Health and Nutrition Research Technical Director

Health and Nutrition Research Technical Director at World Vision

With 75 years of experience, World Vision focuses on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.

Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Key Responsibilities

The Health and Nutrition Research Technical Director will provide technical leadership and overall direction to develop and manage a prioritized evaluation and research agenda aligned with WVI priorities. Reporting to the Sr. Director, Evidence of Impact, Research, Knowledge Management and Learning, the Director will collaborate with Support, Regional, and Field Offices to design and implement studies and evaluations, applying appropriate methods, data management practices, and required ethics approvals. The Director will lead equitable partner engagement, coordinate documentation and dissemination of findings, and promote uptake of evidence for program improvement, advocacy, and resource acquisition, while contributing to cross-sector learning and integration.

• Provide technical direction and research oversight for health and nutrition research and evaluations, including support to protocol and instrument development, analysis planning, and quality assurance.
• Coordinate ethics (IRB) submissions and compliance, and ensure data security and file management practices are followed.
• Support AIM analysis and sense-making.
• Lead documentation and dissemination of research and evaluation findings, contributing to manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations with partners.
• Package findings for internal and external audiences (e.g., wvi.org, visual abstracts, and other formats).
• Engage with Field Offices to support specific dissemination activities (i.e. using AIM data for advocacy).
• Direct the development and update of WVI’s research agenda, in coordination with the Sr. Director.
• Implement donor positioning plans and write funding proposals to support the funding of the research agenda.
• Lead partnership-wide research forums to share learning and identify cross-sector collaboration opportunities; support integration of evidence into multi-sector approaches.
• Conceptualize and direct research equity and ethical engagement principles across sector research and evaluations; contribute to the development and sharing of guidance with internal teams and partners.

Knowledge, Skill and Experience

Required Education, training, license, registration, and/or Certification

• Master’s degree in Public Health or related research field required; PhD/DrPH preferred.

Required Professional Experience

• Ten years of practical experience conducting health and nutrition program monitoring, evaluation, and/or research in humanitarian and development contexts.
• Demonstrated quantitative and qualitative research skills (including formative research) and experience with data analysis software.
• Experience contributing to publications or technical products; peer-reviewed publishing preferred.
• Experience coordinating small teams, consultants, and/or research workstreams.
• Experience collaborating with external partners (e.g., academic institutions) on research activities.
• Experience preparing and/or obtaining ethical (IRB) approvals.
• Strong communicator and collaborator, especially in cross-cultural contexts.

Preferred Experience, Knowledge And/or Other Qualifications

• Understanding of WV sector programing, development approach, and global partnership strategy.
• Experienced with qualitative and quantitative statistical analysis packages, such as MAXQDA, SPSS, EPI Info, SAS, and STATA.
• Strong research writing competence.

Required Language(s)

• Fluent English; Spanish, French and other languages advantageous.

Required Travel And/or Work Environment Accommodations

• Work from home; 20% travel.

Key skills/competency

• Public Health Expertise
• Nutrition Science
• Research Methodology
• Program Evaluation
• Quantitative Analysis
• Qualitative Data Skills
• Ethics & IRB Compliance
• Proposal Development
• Cross-cultural Communication
• Knowledge Translation