Head of Research, Reflection & Evaluating (Hybrid/Remote)

DataFin; Johannesburg; Remote; ZAR 700,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

A community upliftment organization in Johannesburg seeks a Head of Research to lead research programmes and evaluations. This role requires a Master's Degree (PhD preferred) with a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience, including 4 years in a senior role. The successful candidate will manage research assets and design mixed methods approaches, contributing significantly to social impact initiatives. Strong leadership and familiarity with M&E practices are essential.

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years’ relevant and diverse experience in complex organisational-systemic contexts.
• Minimum 4 years in senior roles successfully leading functions and managing teams.
• Experience with social impact initiatives, programmes, and/or organisations.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop approaches to identify, create, and share knowledge.
• Co-create reflective practice conditions and evaluative thinking.
• Manage research and evaluation assets effectively.

Skills

Leading functions

Social impact initiatives

People-and-user-centered approaches

M&E/MEL/MERL approaches

Creative research formulation

Education

Masters Degree or equivalent

PhD preferred

Tools

Tools for relevant research methods

Developmental evaluation

Job description

Overview

ENVIRONMENT: LEAD research programmes & projects in a relatively new and exciting Innovation & Learning portfolio as the next Head of Research, Reflection & Evaluating sought by a Community Upliftment Programme based in Johannesburg. You will explore and seek new knowledge and introducing what’s valuable to the programme appropriately, manage research & evaluation assets while designing appropriate (often mixed methods) approaches and adapting these over time. Applicants will require a Masters Degree or equivalent with relevant experience, preferably PhD with practical experience with at least 8 years’ relevant and diverse experience in complex organisational-systemic contexts incl.

4 years in senior role(s) successfully leading functions and managing teams. You must also have experience of social impact initiatives, programmes and/or organisations, thoughtful familiarity with M&E/MEL/MERL approaches and practices & a track record of, and strong appetite for, seeing patterns and building coherence amid complexity.

Duties

Leading and developing approach(es) to identifying, creating, nurturing and sharing knowledge (know-how & know-that) for use across the network and ecosystem –

• Explore and seek new knowledge and introducing what’s valuable to the programme appropriately.
• Collaboratively question key assumptions.
• Collaboratively identify, create, and package knowledge for use & sharing –
• Lead an asset-based orientation to knowledge.
• Create, distil and/or package knowledge from people’s experience and expertise, with an orientation towards people’s agency & diversity, and “positive deviance”.

Co-create the network-wide conditions for more deeply reflective practice and evaluative thinking (with the rest of the Innovation & Learning portfolio) -

• Reflective practice: asking questions & questioning assumptions about one’s own work and ways of working (standing on the balcony outside the dance, double loop learning, reflexivity, etc.).
• Evaluative thinking: “an attitude of inquisitiveness and a belief in the value of evidence”…

Leading and developing approach(es) to researching and evaluating -

• Lead and manage an iterative, multi-question, multi-year agenda focused on use/utilisation.
• Build wider understanding across the programme of the nature and value of questioning, researching & evaluating — incl. evaluating as integral to practice; and research as informed by & informing practice.
• Lead the programme using research in evaluating and using both in learning.
• Build and sustain research-practice partnerships to realise the programme’s approach.
• Manage research & evaluation assets.
• Researching: Curiously and creatively formulate, prioritise, and inquire into questions with appropriate discipline(s) and diligence — yielding conclusions and new questions.
• Evaluating: “Any systematic process to judge merit, worth or significance by combining evidence and values”. More specifically: “Evaluation science is systematic inquiry into how, and how well, interventions aimed at changing the world work.”

Leading scoping, designing and managing research and evaluation programmes and projects –

• Design appropriate (often mixed methods) approaches and adapting these over time.
• Develop appropriate terms of reference and requests for proposal for independent evaluations.
• Lead and manage research and/or evaluation programmes and/or projects.
• Conduct research and/or evaluations.

Requirements

Qualifications –

• Minimum Masters Degree or equivalent with relevant experience; preferably PhD with practical experience.

Experience/Skills –

• Min. 8 years’ relevant and diverse experience in complex organisational-systemic contexts incl.
• Min. 4 years in senior role(s) successfully leading functions and managing teams.
• Experience of social impact initiatives, programmes and/or organisations.
• Comfort and confidence leading sophisticated research and evaluations.
• People-and-user-centered approaches to research and evaluating.
• Thoughtful familiarity with M&E/MEL/MERL approaches and practices.
• A track record of, and strong appetite for, seeing patterns and building coherence amid complexity.

Advantageous –

• Fluency in one or more African languages.
• Proficiency in/with –
• Tools suited to relevant research methods.
• Developmental evaluation.