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Closing date for applications: 11th May 2024, 23:59 (BST)
Organisation: Scriptoria Sustainable Development Solutions
Contract: Full time, permanent
Location: Flexible (London and/or remote, plus business travel)
Salary: £35,000 – £38,000 – depending on experience
Start date: ASAP
Do you have a scientific PhD and postdoc/industry experience? Do you want to apply your scientific skills and research experience to health and sustainable development projects? Are you interested in meeting people, sharing your skills and learning to be a first-class communicator? Then this is the job for you.
Who we are
Scriptoria is a values-driven, ethically-focused consulting company that has a strong international reputation for excellence. We specialise in helping clients around the world to tackle sustainable development, poverty reduction, health, and climate and environmental issues. Our Consulting, Data, Communications and Training Teams focus on knowledge management, data management and communications to help research, international development, government and other organisations better manage information and communicate their findings.
Who we're looking for
We are looking for a dynamic new team member with a PhD in a science/STEM subject to join our innovative Consulting Team and to contribute to the work of our Data and Training Teams. Agriculture and the health sciences are areas we are particularly interested in.
Specifically, we want an individual with a passion for research and sustainable development, a friendly, outgoing personality and a willingness to learn new skills. We’re looking for someone who wants to engage with international development and research projects to help them work more efficiently and have a greater impact.
This role will offer a range of experience and the opportunity to contribute to the diverse range of services that Scriptoria provides.
Approximately half of your time will be spent working with our exceptionally experienced team of knowledge management and data consultants to help us develop and deliver cutting-edge data-management/analytics solutions and project-management software systems to our clients. Your work will also involve working to help us manage and organise the projects we deliver to clients. The other half of your time will involve meeting with and training clients (to pass on your skills in research communications), both online and through face-to-face courses. Finally, you will be encouraged to contribute to company-wide strategy and business development.
Your role will include:
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Helping sustainable development and research programs to develop and implement digital tools and analytics systems to better manage their workflows and use their data
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Working with projects in Africa and Asia to provide technical advisory and consulting services to help them to better manage and share information, knowledge and data
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Training and mentoring international researchers by delivering courses, workshops, and individual support in areas including journal article/report writing, grant writing, project management and communications for non-specialists
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Contributing to business development across the company, including marketing and client outreach.
Working with Scriptoria
Our senior team has an exceptional skill set, and we recognise that candidates with all the skills we need simply may not exist. But don’t worry, if you have some of the skills we want but lack others – we will train you to fill those gaps. This will include thorough training in the delivery of our well-respected training courses.
Our staff have the choice to work wholly or partly from home or from our office in Tooting, SW London, during regular operational hours (08.30-17.30). If working from home, staff must have a working environment suitable for holding video-call meetings/training sessions with clients.
Wherever you work, you will interact regularly with senior team members to gain new skills and exchange ideas.
This job will require regular travel to deliver training courses (mostly in the UK, estimated 2 to 8 days per month) and may also involve international travel, including to developing countries. So, applicants must be willing to travel (in line with UK government guidance).
Key skills and experience
Essential
Qualifications and skills
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A PhD in a quantitative STEM research subject
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2 years minimum of postdoc/industry experience (in a research or research-support role)
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A strong understanding of research processes and data analysis and management
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A demonstrated talent for writing - including writing journal articles and writing for non-specialists
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At least one first-author paper in a peer-reviewed journal
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Experience delivering live training/teaching courses
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An excellent, practical knowledge of MS Excel and MS PowerPoint
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Excellent English language skills, to the standard of a native speaker
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The right to work in the UK
Characteristics and interests
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A friendly, open personality (bright, resilient, cheerful, confident)
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A passion for international development and building researchers’ skills
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An interest in information management and technology, data systems and analytics and in helping create new IT systems and software (programming skills are not required for this role)
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A willingness to travel and to take a flexible approach to working hours when travelling
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The confidence required to give presentations and training courses and to lead (facilitate) meetings, online and in person
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The ability to work very well under pressure and self-manage
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The ability to juggle multiple tasks and work alongside the company Directors
Desirable
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Experience working on collaborative research projects with international partners
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Experience working with programs such as Microsoft SharePoint or other knowledge management tools
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Experience with statistical analysis in R
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Experience in grant writing and/or grant management
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Experience writing communications materials that translate science for non-specialists and encourage engagement
Salary and annual leave
Salary will depend on qualifications and experience but is expected to be between £35,000 and £38,000 p/a (depending on experience). Annual leave is 25 days per year plus public holidays (33 days).
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job title: Regional Director, East and Southern Africa
Principal Location: Nairobi (other strategic locations in East Africa negotiable)
Role Purpose:
Street Child is a rapidly growing, child-focused, humanitarian and development organisation. In 2023, Street Child celebrated reaching over one million children across 25 countries over its fifteen years of existence. This was accomplished with and through a growing network of more than 200 national and local actors. The Regional Director will be a standard bearer of this ambition in East and Southern Africa, providing leadership across all countries where Street Child is operational while monitoring and pursuing growth opportunities across the region. As Street Child’s most senior representative in the region, the Regional Director will guide and drive the organisation to deliver on the objective of ensuring all children are safe, in school, and learning.
