Regional Senior Research Officer

Job Details

Regional Senior Research Officer to join the Research Quality Assurance (RQA) Unit at IMPACT's Multi-country hub for East & Southeast Africa in Kampala, Uganda. Division: HQ Programs, Communications and Research, reporting to Manager of HQ Research Quality Assurance Unit. Duration: 9 months with potential for extension, start date September 2026. The role is a delocalized pilot based in Kampala with occasional travel to countries in the region (up to 25% surge support deployments) and ad-hoc support to other regions. The RQA Unit ensures consistent production of rigorous, credible and responsible evidence and continuously strengthens methods and tools. Compensation: 2,580 CHF to 2,640 CHF monthly before tax plus 400 USD monthly living allowance, with security/isolation adjustment where applicable, enrolment in Swiss private pension fund (Swisslife ~9.975%), health, life and repatriation insurance, flight tickets every 6 months, visa fees, luggage contribution 20-100 kgs, annual leave 36 days plus public holidays, 3-day induction in Geneva and one week pre-departure training in Paris including 4-day security training, and up to 1,000 EUR per year psychosocial counselling. Work Hours: 8. Location: Kampala, Uganda.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Act as HQ RQA Unit focal point for the East and Southeast Africa region and provide day-to-day support and advice to country teams on different stages of research implementation, ensuring proper documentation of key outputs.
• Support transition to more streamlined and decentralised quality assurance processes at country level, including developing reviewer tools and training and capacity strengthening.
• Provide technical guidance and support for research planning and methodology design, primarily for quantitative research, in collaboration with Global Programme teams.
• Provide peer review support for research design, quantitative data processing and analysis, and narrative information products.
• Flag and discuss relevant risks with Unit Manager in a timely manner.
• Provide other research implementation support as needed, including temporary in-country surge deployments.
• Support development and maintenance of learning solutions (guidance notes, online courses, quarterly webinars, tailored training) to ensure uptake of the Research Toolkit across East and Southeast Africa.
• Contribute to regular review and consolidation of research-related lessons learned and best practices, including Quality Monitoring exercises vis-a-vis IMPACT's Research Quality Framework, in collaboration with MEAL team.
• Identify and integrate required improvements to research processes and guidelines.
• Support research implementation in other regions on ad-hoc basis as directed by Unit Manager.

Qualifications, Skills and Requirements

• At least 3 years of relevant work experience in designing and implementing primary research programmes, preferably in humanitarian or international development contexts in East or Southeast Africa.
• Master's degree or equivalent in relevant discipline (e.g. Social Research, Economics, Data Science, Statistics, Anthropology, International Development, or similar).
• Fluency in English required, French desired.
• Core competencies: Integrity, Learning, Resilience, Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration, Producing Quality Results, Problem Solving.
• Technical competencies: Quantitative Methodology Design, Quantitative Data Processing and Management, Responsible Data Management, Statistics, Programming (Python or R), Overseeing Research Quality.
• Resilience, flexibility and adaptability as this delocalized pilot role's scope may evolve.