Senior Research Manager

Senior Research Manager

Based in Ghana, Kenya, or the United States

(to begin as soon as possible, preferably no later than November 2024)

1. About Aquaya

The Aquaya Institute (‘Aquaya’) is a nonprofit research and consulting organization dedicated to advancing global health through universal access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). We deliver critical insights, data, and tools to support informed policy, program, and financing decisions. This knowledge helps to secure safe water and sanitation for vulnerable populations, improving human health and well-being.

Aquaya’s portfolio spans public health, economics, technology development, and social entrepreneurship in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We have published or contributed to over 40 peer-reviewed research articles and produced numerous other reports and publications.

Aquaya maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Accra, Ghana. Staff members are also in the US, France, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Many of our projects are carried out in collaboration with academic research groups and expert consultants.

2. About the position

We are recruiting for a Senior Research Manager to lead ongoing research programs. This full-time position is based either in Ghana, or Kenya, or the United States and requires the ability to travel across Africa. The Senior Research Manager will be responsible for managing research program activities, including, but not limited to:

Research Management:

• Develop research protocols and data collection tools.
• Manage the ethical approval process and ensure that ethical principles are respected.
• Lead training of data collection teams.
• Develop and administer effective QAQC methods to ensure data quality.
• Manage and analyze quantitative and qualitative datasets.
• Lead the preparation of project presentations, reports, briefs, and publications.
• Participate in the presentation of results at conferences and workshops.

Program/Project Management:

• Coordinate activities across multiple team members and countries.
• Develop and monitor timelines for completing project milestones.
• Develop, modify, and successfully manage project budgets.
• Delegate tasks to and/or supervise other employees and contractors as needed.

Oversee execution of contracts/MoUs with partners, sub-grantees, and contractors.

Organize and tactfully lead partner meetings and manage partner communication.

• Lead fieldwork logistics and data collection activities with minimal oversight.

Prepare summary presentations to report to funders.

The Senior Research Manager will support a variety of research projects Aquaya is working on, such as:

EnWASH

USAID/Ghana is executing a 5-year activity called Exchanging Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (EnWASH), being implemented by Global Communities. The program's overall goal is to increase the use of sustainable, equitable, quality district-wide WASH services in communities and health center facilities (HCF) and increase the adoption of sustainable district-wide WASH practices in households, communities, and HCF.

Aquaya is tasked with leading all research and evaluation throughout the study and across the various partners.

Water Quality Assurance Fund

Aquaya launched a Water Quality Assurance Fund (‘Assurance Fund’) in 2020 to encourage a central laboratory in Ghana to provide water quality testing to nearby rural water systems. The Assurance Fund primarily guarantees the laboratory will be paid, even if water systems receiving testing services default on their payments. The Assurance Fund mitigates the risk of non-payment and encourages the laboratory to expand its services beyond urban areas. The Assurance Fund thus provides a mechanism for addressing the ongoing barriers to water testing (financial, logistical, technical) in low-resource settings that are often ignored by traditional capacity-building efforts (such as the one-time provision of testing kits to water systems).

Aquaya has received funding to expand the Assurance Fund to:

1. Evaluate the Assurance Fund as a mechanism to expand testing services to rural areas, supporting water treatment and improving water safety.
2. Assess the feasibility and develop recommendations for scaling up the Assurance Fund to build sustainable water testing models for improving water safety.
3. Expand the local and international water sectors' knowledge of water safety management.

URBAN WASH

Urban Resilience by Building partnerships and Applying New evidence in WASH (URBAN WASH) will generate evidence for more impactful, sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient WASH and water resource management (WRM) policy and programming in urban and peri-urban areas. URBAN WASH will also support high-impact WASH and WRM interventions through collaboration with researchers, the private sector, civil society groups, government bodies, and multilateral institutions.

The program will conduct research on three primary topics:

• Partner and engage strategically for research, peer learning, and uptake of evidence.
• Generate high-quality evidence focusing on the enabling environment for water and sanitation policies and regulations, small and informal service providers, and source water protection and diversification for resilient urban water supplies.
• Provide technical assistance to USAID Missions on WASH and WRM research, assessments, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

3. Criteria for the position

The following qualifications are necessary for this position:

• Demonstrated experience in the management and execution of research staff, research processes, and knowledge-focused initiatives related to water or sanitation.
• Ph.D. degree – preferably in engineering, science, environmental science, or a related field.
• 2+ years of work experience in research and/or project management (in addition to a Ph.D.)
• Previous international work experience in Africa.
• Ability to analyze quantitative data in R, Stata, Python or similar statistical software.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Fluency in English.
• Ability to travel to field sites up to 25% of the time.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment while maintaining high research quality standards.
• Ability to work with remote and culturally diverse teams.

We are also looking for the following skills and attributes:

• Good problem-solving and time-management skills.
• Strong work ethic and a commitment to delivery.
• Outstanding organization with an attention to detail and an ability to deliver on deadlines.
• Demonstrated experience and desire to continue publishing research articles.
• Commitment to enhancing the capacity and skills of junior colleagues.
• Proven ability to work closely to successfully manage multiple and changing priorities in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while maintaining a positive and productive attitude and a good sense of humor!

4. Compensation and Benefits

This is a full-time position with an initial 3-month probationary period. Aquaya offers competitive salaries that are commensurate with experience. Benefits include medical insurance and enrolment in a pension plan.

5. To apply

Please submit your resume via e-mail to jobs@aquaya.org and a thoughtful cover letter. Once your resume is received, there will be an additional screening survey and activity. This position will be open until filled.

Please explain why you are interested in Aquaya’s mission and activities in your cover letter. Please also tell us why your skills, background, and accomplishments make you the ideal candidate for this position, specifically highlighting your experience. Please note that we will only consider applications with a cover letter. In your e-mail subject line, please specify “Senior Research Manager 2024”. No phone calls, please.

Aquaya provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.