The USAID Advancing Nutrition Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (MEL) Technical Specialist is responsible for facilitating and providing technical assistance to USAID Bureaus and Missions, USAID Advancing Nutrition technical teams, and USAID Advancing Nutrition country teams. Technical assistance may be provided either alone or as part of a team, managing and/or undertaking new monitoring, evaluation or operations research efforts in USAID Advancing Nutrition countries, and coordinating across teams to stay abreast of research and better practices related to multi-sectoral nutrition. The Specialist will be a member of the USAID Advancing Nutrition pool of technical advisors and specialists based at the JSI offices in Crystal City, Virginia.
S/he will ensure timely implementation of activities, coordinate inputs from other team members and USAID counterparts, and ensure timely, quality completion of deliverables. The Specialist will also liaise with USAID Advancing Nutrition Senior Advisors and Advisors to ensure final dissemination of project materials. The Technical Specialist will report to the Director for Measurement.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Technical Specialist will:
- Work closely with USAID Advancing Nutrition activity leads and Technical Advisors to conduct literature reviews, devise relevant research strategies, and ensure timely dissemination of review and research findings.
- Work closely with USAID Advancing Nutrition Technical Advisors to develop analysis plans, analyze data sets (in SPSS, Stata or other similar package) and prepare tables and data visuals for dissemination
- Help manage an online monitoring and reporting system, which will include managing data in excel, downloading and archiving data sets from an online platform, and extracting data from an online system
- Write or contribute to programmatic and technical reports, such as quarterly reports and technical and policy briefs as needed, ensuring a high quality standard across all USAID Advancing Nutrition external products.
- Plan and participate in the provision of M&E technical support to USAID Advancing Nutrition technical staff, in-country teams, USAID Missions, and USAID Washington, as requested
- Coordinate with other USAID Advancing Nutrition technical advisors and specialists, liaise with external stakeholders and ensure consistent and timely communication with our USAID counterparts.
- Represent USAID Advancing Nutrition in meetings, seminars, debriefings and other technical meetings, internationally and domestically as delegated.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
COMPETENCIES:
- Experience with the design, development, implementation of quantitative and qualitative research
- Experience managing spreadsheets in Excel or similar software
- Experience analyzing quantitative and qualitative data sets, using commercially available data analysis software (Stata, SPSS, or similar and NVivo, ATLAS.ti or similar)
- Strong administrative and organizational skills, and demonstrated ability to assess priorities and manage multiple, complex, time-sensitive tasks simultaneously, and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality
- Strong interpersonal skills and social-emotional intelligence; experience working effectively in teams and cross-cultural settings
- Impeccable time management, delegation, and prioritization skills
- Comfortable working in a matrixed, integrated work environment
- Strong drive and initiative to take on and complete tasks proactively
- Professional experience interacting with at least one of the following: community based organizations, NGOs, host country governments, or other relevant stakeholders
QUALIFICATIONS
- Education: Master’s Degree in nutrition, public health, social and behavior change communication, and/or relevant agricultural or social sciences, or a related field.
- Experience: 3 years of relevant, post-masters-degree experience, particularly in monitoring, evaluation or research related to at least one of the following program areas: behavior change communication, public health, nutrition, food security, nutrition-sensitive agriculture or food systems
- Excellent written and oral communications and negotiating skills; proficiency in French, Spanish, Portuguese or other major foreign language a plus.
- Ability and willingness to travel internationally (less than 15%)
Salary commensurate with experience.
Interested candidates should submit their resumes and cover letters online by 01/03/2020.