VACANCY – RESEARCHER (NUTRITION)

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is an international non-profit, non-governmental research organization committed to conducting high quality and policy relevant research on population, health, education and development issues facing sub-Saharan Africa.  APHRC seeks to recruit a Researcher with expertise in nutrition to work in the Maternal and Child Wellbeing Unit within APHRC’s Research Division. This is an opportunity to join an existing research group dedicated to research in maternal and child health and nutrition.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and contribute to proposal development;
• Engage in evaluations of interventions with young children and families;
• Lead and contribute to the design of scientific research and training tasks within the Unit;
• Lead and contribute to the implementation of nutrition and other related projects. Tasks include project design and activities related to project management such as field work and data management;
• Contribute to scientific writing and production of donor reports;
• Supervise and mentor junior research staff at the Center; and,
• Lead in policy engagement and dissemination of research findings to appropriate audiences.

Qualifications and Experience:

• PhD in Nutrition, Public Health;   or closely related fields;
• Strong writing skills and good record of publications on relevant areas in sub-Saharan Africa;
• At least three years post-doctoral experience in research in Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN);
• Experience in developing proposals and attracting research grants, particularly in MIYCN;
• Demonstrated experience in managing research teams and partnerships;
• Proven experience in conducting household surveys;
• Strong quantitative skills (managing, analyzing and interpreting data), with extensive familiarity with quantitative statistical packages (e.g. STATA, SAS or SPSS); and
• Computer literacy in Microsoft packages (e.g. MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel);
• Rank is open and successful candidates may be appointed at Associate (3-5 years), Research Scientist (5-8 years) or Senior Research Scientist (10+ years) levels depending on experience and track record.

Desirable:

• Expertise/experience in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) and Early Childhood Development (ECD) will be an added advantage;
• Experience and familiarity with a diverse set of health and social science data sets;
• Expertise in qualitative methods, including familiarity with qualitative analysis software packages (e.g. NVivo);
• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team.

This position comes with an attractive, internationally competitive remuneration package including employer paid medical, travel and life insurance cover. Allowances toward in-relocation (for those recruited from outside Kenya), and dependents’ education are provided. Preference will be given to nationals of sub-Saharan African countries.

Interested candidates are invited to send via email, their letter of application, a statement of research interests and goals (1-2 pages), and CV with contact details of three referees to jobs@aphrc.org. Please indicate ‘Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Nutrition)’ on the subject line of the email.  Cover letters should be addressed to:

The Human Resources Officer

African Population and Health Research Center, Inc

APHRC Campus, Manga Close, off Kirawa Road, Kitisuru

PO. Box 10787-GPO, Nairobi

NB: The position will be open until a suitable candidate is identified. Only short-listed candidates will be notified contacted. APHRC is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the protection of children.