Youth Impact’s mission is to connect youth to proven life-changing information. Our vision is to enable over 1 million youth to thrive through delivery of multiple evidence-based programs. We are at an inflection point in our growth: we have over 350 staff, three programs in health and education, have delivered over two million lessons to over 300,000 youth across 20+ countries. Our culture is unique: we are always learning, have a dynamic team, a fierce commitment to measurement and evidence, and work hand in hand with governments. On any given day our leaders will sing and dance, negotiate MOUs, and spend dedicated time with the field team in schools.

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Background:

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We are looking for a dynamic and self-starting Associate Research Manager to lead on two key fronts: 

1. Data & Evidence Production: play a critical role in generating data and evidence that will help scale our programs in South Africa. This includes overseeing data collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualizing insights to assess program impact. 

2. Operations, Systems, and Team Building: build and strengthen operational systems, processes, and teams to ensure smooth program implementation. 

The ideal candidate has a mix of technical expertise across monitoring tools and data collection; cleaning and analysing data to assess impact; clearly visualizing data; writing up results to share with the world; work-shopping data insights with program teams to advise them on how to improve programs; working with government stakeholders to support them to collect, use and interpret data to improve education and health of students. It’s the dream job for anyone passionate about impact, evidence, data, programs, managing teams, and who enjoys working in schools. 

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Primary Purpose

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We seek a candidate who excels in a team-oriented and collaborative environment, values curiosity, has a passion for improving youth’s lives, and an interest in applying rigorous evidence to complex problems. The ideal candidate has strong quantitative research skills with a technical foundation in impact evaluation methods and strong organizational and task management skills necessary for carrying out high quality quantitative data collection. The candidate will also enjoy problem-solving and applying creative thinking to challenges and building relationships with program leaders, school implementers, and government partners. We are interested in candidates from and located in South Africa.

 

Role Responsibilities:

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• Work on a global research team that generates evidence (using RCTs, A/B tests and high frequency monitoring) to improve youth-focused health and education programs in South Africa and around the world.

• Assist with study design, study instruments, monitoring implementation fidelity.

• Organize and maintain clean, easy-to-use code and databases for all field work, including survey data, monitoring data, and administrative data.

• Support production and communication of research insights for internal programs teams, as well as academic, policy, and practitioner audiences.

• Entrepreneurial do-er who can manage field teams, build systems to enable systematic and high-quality programming in schools including conducting regular field visits.

• Build, coach and manage a team of 2-3 technical staff and close to 50-100 field team members.

• Manage partnerships: Liaise with and maintain healthy working relations with local and international programmatic stakeholders including government partners, CSOs, NGOs, academics, etc.

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Required qualifications

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• Masters or above degree in public policy or a related discipline, with strong quantitative skills. In exceptional circumstances, those with a Bachelor’s degree and considerable relevant experience may also be considered.

• Excellent knowledge of Stata (preferred) or comparable statistical software program e.g. R or Python. 

• Familiarity with randomized evaluations and econometric methods. 

• Relevant experience including in monitoring and evaluation, quantitative field research, and analysis and cleaning of large datasets.

• Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.

• Demonstrated ability to manage various concurrent tasks effectively and coordinate multiple colleagues and teams. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, in particular the ability to communicate complex thoughts and ideas simply and effectively and tailor communications to the audience.

• Ability to work in an international team based across different geographies. 

• Willingness to travel to different regions in South Africa a few times throughout the year for 1-2 weeks at a time to support training, tool piloting, and program and survey implementation.

 

Desired qualities & qualifications

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• Adaptability, motivation and ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment. The role can be demanding and, at times, subject to external pressures for timely completion

• Ability to create “structure out of nothing”: strong ability to turn a visual reality or imagined outcome into a codified set of steps, actions, and goals on paper, and to execute those steps.

• Self-starter: the individual should be a highly motivated and driven self-starter who can push for the delivery of activities in a fast-paced environment, seeking clarity when needed.

• Experience with programming surveys in SurveyCTO or similar software.

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To apply: 

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1. Answer the following: 

   • Why are you applying to join Youth Impact? (Limit 150 words) 

   • Discuss your research experience and how it will prepare you to thrive in this role (Limit 150 words). 

   • Briefly describe your experience working with Excel, Stata, R, and/or Python, such as details about cleaning and/or analysis you have done with one of these programs (Limit 100 words)

2. Submit a resume

3. Submit 1-2 samples of your previous work (in an academic or professional setting) that demonstrate (a) analytical writing skills and (b) policy-relevant insight (e.g., compelling tables and figures). Note that it is acceptable to submit separate documents illustrating (a) and (b)

4. Submit a 1-minute video describing your interest in the role

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​Benefits include generous annual leave, sick leave, (including global health insurance provisions), various stipends, professional development opportunities, the ability to work remotely, access to our amazing global networks and much more.

 

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until positions are filled. 

Time Period: 2-year fixed contract, with potential for extension pending performance. 

Location: Preference will be given to candidates with the right to work in South Africa

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