Director of Research

International Rescue Committee; New York (NY); On-site; USD 165,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) invites applications for a Director of Research within the Airbel Impact Lab in New York. This role shapes research strategy, guides cross-sector projects, and ensures ethical, impactful analysis across IRC programs.

Lead diverse, globally distributed teams, drive evidence generation for scale, and build partnerships to extend IRC’s impact while advancing methodological innovation in humanitarian settings.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in a field related to development and humanitarian intervention.
• Over 10 years of research experience in humanitarian or development contexts.
• Experience designing research and managing teams in low-resource environments.

Responsibilities

• Oversee research agendas and manage select teams to deliver high quality research.
• Lead cross-sectoral research projects and initiatives.
• Strengthen organizational research systems and ethical standards.
• Develop partnerships and represent IRC research internally and externally.
• Fundraise and oversee budgets for research programs.

Skills

Research design

Team leadership

AI/data-science methods

Fundraising

Strategy development

Education

Ph.D. in development/ humanitarian field

Tools

AI tooling

Data analysis

Job description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The Airbel Impact Lab -- the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC’s) research and innovation team -- designs, tests, and scales life-changing, cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. By applying deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills from research to human-centered design, we take a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving in humanitarian contexts. We are a leading contributor of impact evaluations and other research in humanitarian settings. Our portfolio consists of nearly 300 research and innovation projects across 40 countries; and we’ve collectively published over 150 journal articles in peer-reviewed publications on education, nutrition, violence prevention, health and economic programs. We use this research to increase the IRC’s impact and to change the way humanitarian aid is delivered around the world.

The Director of Research will be a strategic and technical leader on conducting research to improve impact and scale across IRC programs and influence the humanitarian sector to take up research results and findings. They will continue to build organizational capacity and systems for research, drive ambitious research agendas across IRC technical sectors, and lead research teams and projects to answer the most pressing questions to improve humanitarian impact and scale.

Major Responsibilities

Oversee research agendas and manage select research teams to deliver high quality research.

• Provide oversight and strategic direction to research agendas across select outcome areas (e.g. health, climate and economic recovery and development and protection)
• Engage with IRC technical units and research teams to generate and use evidence to improve impact, equity, influence and scale across outcomes.
• Lead high performing research teams to develop research projects and deliver on ambitious workplans to carry out research agendas.
• Oversee workforce planning to deliver select research agendas and proactively identify and fill staffing gaps where needed.
• Cultivate and support passionate team members, creating a space of belonging, professional development, and research excellence across a geographically dispersed team.
• Oversee community of practice for research across IRC countries.

Lead strategic, cross-sectoral research projects.

• Lead flagship cross-sectoral strategic projects, driving evidence generation for scale.
• Identify and shape new cross-sectoral research and funding opportunities that advance IRC’s Impact at Scale priorities.
• Serve as PI on key research projects, generating evidence on high impact humanitarian solutions and advancing cutting edge methods in humanitarian settings.

Strengthen organizational systems to carry out high quality, ethical analysis making responsible use of .

• Serve as IRC’s Institutional Review Board Chair. Support teams to maintain high ethical standards in research.
• Drive adoption of AI and data science tools across the research lifecycle -- design, data collection, cleaning, analysis, dissemination -- to increase the speed and rigor of evidence generation.
• Support country and regional program teams to streamline and carry out high quality data collection for research priorities.
• Strengthen and continuously improve our research systems, including standards and support for high quality data collection, cleaning, coding, analysis, writing and dissemination, including to participants and communities involved in research.
• Strengthen systems for data storage, cleaning, sharing and analysis, as well as for version control and reproducibility.

Develop strong partnerships and represent research internally and externally.

• Develop and maintain effective partnerships for research priorities at country, regional and global level that will amplify IRC’s ability to generate evidence and influence targeted policy and practice.
• Present, publish and represent IRC research and innovation at events and meetings to influence key stakeholders.
• Cultivate strong relationships across departments within IRC. Represent the Airbel Impact Lab with senior leaders across the organization.
• Collaborate with Technical Units, Communications and Advocacy on strong research communications to key audiences.

Fundraise and ensure strong financial management of research team.

• Raise funds needed to support IRC’s research agenda and research systems.
• Oversee budgets and the financial health of select research teams, initiatives and projects. Identify and communicate gaps or concerns in a timely manner, and proactively seek out viable solutions.

Job Requirements

• Education: Ph.D. in field related to development and humanitarian intervention (e.g., economics, epidemiology, political science).
• Work Experience: 10+ years in research, with significant experience in humanitarian or development contexts.

Demonstrated Skills And Competencies

• Extensive experience in designing research and managing research teams in low resource environments.
• Fluency in translating the use of empirical evidence to support technical and implementing teams to know what works best to achieve meaningful results for people.
• Demonstrated fluency with AI- and data-science-enabled research methods, and a track record of using them to modernize or accelerate research processes.
• Demonstrated success in business development for research projects with public and private donors.
• Experience developing and driving research strategy and learning agendas across a large, complex international organization.
• Strong record of publication and authorship/co-authorship of peer-reviewed articles.
• An existing and strong professional network in humanitarian and development research communities.
• Very strong leadership and management competencies including the ability to bring people from diverse backgrounds along with a stated vision and strategy, and capacity to communicate effectively with IRC leadership, technical peers, and colleagues in fundraising, communications and advocacy.
• Excellent public speaking and writing skills.

Language Skills

Fluency in English is required; Proficiency in French, Arabic or Spanish is a plus.

Working Environment

Travel up to 25% of the time

Compensation USA

($165,000–$185,000). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements

Compensation UK

(GBP 80,502–GBP91,872). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements

Professional Standards:

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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Equal Opportunity Employer:

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.