Senior Research Officer

Senior Research Officer- Kathmandu, Nepal

Organisation structure

The Senior Research Officer (Quantitative) will report to the Research Manager.

Job responsibilities and accountability

Context

BBC Media Action uses media and communication to reach millions of people through creative communication and trusted media, helping people have their say, understand their rights, responsibilities, and take action to transform their own lives. We work across a range of thematic areas including health, governance and rights, resilience and humanitarian response and we partner with civil society, local media and governments to deliver our work. We have been working in Nepal since 2007 addressing a range of development issues including climate change adaptation, governance, health and humanitarian response. 

BBC Media Action Nepal is seeking a Senior Research Officer with a specific focus on quantitative research to support the research team across projects that BBC Media Action is implementing in Nepal.

“The role may involve working with groups of vulnerable children and adults. For the successful candidate, mandatory training will be provided on BBC Media Action’s safeguarding policy and staff code of conduct. BBC Media Action operates a zero-tolerance policy concerning all forms of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people.”

Job Purpose

The Senior Research Officer will be responsible for the overall design, implementation, and management of the research activities across BBC Media Action’s Nepal office. The research activities could include formative research, process monitoring, and evaluative research, and will sometimes be carried out entirely in-house and at other times with elements sub-contracted to a research/field agency. In such cases, this role will include working with project teams in project delivery including agency recruitment, research instrument design and piloting, fieldwork, analysis, insights generation and writing a research report.

Main Duties

• Lead on the development of research plans, including research instruments and sampling design, commissioning of agencies for research, data analysis, interpretation and insights generation, reporting and dissemination of research findings on time, to budget and to high quality.
• Collect data/ fieldwork/, monitor and control the quality of fieldwork/data collected, analyse and present them into standard format for further decision making.
• Engage proactively and collaboratively with London based research staff and Nepal based finance, admin and production team, to ensure research supports wider organisational/programme objectives and is properly resourced and reported.
• Lead on organising and implementing a research review process for key research deliverables (proposals, reports) with project stakeholders.
• Share and/or disseminate research findings amongst the relevant internal and external audiences including producers and project managers, research firms, academic institutions, donors.
• Plan and monitor resource needs, including creation and input into research planning documents, project and programme plans and input into budget design for research elements of projects.
• Contribute to writing research reports for donors, providing clear and comprehensive summaries of research findings and their implications.
• Contribute to reviewing the latest trends and developments in research methodologies related to behaviour change, impact assessment and communications research, and evaluating the same for adoption in Research and Learning work.
• Participate in research and learning workshops and represent 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.
• Understand and comply with the Safeguarding policy and the staff Code of Conduct. Report any Safeguarding concerns immediately, either to the Country Director, or using the Whistleblowing Policy.
• Participate in relevant mandatory training including Safeguarding and Respect at Work.
• Support any other research and learning task as per requirement.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• University degree in relevant discipline.
• Significant experience of conducting research and evaluation for development projects; social/market research; or media & communication research.
• Highly competent in quantitative research including designing research methodology, conducting data analysis, interpretation and insights generation.
• Strong skill and ability in using quantitative data analysis packages – SPSS and/or others.
• Experience in managing and analysing large and complex datasets.
• Ability to manage, design and plan qualitative and/or quantitative /or mixed method research.
• Strong field work experience, especially in rural and geographically challenging areas. Ability to undertake or manage fieldwork and adapt methods to challenging and resource-constrained conditions.
• Experience of research project management in Nepal including budgeting and resource management.
• Strong written and spoken Nepali and English.
• Strong report writing and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical ideas using non-technical language to a wide range of audiences from journalists, production staff and development practitioners.
• Ability to plan and conduct work with minimal supervision.
• Good time management skills, with a track record of delivering research findings to the deadline.
• Demonstrable understanding of cultural diversity and cross-cultural research.
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills: ability to communicate and conduct business at all levels from grassroots to the highest levels of governments and media.

If you are interested in applying for this position, please send a CV and Covering Letter outlining your interest in the role, and demonstrating how you fulfil the essential skills and experience, by 28th May 2025 to application@np.bbcmediaaction.org  (with job title in the subject line).