Research manager at BBC Media Action Tanzania Jan 2022

Job Position Research manager at BBC Media Action Tanzania

Job title: Research manager

Location: Tanzania

Reports to: Country director

Duration: 12 months (with possible extension)

Special requirements: The right to live and work in Tanzania. Fluent in English and Swahili with ability to write reports and scripts in these languages.

BBC Media Action:

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development organisation, and we believe in the power of media and communication for good. We work in more than 20 countries around the world, supporting the independent media essential to democracy and development. Last year, our projects and programmes reach 130 million people facing poverty, inequality and insecurity with information they can trust, helping to improve health, bridge divides, challenge prejudice, and save and change lives. We follow the editorial standards and values of the BBC, but we rely on funding from donors and partners to carry out our work.

Job purpose:

We are looking for a talented and experienced research manager to lead innovative media and development research to support BBC Media Action’s work in Tanzania.

The research manager will be an experienced quantitative and qualitative researcher with strong design and analytical skills. He/she will manage all aspects of audience research activities conducted to inform the strategy, content, and quality and to evaluate the impact of BBC Media Action’s media and communication development projects in Tanzania.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Research management

• Management: Manage the research and learning team in Tanzania and oversee all research activities in Tanzania.
• Embed research into project delivery: Work closely with the project team to ensure research is closely linked and in line with project activities and findings are incorporated into project design and delivery.
• Research budget: Manage the project research budget with oversight from the country director and input from the research coordinator.
• Represent: Research and learning group and BBC Media Action in interactions with external and internal stakeholders, including producers and project managers, project partners, research firms, academic institutions, donors, media, INGOs and NGOs and government counterparts.
• Disseminate: BBC Media Action’s research findings and investigate new funding opportunities with external and internal stakeholders.
• Engage: Proactively and collaboratively with non-research staff in the Dar office including the Country Director, the creative, production and finance teams, to support the development and use of research in the production of BBC Media Action’s creative outputs.
• Work collaboratively and engage with the London research team.

Research delivery

• Designing research methodology: Design research projects, determining appropriate strategy, methodologies, and analysis protocols. Drafting and reviewing research instruments prepared externally and internally.
• Research strategy: Work with the London team and in consultation with the Country Director to develop research strategies for the Tanzania country office overall and individual projects within the country portfolio.
• Research to inform country strategy: Undertake background research and literature reviews including overseeing the analysis of country data to inform BBC Media Action Tanzania’s strategy development on key thematic issues including humanitarian resilience.
• Commissioning research: Oversee the commissioning of all audience research in coordination with production and broadcast schedules, negotiating and liaising with research agencies and key users of the research to ensure the results are suitable to meet project needs. This includes preparing and circulating RFPs/research briefs (where appropriate), evaluating proposals, finalising and commissioning the research.
• Overseeing implementation of research: Briefing the field team and supervising the pre-testing, piloting and use of the research instruments, as needed. Monitoring and controlling the quality of fieldwork/data collection, project timeliness and budgets for the research projects being handled.
• Quality control of research activities: Overseeing quantitative and qualitative fieldwork. Continually looking at ways to improve data collection both feeding into research design, moderation and analysis of data.
• Analysis and reporting: Lead the research team in analysis of qualitative/quantitative data, prepare reports and present key findings.
• Communicating research insights: Share findings and strategic recommendations with end users of research (internal/external) in innovative and appropriate formats.
• Training: The research manager is responsible for planning, managing and overseeing training with support from research officers. This includes writing workplans, creating training materials, providing training and mentoring, and assessing interviews conducted by trainees.
• Travel throughout Tanzania when necessary.

Research in business and strategy development

• Business development: Supporting the country director in business development activities e.g. developing research design and budgets for proposals and meeting and pitching proposals to donors.
• Networking and partnership: Developing relationships with other organisations’ research teams in Tanzania to share information, inform our database and compile overview reports of current trends, activities and data related to our project activities in country.
• Research insights: Review the latest trends and developments in research methodologies related to behaviour change, impact assessment and communications research, and evaluating the same for adoption in BBC Media Action’s research and learning work.

Professional development

• Technical training: Participate in research and learning workshops and represent BBC Media Action in other knowledge sharing workshops related to our project activities and project partners. Train and build the technical capacity of the research team in Tanzania.

Safeguarding responsibilities

• Understand and comply with the Safeguarding policy and the staff Code of Conduct.
• Participate in relevant mandatory training on Safeguarding and Respect at Work.
• Report any Safeguarding concerns immediately, either to the Country Director, or using the Whistleblowing Policy.

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Essential knowledge skills and experience:

• Degree in research, statistics, development studies, or other relevant field.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research knowledge, skills, and experience.
• Experience of managing fieldwork and appropriately adapting methods in challenging and resource-constrained conditions, while ensuring quality.
• Experience of designing and managing mixed methods research and evaluations in support of practical outcomes.
• Strong quantitative data analysis using SPSS or similar software, including multivariate and segmentation or clustering techniques.
• Experience or demonstrated ability to develop innovative research and evaluation designs (i.e. beyond impact surveys, FGDs, & IDIs).
• Experience of planning and coordinating research and analysis with multi-disciplinary teams.
• Project management skills, including planning, budget and resource management.
• Experience communicating and coordinating with technical support from a remote headquarters.
• Ability to manage staff with respect to technical research oversight, personal development and performance management.
• Ability to deliver research training and build research capacity both in person and remotely.
• Strong presentation skills and experience of adapting oral and written research outputs to present in non-technical language to diverse audiences from grassroots to senior levels, including NGO staff, non-researchers, academics and donors.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to engage appropriately with audiences, journalists, local researchers, contractors, senior project staff and donors.
• Excellent written and fluent spoken English.

Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Understanding of issues related to gender equality, youth, governance and/or climate change, and experience conducting research on these topics.
• Experience commissioning or conducting research; and working with and managing contracted quantitative research firms.
• Experience using qualitative analysis software packages such as NVivo.
• Experience working with national and international organisations (NGOs, United Nations, media) in applying research findings to production of behaviour change outputs and strategies.
• Experience working with development organisations to apply research findings to develop health, governance, humanitarian response or resilience interventions.
• Previous experience in audience research.

Closing date: 30 January 2022

Interested qualified candidates should submit their CV with cover letter (in English, PDF or Microsoft Word format) which outlines their experience and suitability for the role by email to: recruitment@tz.bbcmediaaction.org – please include the title of the position applied for in the subject line and send by 5pm 30 January 2022.

Only applicants with separate cover letter will be considered. Please do not send certificates or other attachments. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

The role may involve working with groups of vulnerable children and adults. For the successful candidate, mandatory training will be provided on BBC Media Action’s safeguarding policy and staff code of conduct. A police background check may form part of the recruitment process. BBC Media Action operates a zero-tolerance policy concerning all forms of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people.

BBC Media Action has zero tolerance for fraud and exploitation. If you have any concerns, please share with us through whistleblower@tz.bbcmediaaction.org.