Research Officer at MSI Reproductive Choices

Objective

• The role holder will support research ingovernance, management and leadership, implementation and communication, and use of evidence and insights. 
• He/she willprovide support to the Strategic Research and Learning Unit across MSI Nigeria’s strategic pillars, including public sector support, private sector engagement, client-powered SRH and all the enabling pillars, whilst leveraging global tools and best practices.
• The role also contributes to furthering MSI’s Vision: To create a world in which every birth is wanted and its mission of ensuring the individual’s right to have children by choice, not by chance.

Key Responsibilities
Research Governance:

• Contribute to the revision of MSI Nigeria’s standard operating procedures for implementation research, pilots, evaluations, knowledge management and learning.

Research management and leadership:

• Conduct literature reviews and other desk reviews to identify knowledge gaps in research.
• Contribute to the development of research protocols, including design, mixed methodologies, sample estimation, sampling procedures, tools, data management, budgeting, and IRB approval process
• Participate in the selection, onboarding, training, and research of assistants.
• Develop, pretest, and configure questionnaires into electronic formats, e.g., Kobo Toolkit, ONA, Open Data Kit and/or SurveyCTO.
• Design and pretest interview guides.
• Real-time supervision of research assistants to ensure compliance with research protocol, including ethics, timelines, and budget.

Research implementation:

• Conduct large scale client exit surveys, market assessments, and mystery client surveys and human-centred designs, including ideation, prototypes, and pilots.
• Conduct conversational interviews, transcribe, code analyze, and report qualitative data to generate insights.
• Conduct in-depth analyses of strategic quantitative data.
• Triangulate data from multiple sources, including routine Client feedback, Contact Centre, Mystery Client Surveys, and Client Exist Interviews, to generate insights that will guide operations and management decisions.
• Pretest Information, Education and Communication materials, including radio jingles, etc.

Use of Evidence and Insights:

• Provide research evidence and insights to support advocacy, response to requests for proposals, and business development initiatives
• Support donor reporting requirements with survey data, insights, and learnings
• Model the impacts of SRHR programmes and their implications on current and future programmes at the sub-national levels

Research communication:

• Develop abstracts for the internal community of practice and external scientific meetings for adaptive programming.
• Develop manuscripts for publication in revered journals to increase the visibility of the MSI Nigeria experience and best practices.
• Represent MSIN at research-related technical working group meetings with government officials and other partners to ensure the success of programmatic activities.

Qualification and Training

• Master’s Degree in the Social Sciences and/or Public Health.
• A professional qualification in project management is desirable.

Experience:

• Minimum of five years of experience in conducting and /or managing multiple mixed-method implementation research as well as outcome/impact evaluations for international organisations.
• Demonstrated experience in market or consumer research to guide market initiatives
• Experience with quasi-experimental trials and triangulation of data from multiple sources to generate insight.
• Hands-on experience in configuring and managing electronic data collection platforms.
• Experience supervising the electronic data collection process, supporting research assistants.
• Advanced skills in quantitative data management using any statistical packages, including SPSS/Stata or R
• Advanced skills in qualitative data management using any ATLAS. ti or Nvivo, including analysis and reporting
• Strong attention to detail, with results and quality-focused mindset.
• Ability to work independently as well as in teams and enlist the support of other teams to drive the use of evidence for programming
• Ability to maintain a high level of flexibility and organisation to meet time-sensitive operational demands for evidence and insights
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English are required.
• Experience with publishing in revered journals is an added advantage.

Personal Attributes:

• Strategic thinker and excellent analytical skills.
• Strong attention to detail, with a results and quality-focused mindset.
• Ability to work independently as well as a cross-functional team player to enlist the support of other teams to drive the generation and use of evidence for programming.
• Flexibility and organizational skills to meet time-sensitive operational demands for evidence and insights
• Excellent leadership and management aptitude in leading diverse teams remotely.
• Pro-choice.
• Experience with publishing in revered journals is an added advantage