Department: BBC Media Action – Research and Learning

Reports To: Head of Research

Grade: 6

Based: Kathmandu office with frequent travel

Duration: Till 31st December 2019 with the possibility of extension subject to funding

Job Purpose:

Reporting to the Head of Research, the Research Officer – Resilience will be accountable for the overall planning, management and delivery of resilience-related projects of Nepal office. The Research Officer will undertake research to support and meet the requirements of project and production teams. S/he is also responsible for contributing on impact reports to donor and for ensuring the research is technically well designed and implemented. The role includes regularly synthesizing, analyzing, and sharing research findings with teams, supporting the design and piloting of research instruments, qualitative and quantitative fieldwork, analysis and interpretation.

Main Duties:

• Support the commissioning of all audience research in coordination with production and broadcast schedules
• Negotiate and liaise with research agencies and key users of the research to ensure the results are suitable to meet project needs
• Implement and deliver all audience research in order to ensure that activities meet quality, standards and are completed within budget and deadline requirements
• Be involved in formulating research design, preparing and circulating RFPs/research brief (where appropriate), evaluating proposals, finalizing and commissioning the research/organizing
• Analyse and synthesize audience research results, applications and innovations with a view to identify lessons learned and define best practices
• Support Research Manager in liaising with internal clients to determine various research needs
• Be involved in formulating research design and using interactive data to inform business development/new opportunities
• Work with other research team members to design and draft research instruments for quantitative as well as qualitative work (pretesting/ piloting/ formative, evaluation)
• Moderate focus group discussion, collect data, monitor and control the quality of fieldwork/data collection, and analyze and present them into standard format for further decision making
• Analyze SPSS dataset as required and requested to support project planning and development
• Support Research Manager and other Research Officers to help disseminate the analysis of key findings and the strategic recommendations
• To support the review of latest trends and developments in research methodologies related to behavior change, impact assessment and communications research, and evaluating the same for adoption in the Research and Learning work
• Participate in Research and Learning workshops and representing the BBC Media Action in other knowledge sharing workshops related to our project activities and project partners. Train and share knowledge with the research assistant where appropriate
• Support reporting requirements in terms of providing analysis and recommendation for quick understating and decision making. This includes designing ways of reporting figures in an effective and strategic way
• Other research and learning task as per requirement.

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Strong experience in qualitative and quantitative market/social research
• Experience using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies
• Strong IT skills, including Excel and PowerPoint, and experience with data analysis software packages such as SPSS or Atlas
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Nepali and English
• Strong report writing and presentation skills, communicating complex technical ideas using nontechnical language to a wide range of audiences from journalists, production staff and development practitioners
• Ability to plan and conduct work with minimal supervision
• Track record of delivering research findings to deadline.

Competencies:

The following competencies (behaviors and characteristics) have been identified as key to success in the job. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate these competencies.

• Strategic Thinking – Can identify a vision along with the plans that need to be implemented to meet the end goal. Evaluates situations, decisions, issues, etc. in the short, medium and longer-term
• Analytical Thinking – Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, and to explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks, for problem-solving and/or development
• Decision Making – Is ready and able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of the decision made
• Imagination / Creative Thinking – Is able to transform creative ideas/impulses into practical reality. Can look at existing situations and problems in novel ways and come up with creative solutions
• Planning and Organisation – Is able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritizes and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements
• Resilience – Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing own emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Can demonstrate an approach to work that is characterized by commitment, motivation and energy
• Influencing and Persuading – Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change
• Communication – The ability to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information
• Self-Development – able to identify and apply opportunities for learning and development