Research Officer - Early Childhood Development

VACANCY – Research Officer (Early Childhood Development) 

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental research organization committed to conducting high quality and policy relevant research on population, health, education and development issues facing sub-Saharan Africa. APHRC seeks to recruit a Research Officer with expertise in Early Childhood Development (ECD) to work in the Health Challenges and Systems Program within her Research Division. The hiring is dependent on confirmation of funding.

 

Major Responsibilities:

1. Manage an early childhood development (ECD) project including training of field workers, supervision of field work, data management and analysis and scientific writing;
2. Engage in evaluations of interventions with young children and families in early care and education;
3. Lead and/or contribute to proposal development to strengthen scientific knowledge in ECD or related fields;
4.  Lead in policy engagement and dissemination of project research findings to appropriate audiences; and
5. Lead in preparing project progress and end of grant reports to donors.

Qualifications and experience:

1. Masters in ECD or closely related fields;
2.  Good writing skills;
3.  Experience and strong interest in ECD;
4.  Proven experience in conducting household surveys and/or health facility-based surveys;  Strong quantitative skills (managing, analyzing and interpreting data), with extensive familiarity with Statistical Packages (STATA, SAS or SPSS); and
5. Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

Desirable:

1. PhD Candidate i.e. already enrolled for a PhD in ECD or closely related field;
2. Has both ECD and Nutrition qualifications and expertise, especially in maternal, infant and young child nutrition and the role of caregiver-child interactions;
3. A record of publications on relevant areas in sub-Saharan Africa
4. Experience working in Kenya;
5. Experience and familiarity with a diverse set of health and social science data sets;
6. Expertise in qualitative methods, with familiarity with common qualitative analysis software package (e.g.NVivo);
7. Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team; and,
8. Experience in developing proposals and attracting research grants.

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply through our recruitment portal http://hrs.aphrc.org

Kenyan nationals, fluent in both English and Swahili are particularly encouraged to apply.

The deadline for application is 15^th September 2016. Only short-listed candidates will be notified.

(APHRC) is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of children.