Research Specialist, Institute for Global Health and Development

Introduction

The Aga Khan University’s Institute for Global Health and Development (IGHD) was established in the year 2020 to serve as a University-wide entity for providing a unique platform for facilitating strategic engagements and partnerships between AKU, University of Central Asia and the wider Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). IGHD aims to address global health and environmental challenges by creating a multi-disciplinary support system and infrastructure, whereby researchers across campuses and regions can collaborate and contribute.

The IGHD works across four thematic areas, including Sustainable Development Goals (including Broad Social Determinants of Health); Gender Equity and Empowerment; Climate Change, Urban Development, and Health, and; Agriculture, Food Security, and Nutrition.

As an equal opportunity employer, AKU believes in promoting a diverse and inclusive culture and is committed to adopt appropriate standards for safeguarding and promoting a respectful relationship with and between diverse workforce of its faculty, staff, trainees, volunteers, beneficiaries, wider communities, and other stakeholders with whom it works, including children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees/trainees and partners to share this commitment.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible to supervise project activities related to field and data management to ensure quality control, while maintaining good working relationship with staff, community and various stakeholders involved. Specific responsibilities will be to:

• plan, document & verify the project data collection requirements
• communicate & coordinate with programmers for development of data collection / digitization applications
• carry out User acceptance testing for data collection applications and ensure that the outputs are aligned with project requirements
• regularly liase with the research teams/managers to ensure smooth execution of data collection activities
• trouble shoot any issues which may hamper data collection/data quality
• identify and document any possible issues in the data quality  through regular review and running descriptive statistics
• ensures the integrity of research projects data and provide supervision for data quality assurance
• assist data management staff in the overall data management process. As needed, review study database structures and data management project conventions
• provide support training of field data collection teams

Requirements

You should have:

• at least 16 years of education preferably in Statistics or Computer Science
• certifications in database management will be an added advantage
• knowledge of REDcap /ODK /CSPro will be an added advantage
• good Knowledge of SQL Query Language
• at least five years of relevant experience preferably with a research institute or data management organization
• comprehensive knowledge of modern research tools and techniques
• excellent project management skills including ability to lead work force and manage resources effectively
• strong management and supervision skills
• excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to present complex ideas and information in clear and meaningful form to various stakeholders
• excellent ability to manage multiple tasks effectively under work pressure
• willingness for extensive travelling to various field sites for monitoring and supervision

Comprehensive employment reference checks will be conducted. This is a grant funded closed ended position.