As Street Child actively seeks opportunities to expand its support for the most marginalized girls and boys, the Regional Director will be responsible for providing outstanding leadership and for resourcing and delivering high impact programming across East and Southern Africa. The Regional Director will work to identify and advance partnerships with regional, national, and local actors, as well as donors. This will require bringing a strong network to the role along with energy to represent Street Child in organisational, regional, and global forums. As Street Child country teams drive delivery for girls and boys, the Regional Director will work with country directors to develop high-functioning teams to deliver and resource ambitious regional and country strategies.
The Regional Director will manage one regional programme coordinator and will progressively assume responsibility for line management of country directors in East and Southern Africa.
Key Responsibilities:
- The Regional Director will act as chief motivator, working collaboratively with country, regional, and head office teams to:
- Cultivate enthusiastic and high-performing teams through outstanding leadership:
- Build, lead and motivate an ambitious and enthusiastic team of Street Child Country Directors and Strategic Leadership Teams.
- Oversee and support the recruitment and development of passionate, motivated, and technically excellent Street Child staff.
- Strengthen Street Child’s culture of learning, for both staff and local partners, by identifying professional and organisational development opportunities that respond to self-identified capacity gaps.
- Build a supportive network of learning and information exchange between regional county teams.
- Be a frequent in-person presence in operational countries, sometimes spending extended periods to support leadership at the country level, including in insecure contexts.
- Oversee the management of partnerships in countries in East and Southern Africa where Street Child does not maintain a direct presence.
- Drive resource mobilization across the East and Southern Africa region, for country programmes, regional strategy, and partners:
- In close collaboration with country leadership, identify country-level needs, seek out opportunities, and support in the development of winning proposals for country programmes.
- Across the region, identify needs and gaps, and drive new potential expansion opportunities in line with Street Child’s global strategy.
- Guide programmatic excellence across the region through robust strategy development and high-quality programme delivery:
- Develop a technically robust and evidence-based regional strategy that identifies Street Child’s comparative value and strategic goals in the region, across humanitarian, development and refugee contexts.
- Continuously consult with Country Directors, programme managers and local partners to ensure programme design and delivery is iterative, adaptive and quality-assured and impact is clearly measured.
- Provide support to local partners to develop organisational development plans and their own high-functioning leadership structures.
- Oversee and work closely with the regional finance team in their development and delivery of accurate, value for money budgets and robust operational processes.
- Ensure that operations and programmes in East and Southern Africa are conducted in line with Street Child’s policies and standards, including in the areas of safeguarding, safety and security, HR, finance.
1) Be a passionate representative of Street Child and our partners, across the organisation and in external forums:
- Represent Street Child at the highest level in East and Southern Africa, including pro-active participation in relevant coordination mechanisms at national and regional level.
- Represent Street Child and the needs of children in East and Southern Africa in global for a as required.
2) Advance and diversify partnerships with the local actors who respond to the needs of girls and boys in their communities, and with donors who can resource the work:
- Lead the development of strategic partnerships with relevant actors including donors, INGOs and local/national government, including at the regional level.
- Oversee the development of a resource mobilisation strategy for the region based on Street Child’s expertise and donor priorities.
- Lead and/or support Country Directors in the development of high-quality and highly competitive institutional funding proposals.
- Proactive engagement with Street Child UK head office and programmes team on strategic, networking and fundraising activities.
- The Key Responsibilities provide a high-level view of the Regional Director role. These responsibilities will evolve as the Regional Director expands Street Child’s reach across East and Southern Africa. Street Child operates with an entrepreneurial spirit that may require staff to step-up and step-in to reasonable tasks beyond the initial description of their role. The Regional Director may occasionally be called upon to provide surge or scoping support to other parts of Street Child Programmes as delegated by the Director of Global Programmes.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Significant senior management experience, leading high-functioning programme regional or county teams in the humanitarian and development sector. Previous experience as a country or regional director is preferred.
- Strong strategic thinker, with demonstrated expertise developing, resourcing, and delivering strategic plans at the regional or country level.
- Demonstrable experience of proposal development and/or winning funding; Experience in both humanitarian and development contexts.
- Strong command of the localisation agenda, and commitment to local level leadership and decision-making.
- Strong experience delivering high quality education and/or child protection programming.
- Excellent written and spoken communications in English.
- Experience working in the East and Southern Africa region.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with and in support of a multitude of partners including those from local civil society, government, and the private sector.
- Excellent relationship building skills, with an ability to skillfully navigate both national and international stakeholders.
- Willingness to actively engage in program development with country teams including extended missions to support at country level (significant travel expected).
- Additional language skills with a preference for Swahili, Portuguese, French, Somali, or other regional language
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.