Behavioral Insights Advisor

Location:

New York HQ, USA; Washington; USA; Nairobi, Kenya; Amman, Jordan; London, UK; Bogota, Colombia

This role may be open to candidates in other IRC office locations.

Background:

The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from crises and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

Our strategy aims to increase the scale and improve the effectiveness of its programs worldwide with evidence of what works best to impact people’s lives in conflict and fragile settings. Breakthrough solutions are needed to match the urgency and gravity of the problems faced by people affected by crises. That’s why the IRC created the Airbel Impact Lab, the IRC’s research and innovation team that designs, tests and scales life-changing solutions for people facing conflict and disaster. The Airbel team focuses on addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems, in some of the toughest environments, such as: (i) treating child malnutrition, (ii) delivering last mile education, and (iii) women-centered health programs to save lives and provide choice iv) supporting climate resilient agricultural livelihoods and v) mental health and psychosocial services. Across each of these areas, we build solutions as big as the problems. Our vision is not only to increase IRC’s impact, but to change the way humanitarian aid is delivered around the world!

Job Overview:

How do you identify malnourished children who live in the most remote, crisis-affected areas on Earth? How can we encourage uptake of mental health services in a scalable, culturally appropriate way? As refugee crises grow more protracted and urbanized, how can we avoid interruptions in the education of young people? That’s where you come in! As a member of Airbel, you will be a key part of designing, testing and scaling breakthrough solutions for major challenges such as these.

Specifically, the Behavioral Insights Advisor will help to lead behaviorally informed products and services in IRC’s growing behavioral science portfolio addressing these pressing issues. They will have the opportunity to shape the Airbel’s growing behavioral insights team, lead behavioral science research projects, and promote the application of behavioral insights across the IRC.

This role requires a mix of experience in behavioral design, research and experimentation, project management, qualitative and quantitative approaches, and a solid understanding of behavioral science evidence and humanitarian issues.

Major Responsibilities:

Lead behavioral design of new solutions across different projects

• Gather relevant inputs, synthesize, and develop new behaviorally-informed products and services to improve outcomes for people in crisis
• Lead behavioral prototyping, testing and iteratively improving behaviorally-informed solutions, using a wide range of conceptual, strategic, and technological trends.
• Coordinate and manage the operationalization of behaviorally-informed interventions working closely with IRC colleagues.
• Lead or support the design and implementation of behavioral science research including study designs, questionnaire development, and data analysis; lead high-frequency, small-scale RCTs to inform programming and decision-making.
• Openly share lessons and findings from the field with the broader humanitarian, behavioral science, and social innovation communities; present and publish behavioral science research findings in academic journals and practitioner-focused outlets.
• Identify, pursue and/or contribute to opportunities for fundraising and program development to advance IRC’s behavioral science portfolio.

Identify the potential to apply behavioral science insights across IRC projects and enable teams to use behavioral insights in program design

• Identify behaviorally-informed research questions and areas of interest within the IRC’s organizational research and innovation priorities
• Promote, teach, and explain behavioral science concepts and techniques to IRC staff
• Contribute to the development of behavioral science evidence reviews; co-develop behavioral science evidence products and organizational theories of change
• Support the development of proposals to integrate behavioral insights into projects across our portfolio of projects.

Behavioral science partnership management and development

• Further IRC’s connections to behavioral science actors at a global, regional and national level – including academics, donors, other implementing organizations, behavioral science associations and foundations.
• Seek avenues for partnership, collaboration and coordination, such as supporting the launch of a behavioral insights’ community of practice.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Behavioral Insights Lead Position directly supervises:N/A

Indirect Reporting: N/A Other Internal and/or external contacts:

Internal:

• Airbel Impact Lab Members, HQ and Global
• Technical Unit Directors and Team Members
• Country and Regional Directors and Country Program Staff
• Revenue Department
• Advocacy and Communications Units

External:

• Behavioral science firms, associations, and organizations
• Academic partners
• Key public sector design and innovation schools, institutions, and professional societies
• Private sector design companies

Job Requirements:

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in a subject area associated with behavioral science (economics, psychology, anthropology, ethnography, neuroscience, social sciences, public policy etc) or relevant work experience is required
• Minimum 2 – 3 years’ experience with research or innovation projects working with multiple collaborators.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, and analyzing behavioral science research (both qualitative and quantitative)
• Experience working with human-centered design, prototyping and user testing, user story development, participatory action research, and other product development techniques in a wide range of projects
• Work experience in humanitarian setting or development contexts
• Ability to prioritize across a large portfolio of international projects
• Strong synthesis skills and confidence distilling complex data into practical insights
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate with colleagues and collaborators at all levels in a distributed, multicultural professional environment to encourage the uptake of behaviorally-informed solutions

Preferred

• Proficiency in French, Spanish, Arabic, Swahili and/or any other relevant languages spoken by the communities we work with.
• Project management or knowledge management experience
• Experience organizing externally facing learning events and/or building and maintaining new external partnerships.
• Experience/familiarity with NGO setting
• Experience designing and running rapid randomized controlled trials or other quasi experimental studies
• Understanding of educational interventions, climate resilience, and/or women’s health interventions, and experience working on such projects particularly in humanitarian settings.

*Working Environment:***

• Standard office work environment
• Potential to travel to IRC program locations up to 25% of the time

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.