Job description
Research and Evidence Project Manager (Maternity Cover)
Contract: 12 Months Fixed Term Contract, Full Time, Maternity Cover
Salary: £45,579 – £47,858 with excellent benefits
Location: London, UK
Hybrid Working: A minimum of 40% of working time is spent face to face, either in London office, or as a result of external engagement or travel for WaterAid. WaterAid is located at Canary Wharf, London and this will be your location and contract base.
About WaterAid:
Want to use your skills in Research and Evidence to play a vital role in making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone everywhere?
We need passionate, creative and dedicated people. In return, you will be encouraged and empowered to be yourself at your very best. Together, we will make a bigger difference.
Join WaterAid as Research and Evidence Project Manager to change normal for millions of people so they can unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good.
About the Team:
The position is based in the Knowledge Management & Learning (KM&L) team within the Programme Support and Knowledge Team (PSK), part of the WaterAid UK International Programmes Department (IPD).
The KM&L team is responsible for developing and supporting the organization’s knowledge management, learning, and WASH capacity-strengthening strategies, approaches, and processes. It comprises of learning, knowledge management, and capacity-strengthening specialists who work closely with other teams across the organisation to facilitate the learning, knowledge capture, digital curation, and management of IPD’s thematic knowledge. They work with Global Programme, Advocacy and Campaigns (GPAC) to coordinate IPDs contribution to the Global Research and Evidence Agenda. They work closely with the WASH-Technical Effectiveness and WASH Systems teams to advise and facilitate the capture of knowledge and learning and support quality adult learning approaches.
About the Role:
The Research and Evidence Project Manager role provides a dedicated research project management function to specific research projects. You will also play a critical role in advancing our Research and Evidence Agenda to align with our new Global Strategy and supporting Country Programmes with their research activities.
In this role as Research and Evidence Project Manager, you will play a crucial role in coordinating and managing select research projects within the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector in a development setting. Your responsibilities will extend beyond traditional project management to include operating at the intersection of academia, technical advisory, and project management. This role demands a unique blend of skills to effectively drive WaterAid’s Research and Evidence agenda in alignment with our new Global Strategy, while also providing a dedicated research project management function to specific projects. The Research and Evidence – Project Manager would report into the Knowledge Management and Learning Senior Manager and their accountabilities of this role would be:
- Research Project Management and Delivery (Contracted Commitments)
- Research Support & Quality Assurance
- Support development of research guidance and standards
- Support fundraising, external engagement, and communications
- Support team processes
About You:
- Proven experience of applied research, or equivalent demonstrable project management experience of policy-oriented or action research setting
- Proven experience in project management, coordination, and delivery, with a strong emphasis on financial oversight and contractual obligations
- Minimum of a Master’s degree in social science or a relevant field, with strong research component or equivalent experience
- Strong experience in water, sanitation, hygiene, public health, or equivalent sector
- Experience of cross-sector strategic engagement and communications, and knowledge sharing experience.
- Excellent organisational skills and an ability to prioritise workloads whilst maintaining high attention to detail and work standards
- Proven experience writing and presenting research outputs to different audiences
- Proven experience of managing funding from institutional donors like USAID and others
- Excellent communication skills and relationship management, with proven ability to build effective working relations with project partners
- Ability to travel
- Cultural competence. A working style that reflects WaterAid’s values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity, and Innovation
Although not essential, we also prefer you to have:
- Working knowledge of one or more of WaterAid’s working languages (French, Portuguese and Spanish).
- Direct experience of stakeholder engagement and research into use.
- Experience and knowledge of the water, sanitation and hygiene research and policy landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- External facing experience; strong negotiation skills and commercial understanding with a desire to create a win/win outcome.
- Strong proven ability to resolve problems and troubleshooting of projects; resources; technical and planning.
Closing date: Applications will close at 23:59 on 12th April 2024. Availability for interview is required in the week of 22nd April and the week of 29th April. The interviews will be conducted in person or virtually, depending on the availability of the shortlisted candidates.
How to Apply: Please click ‘Apply’ to see the full job pack. To apply for this role, we are seeking your answers to the following questions: Please apply by submitting your CV and response to these questions in one document in either Word Document or PDF format.
What parts of the role description most excite you and why? (250 words max)Could you briefly outline your project management experience and experience with designing research studies and developing tools for data collection? (350 words max)Is there anything that these questions haven’t covered which you would like to tell us about? (350 words max)
Pre-employment screening: To apply for this post, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the UK. All our vacancies require a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to comply with our Safer Recruitment policy.
Our Benefits:
- 36 days’ holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
- Option to buy an extra 5 days annual leave
- We offer a generous pension plan with employer contribution of up to 10%
- Wide range of flexible and agile-working arrangement
- Season Ticket Loan
- Free annual eye tests
- Pay as You Give charitable giving scheme
- Enhanced Maternity and Adoption/Surrogacy pay, Shared Parental Leave and Paternity Leave
- Sabbaticals
- Volunteer Day
Our Commitment
Our People Promise:
We will work with passion and focus to ensure safe and sustainable water, toilets and hygiene are available to everyone, everywhere. WaterAid is a place of purpose – where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to put the wellbeing of our people first, to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.
Equal opportunities:
We are an equal opportunity, disability-confident employer and are dedicated to achieving the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions and ways of life. This includes, but is not limited to, race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, national or social origin, health status, and economic or social situation.
Safeguarding:
We are also committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously.
