Senior Research Methodologist — Principal Investigator, Multimodal Survey Experiment

ICF; Reston (VA); Remote; USD 119,000 - 203,000; Full time

Job summary

ICF invites applications for a Senior Research Methodologist to serve as Principal Investigator for a methodological experiment assessing hybrid (phone + in-person) survey designs against DHS benchmarks. The role leads a multidisciplinary team and partners with national statistical offices across West and Central Africa, focusing on biomarker data and small area estimation.

The ideal candidate has a PhD in a quantitative field (or master's with extensive experience), deep expertise in complex

Qualifications

• Doctoral degree in demography, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, or related quantitative field; OR a master's with 20+ years of experience.
• Minimum 15 years of experience in survey research design and implementation in public health/population surveys.
• Deep expertise in probability sampling, weighting, complex survey design, and estimation.

Responsibilities

• Provide overall scientific leadership for the experiment from design through implementation, analysis, and dissemination.
• Convene and lead a technical working group of external experts and finalize core design decisions with in-country partners.
• Lead development of the full study protocol and oversee IRB/ethics submissions.
• Direct the analytic core: sampling and power design, dual-frame estimation, non-response and replacement protocol, mode-effects estimation, and small area estimation.
• Lead development of a cost-quality frontier integrating fieldwork data.
• Lead in-country and remote fieldwork support across two design arms with malaria biomarker collection.
• Lead post-hoc simulation of untested designs and translate findings into guidance for future survey designers.
• Lead final report(s) and peer-reviewed manuscripts and represent at conferences.

Skills

Survey design

Probability sampling

Dual-frame estimation

Leadership

Data analysis

Education

PhD in demography/biostatistics

MS with 20+ years experience

Tools

R

Stata

Job description

Description

The Senior Research Methodologist position sits within ICF's Global Health and Development Practice, which serves clients such as the U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of State, philanthropic funders, multilateral organization, and national governments to strengthen health systems, generate evidence, and improve population health and development outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The practice has deep expertise in population-based surveys, health data systems, monitoring and evaluation, and technical assistance to national institutions. ICF seeks a Senior Research Methodologist to serve as Principal Investigator (PI) for a methodological experiment testing hybrid (phone + in-person) survey designs against contemporaneous Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). The study asks how much of a standard DHS— including representative biomarker data, small area estimation, and strong measurement performance—can be preserved, under what conditions, and at what cost, using hybrid designs. It will field two designs (household-first and phone-first) alongside contemporaneous DHS in two countries in West and Central Africa, each of which includes malaria biomarkers, and will produce an evidence-informed decision framework and transferable guidance for the DHS Program and the broader survey-research community. The PI is the single point of technical and coordinating accountability for the study, leading a multidisciplinary ICF team and partnering closely with in-country co-Principal Investigators at the national statistical offices in each study country. This is a grant-funded position spanning a two-year period. This position is 100% remote/telecommute, with international travel to study countries.

What You'll Be Doing

• Provide overall scientific leadership for the experiment from design through implementation, analysis, and dissemination, serving as the single point of technical accountability across two concurrent country tracks.
• Convene and lead a technical working group (TWG) of external experts, and finalize core design decisions — including content scope, representativeness targets, and content-triage grading criteria — with in-country co-PIs and partners.
• Lead development of the full study protocol and oversee IRB/ethics submissions in coordination with ICF and in-country ethics committees.
• Direct the analytic core of the study: sampling and power design, dual-frame estimation, the non-response and replacement protocol, mode-effects estimation, and small area estimation — working closely with the sampler, methodologist, and data scientist/modeler.
• Lead development and population of a cost-quality frontier, integrating activity-based cost and time data captured during fieldwork.
• Provide in-country and remote support to fieldwork, coordinating a single field workforce across two design arms alongside the contemporaneous DHS, including malaria biomarker collection.
• Lead post-hoc simulation of untested design configurations, and translate findings into transferable decision-tree and heuristic guidance for future survey designers.
• Lead the final report(s) and peer-reviewed manuscripts, and represent the study in conference and stakeholder presentations.
• Serve as the primary technical liaison to the funder and to in-country partners, ensuring strong country ownership and adherence to Global Access and open-data commitments.
• Mentor and coordinate a multidisciplinary team; while this position has no direct personnel-management authority, the PI is responsible for project leadership and technical task management in close collaboration with survey managers and finance/operations staff.

Required Qualifications

• Doctoral degree (Ph.D. or equivalent) in demography, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, a social/behavioral science, or a related quantitative field; OR a master's degree in one of these fields with 20+ years of relevant experience.
• Minimum 15 years of experience in survey research design and implementation, applied to population-based or public health surveys (or 20+ years with a master's degree, as above).
• Deep expertise in probability sampling, weighting, complex survey design, and estimation, with the ability to independently conduct and interpret advanced analyses (e.g., dual-frame estimation, mode-effects analysis, small area estimation, equivalence testing) and to mentor others.
• Demonstrated experience with household survey operations in low- and middle-income countries.
• Significant writing experience, including study protocols, client/funder reports, and peer-reviewed publications.
• Demonstrated experience conceptualizing and leading research grants or contracts.
• Demonstrated track record of methodological thought leadership, such as conference presentations and peer-reviewed articles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with DHS or DHS-like surveys and with biomarker (e.g., malaria RDT) data collection.
• Experience conducting survey research in West and/or Central Africa.
• Familiarity with phone-based and multimodal data collection (RDD, list-based, or hybrid designs) and the measurement challenges they raise.
• Experience partnering with national statistical offices, ministries, or other in-country institutions.
• Working proficiency in French.

Professional Skills You Will Use

• Attention to detail, organized, and proactive; able to manage multiple competing tasks and deadlines and negotiate prioritization.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication, including the ability to convey methodological concepts to varied audiences — funders, country partners, and technical teams.
• Able to make sound methodological decisions under real-world timing and budget constraints, including protecting scientific integrity when tradeoffs arise.
• Able to drive project progress across concurrent country tracks and a distributed team, in close collaboration with in-country co-PIs and ICF operations staff.
• Comfortable working across time zones and cultures with international partners.

Working at ICF

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Pay Range

The pay range for this position based on full-time employment is: $119,323.00 - $202,850.00 Nationwide Remote Office (US99)