Manager, Policy and Research / Senior Manager, Policy and Research

About DIL’s Work in Uganda

DIL is working towards groundbreaking research and policy opportunities in Uganda. DIL has several projects that explore a framework in which teachers are trained to “learn how to learn.” This involves taking teachers through activities in which they learn to learn like scientists. The training helps teachers change practices with their own students. An initial study demonstrates that a $100 investment leads to 9.62 years of high-quality education (Nourani, Ashraf, and Banerjee, 2020). The team is now exploring similar interventions in new settings and is working to catalyze scale. For example, a new line of academic inquiry may explore whether key agricultural informants can refine extant processes of social learning around agricultural technologies if trained in this approach. DIL researchers are also currently working with the Ministry of Education to identify opportunities for scaling this approach through the continuous professional development of teachers.

In addition, DIL is exploring partnerships and engagements with universities, government agencies and development partners to use the tools of economics to advance evidence-informed and innovative policies that operate at scale. In new engagements with the Ugandan government, DIL is pursuing strategies to integrate modern econometric approaches to identifying causal impacts of policies or interventions that operate at scale.

The Role

The (Senior) Manager will gain first-hand experience managing fast-paced and policy-relevant research. The (Senior) Manager will lead policy engagements and manage staff for Lab researchers in Uganda. Responsibilities include managing partnerships with the Ugandan Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, National Planning Authority, and other Ministries and external partners, advancing the work of DIL Primary Investigators (PIs), exploring and discussing new research projects with partners, managing research teams, organizing seminars and workshops. The ideal candidate is someone with excellent organizational skills, a strong interest in furthering their skills in managing teams, leading field research, and interacting with high-level stakeholders in a research and learning mode. Our ideal candidate is eager to learn, passionate about development economics, Experimental Evaluation, and Public Policy, and committed to long-term impact. We will also consider experienced candidates without background in these fields who are looking to make policy-impact by guiding and managing research.

Responsibilities

The (Senior) Manager will work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform and oversee including, but not limited to:

• Leading high-level research and policy engagements with partners in the public, private and social sectors as well as with researchers. This may include organizing workshops and seminars.
• Managing relationships with officials in the Ministry of Education and other government agencies in Uganda, synthesizing research and presenting information to policymakers.
• Exploring, discussing and implementing new research projects, using the methods of economics, with various institutions.
• Managing teams: supervise and train field-based teams consisting of field managers and coordinate with other research associates and research professionals.
• Manage the recruitment of new staff in Uganda (in partnership with DIL’s Director)
• Organizing the work of research teams by managing workflow, planning priorities, and setting and organizing work plans for the team.
• Holding members of the research team accountable to deadlines.
• Keeping the Principal Investigator (PI) team appraised of all project activities.
• Coordinating data cleaning, documenting of data cleaning procedures, preliminary analysis, and ensuring ready access to multiple data sources by the research team.
• Performing other related work as needed.

Qualifications

Education

• A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics, public policy, applied statistics, or a related field by start date. Master’s degree is preferred.

Experience

• Experience managing complex projects is preferred.
• Experience working in development research is preferred.
• Experience working in a low-income country is preferred.
• Experience managing program implementation is preferred.
• Experience working with government partners is preferred.
• Familiarity with field experiments is preferred.

Technical Skill

• Ability to learn or use project management software such as Asana.
• Familiarity with survey packages such as SurveyCTO is preferred but not required.
• Working knowledge of statistical analysis packages such as Stata, R, or Python is preferred but not required.

Other Competencies

• Curiosity and an eagerness to learn
• Excellent management/organizational skills and ability to solve unexpected problems.
• High attention to detail, including knowledge of the purpose of assigned tasks.
• Pro-active communicator, flexible, self-motivating, independent and manages and prioritizes multiple high-stakes tasks efficiently.
• Strong and precise written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Ability to communicate in Luganda (or other East African languages) is preferred.
• Knowledge of the East African policy and cultural context (and Uganda in particular) is preferred.

Working Conditions

• Availability to travel to rural locations in Uganda and DIL’s office in Chicago as necessary

DIL Principles

All members of DIL are expected to abide by, model and systematize the following principles in their work.

• Responsibility – Proper and appropriate compliance with relevant Internal Review Boards (IRBs), governing laws, financial management practices, ethical standards, environmental stewardship, University of Chicago Policies on Business Conduct, and the DIL Code of Conduct.
• Reproducibility – Sufficiently standardized, documented, and audited data science practices ensuring all results are fully reproducible.
• Credibility – Rigorous, precise, and transparent in communications, management, and analysis.
• Scalability – Preparing for, contributing to, and never hindering the overarching objective of positively impacting millions of lives.
• Continuity – Structuring, documenting, tracking, and storing work in ways that facilitate high-fidelity transitions between team members and across time.
• Flexibility – Able to accommodate and effectively coordinate the diverse configurations and partnerships inherited by the lab and formed in pursuit of its mission.
• Clarity – Team members are able to easily identify and independently navigate the relevant tools, processes, and procedures to successfully complete their work.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)
• Transcripts (Unofficial or Official) from Undergraduate and Graduate Institutions (required)
• References Contact Information (3)(required)

Please submit each document as a separate PDF titled as follows, “[Last name]_[First name]_[Document]”. For example, for your CV, please submit a PDF titled, “Last Name_First Name_CV.”

We recommend applying as early as possible as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

APPLY

Position details

Direct Supervisor: Director, Development Innovation Lab

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Work Hours: Full-time

Salary: Competitive

Benefits: Benefits eligible

Hiring Entity: Mauve Group (DIL’s Hiring Partner in Uganda)

Start Date: Flexible, October/November 2022 (preferred)

Commitment: One year (with the possibility of renewal on good performance)

Application materials: CV; Cover Letter; Transcript, Professional References (3)

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