Director, Strategic Research – Evidence

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +6 more countries.

📋 Description

• Direct World Vision’s applied research, evidence generation, and learning translation function utilizing child data throughout the partnership.

• Create decision-relevant, credible evidence to enhance program quality, fundraising efforts, policy influence, and senior leadership decision-making.

• Oversee applied research and evidence synthesis leveraging AIM/AIM+, program monitoring, evaluations, operational research, commissioned studies, and various other evidence sources.

• Produce the annual AIM/AIM+ insight narrative as a research and learning deliverable.

• Commission and/or conduct secondary analyses of the extensive 400,000+ household AIM dataset along with other datasets.

• Establish interpretation standards for child-data research, encompassing methods, uncertainty, claim boundaries, reproducibility, and responsible handling of sensitive data.

• Convert the OP3 research agenda into a structured portfolio of studies addressing child wellbeing, faith and development, climate stress and resilience, community transformation, and systems transformation.

• Commission, define, lead, and ensure the quality of research studies, evidence syntheses, secondary analyses, mixed-methods, longitudinal, quasi-experimental, and comparative designs.

• Formulate or endorse research questions, theories of change, protocols, TORs/RFPs, analysis plans, sampling strategies, ethics/IRB pathways, data-use agreements, publication strategies, and acceptance criteria.

• Collaborate with field, regional, support-office, sector, fundraising, data management, university, and external research teams.

• Forge partnerships with universities and research institutions, including co-PI models, advisory groups, fellowships, and student pipelines.

• Develop pathways for publication and dissemination of peer-reviewed outputs, working papers, evidence briefs, donor-oriented research products, and public learning materials.

• Advocate for World Vision’s research and evidence agenda with academic partners, donors, foundations, and external evidence networks.

• Transform findings into leadership-ready insight products, Research Board materials, executive briefs, donor-facing narratives, implications for program design, and practical learning tools.

• Define evidence-to-decision pathways and monitor research uptake, decision impact, external utilization, and resource mobilization.

• Direct a leveraged research and learning platform involving researchers, specialists, commissioned researchers, university partners, and working groups.

• Establish annual workplans, quality benchmarks, technical review schedules, escalation procedures, and product standards.

• Manage and/or matrix-manage research staff and consultants, establishing priorities, providing coaching for quality, and ensuring accountability.

• Enhance organizational capability in research commissioning, analysis interpretation, responsible data use, research ethics, evidence translation, and child-data insights.

• Incorporate responsible data practices, safeguarding, privacy, equity, inclusion, and child-sensitive research standards.

⛳️ Requirements

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Statistics, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Public Health, Data Science, Economics, Social Sciences, International Development, Evaluation, Implementation Science, or a related research-intensive field.

• Formal education in quantitative methods, research design, evaluation, data analysis, or equivalent professional expertise.

• A minimum of 12 years of progressive experience in applied research, evidence synthesis, impact evaluation, statistics/biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, economics, data science, or development/humanitarian evidence roles, including senior leadership responsibilities across multiple countries.

• Proven ability to lead a research and evidence agenda or portfolio encompassing various countries, sectors, stakeholders, and evidence products.

• Technical proficiency in quantitative and/or mixed-methods research utilizing large household survey or program datasets, including sampling, weighting, variance estimation, subgroup/equity analysis, trend or change analysis, and articulation of evidence claim limitations.

• Experience in synthesizing evidence from diverse data sources, including AIM/AIM+, program monitoring, evaluations, operational research, grant/sponsorship evidence, external datasets, and commissioned studies.

• Background in commissioning and supervising external research studies, covering research questions, TORs/RFPs, protocols, analysis plans, quality assurance, ethical review, data-use agreements, publication plans, and dissemination strategies.

• Proficiency in translating evidence for senior leaders, program teams, donors, boards, and external audiences.

• Capacity to operate across health, nutrition, WASH, livelihoods, child protection, climate/resilience, fragile contexts, humanitarian programming, and faith and development sectors.

• Experience in fostering partnerships with universities, research institutes, donors, foundations, or external technical collaborators.

• Strong applied skills in R, Python, Stata, SPSS or comparable statistical software and/or data pipelines.

• Familiarity with Power BI or similar business intelligence tools.

• Experience leading virtual, matrixed, and cross-cultural teams while influencing senior stakeholders without relying solely on direct authority.

• Must possess fluency in English.

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 15% of the time.

• Capability to work effectively in a global, virtual, matrixed environment across various time zones.

• Local Applicants Only.

• The successful candidate must affirm World Vision’s core documents and adhere to conduct that aligns with Christian principles, to the fullest extent legally permissible.

• Preferred but not mandatory: PhD or doctoral-level research training; peer-reviewed publications; expertise in child wellbeing/public health/nutrition/WASH/livelihoods/resilience/child protection/faith and development/climate/humanitarian research; proficiency in longitudinal, ex-post, quasi-experimental, causal inference, econometric, psychometric, index-development, evidence synthesis, or implementation science methods; knowledge of responsible data governance, data protection, research ethics, IRB processes, safeguarding, and sensitive data; experience in research funding; and proficiency in a second WV operational language such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Arabic.

🏝️ Benefits

• Opportunity to work from home in the successful candidate’s home country where WVI is authorized to operate.

• Global, virtual, matrixed work environment.

• Chance to lead research and learning capability development.

• Travel up to 15% of the time.

• Mission-driven environment within a Christian humanitarian organization.