-technical, creative, and engaging ways – and be able to translate theoretical research into practical application.

Closing date: 13th May2015.