Career Center

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $85,000 - $105,000

Position Summary

Under the direct supervision of the Director of the Gender, Adolescent Transitions and Environment (GATE) program in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health, the Assistant Director of Research provides oversight, research and technical support for multiple program activities including research operations, the management of projects globally and in the USA, partnership building and fundraising.

GATE is an innovative research and practice program dedicated towards improving the lives of adolescents and women around the world. We are looking for an individual who brings a qualitative research background, an aptitude for managing and mentoring staff and students, and who is looking for an opportunity that is aligned with our areas of work, including global mixed-methods research on puberty, menstrual health and hygiene, and gender and sanitation. Our topical focus of work spans from low-resource settings and communities to humanitarian contexts.

The Assistant Director of Research will collaborate closely with the larger GATE team of staff and students. The position will involve some international travel.

This position is contingent upon availability of grant funding.

Subject to business needs, we may support hybrid work arrangements. Options will be discussed during the interview process.

Responsibilities

Research and Writing (55%)

• With the Director, manage and lead primarily qualitative research operations for a range of complex projects across global and US sites. This includes data collection activities, qualitative analysis and drafting of findings in manuscripts
• Lead and support research design and development of study tools, IRB protocols, and consent forms
• Lead and support the training of research team as needed (e.g., research ethics, data collection, data analysis)
• Manage students who support the research (e.g., data collection, data analysis, IRB procedures).
• Lead and/or support the development of scientific manuscripts for publication and manage the submission process
• Support and/or present research findings at national or global conferences
• Support research translation efforts, including the development of policy briefs, creation of social media, webinars, knowledge management products (infographics, toolkits), op-eds and other advocacy outputs

 Management (20%)

• Provide overall management support for the GATE program, including liaising with institutional and global partners
• Support budget development and other administrative tasks, such as overseeing or executing narrative reports to funders
• Support the planning and coordination of meetings with partner organizations or larger stakeholder groups of relevance
• Manage junior staff and students, including mentoring and overseeing quality control of GATE deliverables

Fundraising and development (15%)

• With the Director, support fundraising through developing grant proposals and concept notes (solicited or unsolicited) and managing submission processes
• Support the identification of new funding opportunities and conceptualization of new projects

Perform other related duties as assigned, including the below (5%)

• Oversee and facilitate recruitment, onboarding and management of students, staff and relevant consultants
• Develop and support student-oriented programming and activities

Minimum Qualifications

Requires a bachelor's degree or equivalent in education and experience, plus 4 years of related experience

Must have previous supervisory experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Master???s or doctoral degree in public health
• 6-10+ years of relevant experience in development and/or international research and project planning
• Ability to travel 30% of the time
• Experience with designing and conducting qualitative research (IRB protocol preparation, data collection, data analysis, writing of scientific manuscripts)
• Experience conducting public health research in low-resource global contexts
• Experience conducting qualitative research with girls and women on reproductive health related topics
• Excellent organizational, written and oral communication skills, including editorial skills
• Proven project management skills, both direct and as supervisor
• Detail oriented, with previous management experience
• Experience in grant writing and management.
• Ability to support the development and/or monitoring of program???s budget
• Strong interest in working on projects which support adolescent girls and women???s health, sanitation and menstrual health and hygiene in global contexts
• Enthusiasm to collaborate with a dynamic network of global partners
• Superb interpersonal skills, flexibility, and a willingness to multi-task on numerous tasks at once is necessary
• Strong ability to work independently and as a key member of a team
• Willingness to travel to low-resource global contexts for extended periods of time for data collection activities
• Prior experience living and/or working in low-resource global contexts

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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