Senior Behavioral Scientist (Spanish speaking), CUBIC (Consultant)- (Part time, Home based)

The Opportunity

The Objectives of this Consultancy – Part-time Senior Behavioral Scientist Consultant – is to co-lead behavioral science-focused projects with Save the Children Country Office staff. Tasks include: leading teams to carry out formative behavioral research; design, implement and evaluate behaviorally informed interventions; conduct behavioral science workshops; and write results for both technical and non-technical audiences, among others.

This role will start part-time with an option to convert to full-time, so those with this bandwidth are preferred.

This role requires a min of 1-3 days per week of work.

Role Dimension

CUBIC currently includes 14 team members based in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, thus requiring strong remote communication and collaboration skills. The Part-time Senior Behavioral Scientist Consultant will develop strong working relationships with project leads in Save the Children Country Offices, and will need to be comfortable promoting CUBIC’s work to external stakeholders, including the communities we serve, governments and donors. 

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Behavioral Scientist Consultant will: 

Lead behavioral science-focused projects;

1. Carry out responsibilities for leading 1-3 projects, in collaboration with country office staff to design, implement and evaluate behaviorally informed interventions. He/she will coordinate regularly with country office staff to trouble shoot and make sure projects and trials are on track from beginning to end. He/she will comply with the Detailed Implementation Plan for each project, and adapt it when necessary.
2. Behavioral diagnosis. This includes leading desk research activities, workshops with country office staff and other stakeholders, working with country office staff to conduct primary and secondary “on the ground” formative research activities (where travel is permitted and appropriate as per pandemic developments) and guiding the analysis of large datasets to derive learnings and guide project/trial design.
3. Design, implement, and evaluate behaviorally informed interventions. This will involve supporting the development of trial protocols and working with country office staff to design and implement experiments that balance rigor with practical considerations.  He/she will determine which evaluation method is most appropriate (e.g., RCT, matched controlled trial, A/B test), conduct power analyses and randomization, and determine outcome measures and how data will be collected.
4. Conduct Behavioral Science trainings/workshops, particularly sessions focused on formative research, experiments, and trials. These workshops involve both an introduction to behavioral science, as well as hands-on design sessions to develop the prioritized approaches for testing.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science, Social Psychology, Economics, Public Policy, Neuroscience or a related field, and a master’s degree in a related field.
• Over 5 years of previous research and work experience in a related field, including at least 3 years of experience working in applied behavioral science projects, with a preference for candidates with experience in developing contexts. 
• Demonstrated work experience designing, implementing, and analyzing randomized field experiments in developing countries. 
• Strong qualitative or mixed methods for social research skills, including demonstrated knowledge of and experience working with data analysis software such as NVivo, ATLAS.ti or similar.
• Strong quantitative, research, and data analytic skills, including demonstrated knowledge of and experience working with data analysis software such as STATA, R or Python.
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish is required, while proficiency in Arabic or French is preferred.

Experience and Skills

• Flexible, self-motivated, able to manage multiple tasks, team members, and projects efficiently and a team player.
• Ability to succeed, detailed oriented, drive projects, and collaborate via a remote working structure.
• Excellent management, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Fluency and excellent communication and writing skills.
• Prior experience working in the Global South would be highly preferred.

Additional Job Responsibilities

a. Draft reports, case studies and academic papers to promote results of trials and advise on potential scale up.

b. Contribute to organizational growth by supporting the development of proposals and concept notes. 

c. Manage more junior staff

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday 
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued. 

Application Information

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers

Closing Date for Application: 4 April 2024

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.