Policy Research Specialist at Educate!

The right person for this role will:

• Be an ultra-organized and self-motivated planner and project manager -- capable of keeping multiple balls in the air 
• Someone passionate about figuring out what makes policies work and why- equally excited about diving deep into policy documents, scanning existing literature, and generating new data, when necessary
• Someone who is curious at heart, willing to find and try new methodologies to generate answers to novel policy questions
• A nimble and flexible researcher: willing to adapt research plans to meet the needs of key stakeholders.

Performance Objectives 

Conduct primary research with government partners

• Support the design of research projects to answer pressing program and policy questions, including user needs assessment, scoping, formative and summative evaluations, drawing on various qualitative and quantitative methods
• Work closely with Product and Expansion staff to design research projects that meet the needs of internal and external audiences and users.
• Coordinate with Tech, Performance metrics and Evaluation functions to integrate monitoring/evaluation data into research
• Oversee planning and execution of Educations System Support-related research projects
• Manage internal teams, teams of government representatives, and external consultants to execute data collection and analysis
• Ensure research collects high quality data and accurate
• Lead analysis of data from primary research to generate conclusions and recommendation to inform advocacy strategy and meet needs of intended users

Generate insight from primary data and existing literature

• Conduct literature reviews of current evidence on best practices in education policy and system change
• Write policy briefs and benchmarking reports summarizing key policy lessons from current literature.
• Lead process of using program data to generate insights on what works, helping teams determine the “so what” from data
• Conduct deep dives to into primary program data to respond rapidly to strategic program performance questions

Policy analysis for advocacy

• Conduct desk research to understand national policy objectives, priorities, and inform Educate! Strategy
• Monitor the policy landscape in priority countries and gather information, providing recommendations on advocacy opportunities and risks.
• Create briefs and concept notes geared towards policy makers that share Educate!'s work in innovations, so that the government is informed and brought along on our learning journey.
• Create government partnership proposals (aligned to national educational policy frameworks and using government language)
• Write thought leadership and insight pieces

Collaborative with Policy and Partnerships staff to build government (research) partnerships

• Oversee research-focused interactions with government partners, including scoping meetings, workshops, and dissemination activities
• In process of setting research objectives and designing research, ensure the buy-in of government partners by including them in each step of research process
• Support government partners’ professional development by bringing them opportunities to participate in research.
• Work on a cross functional team with that strategically solves problems related to government partnership and advocacy

Qualifications 

• Excited about translating research into action and work with government partners in multiple countries as we grow
• Experience working in a company or organization that has experienced high growth – adopting new systems and structures as part of the growth.
• Strong orientation to team culture and cross-functional work
• Master’s degree or equivalent work experience in a field like policy research, research methods, or public policy.
• Ability to effectively multi-task; keen attention to detail and commitment to a quality work product.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication abilities; good writing skills and ability to distill technical research for a policy audience in written and Powerpoint form.
• Able to take  several viewpoints and include them in research. .