Senior Manager, Embedded Lab at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)

IPA Ghana is seeking an Embedded Lab Sr. Manager to collaborate closely with the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Ghana to strengthen its capacity to use evidence to improve its programs and policies. IPA is working with MoE to set up an “Ed Lab” to enable government partners at both the national and district levels to use data and rigorous research to design, test, and scale evidence-based programs and policies to improve learning for students.

The Embedded Lab Sr. Manager will be accountable for IPA’s support to the Ed Lab from both a policy and research perspective. The Sr. Manager will lead the relationship with the government partners and other key education stakeholders, coordinate activities, and manage project scope, delivery, and finances. Given the dynamic nature of working with government stakeholders from national to school-levels, the Sr. Manager will be highly skilled in adaptive management and negotiation, revising project activities and timelines to support the Ed Lab. We particularly encourage Ghanaian nationals to apply.

The Sr. Manager will perform a variety of tasks related to leveraging existing data and developing new research projects to drive greater use of evidence within the Ministry and the broader education sector. For example, the Sr. Manager may conduct activities including but not limited to:

• Leading the development of relationships with key local top-level decision-makers in the education sector and ensure the project has their buy-in and input
• Directly supervising a highly functioning team to develop the Ed Lab, paying particular attention to their professional growth
• Leading work planning and project management to ensure effective and timely implementation of our work
• In collaboration with researchers and in support of the country director, representing IPA locally in policy conversations and at events
• Directly overseeing project financial management, including supporting the creation of the project’s operating budget, being accountable for ongoing budget management, and developing and monitoring activity-specific budgets for the project
• Leading donor reporting
• Developing a policy-driven research agenda for the lab and facilitating the development of research projects to respond to the agenda
• Leading the development of relationships with local and international academics to provide input into the lab’s policy-driven research agenda
• Working together with the Country Office and global policy and communications teams to lead and/or participate in strategic events for policy purposes, including but not limited to summits, conferences, workshops, technical working groups, and round tables. Supporting researchers and country management to participate

• Master’s degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field and 4 or more years of relevant experience, including at least 3 years of experience working closely with large NGOs and national government officials in Ghana; or a Bachelor’s degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field and 6 or more years of relevant experience. Exceptions may be made for excellent candidates who do not meet this criterion
• Hands-on experience supporting Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning systems
• Experience working in the education sector of a developing country, ideally in close interaction with government stakeholders
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to clearly present information in a structured, non-technical, and insightful way.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills, attention to detail, entrepreneurial mindset, versatility, and strong multi-tasking skills
• Superior analytical, quantitative, and conceptual thinking skills
• Ability to supervise staff and manage projects independently.
• Willingness to be a team player and identify connections between work streams
• Cultural and political sensitivity and demonstrated ability to work successfully with diverse constituencies
• Passion for making data-driven decision-making a reality in the development sector