The insurance portfolio contributes to building resilience in low-income communities and underserved segments by crafting innovative insurance solutions rooted in deep behavioral insights. In the short term, we are focused on agriculture and health insurance, to proactively tackle the most urgent impacts of climate change.
The Senior Associate role heavily relies on our team’s expertise in understanding the agriculture markets and private sector landscape in East Africa, as well as our knowledge of the funding ecosystem. This knowledge will be critical to successfully execute Busara’s projects in the insurance portfolio, particularly those we will focus on in the next two years.
Role Purpose Statement:
The Senior Associate supports both the advisory and research arms of Busara by leading the execution of Busara projects. While the role will mainly involve research and advisory in insurance, they may be expected to contribute to other portfolios.
As the primary project manager and technical lead for all external Busara projects, a Senior Associate quickly gains an expert understanding of the project, challenges, relationships, and research questions and uses best practices and tools, both within and outside Busara to execute to the highest degree, with careful consideration of timelines and budget. They view research problems with a behavioural lens and have good intuition about potential barriers and levers, while drawing on problem-specific and general behavioral science knowledge.
The Senior Associate works directly with clients and partners and takes ownership of the overall project and its end products. The Senior Associate directly manages and effectively coordinates other project staff that work on their project as well as liaise with other Busara teams. This includes strong upward management skills to engage the Project Division’s vice presidents on substantive components of the project.
The Senior Associate works closely with Busara leaders and directly with researchers, clients and partners to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:
Research Design and Execution
Design high-quality qualitative, quantitative or experimental research, which takes into account key sampling, instrument, research integrity and ethics, analysis and interventions considerations on a variety of internal and external projects
Incorporate behavioral science into research projects.
Leads the design and the iteration of prototypes
Execute the core project responsibilities with the highest degree with respect to creativity, rigor, relevance, detail, and timeliness
Project Oversight and Leadership:
Maintain an understanding of the high-level engagement, the goals of the clients, partners, and teams within Busara, and continually push the project teams to realign around those goals
Manage the most sensitive or complex projects, typically of medium to large-scale research and advisory projects, end to end, with minimal supervision or support
Engage the leadership team and align on substantive components of the project
Lead or support Associates and Analysts to fulfill engagement requirements
Develop and manage execution of project plans, budgets, work plans, and task schedules
Manage resources, financials, and adhere to the project plan throughout the full project life cycle
Monitor, track, and control outcomes to resolve issues, dependencies, and critical path deliverables
Manage project kick-off, on-boarding, and off-boarding for knowledge management
Responsible for project timelines, deliverables, reports, and staffing
Monitor and review project team performance
External Relationship management:
Manage higher-level conversations and partnerships with clients and partners
Plan, manage and execute external and internal engagements from start to finish with minimal supervisory engagement
Serve as a point of contact for clients and partners and effectively manage the needs of stakeholders through proactive communication and troubleshooting
Identify opportunities to deepen engagement with clients and partners.
Participate in voice building for the insurance portfolio including presenting in relevant conferences and/or preparation of articles for blogs and other publications.
Support the VP and ED in development of BD proposals for the insurance portfolio
People management and organizational engagement:
Ensure the engagement of direct and indirect reports by driving the development and nurture of Busara’s culture and values and oversee efforts related to their well-being
Contribute to skills-building for projects’ teams and other teams as required
Manage performance and serve as mentors to Associates, Analysts, and Project team members, as required
Serve as champions for the projects team, manage the team and bring forward all relevant and actionable requests to the leadership team
Maintain team morale and organizational alignment
Coordinate hiring and onboarding of Analysts, Interns, and new Associates as needed
Coordinate across teams to ensure healthy work relationships are maintained. Mediate and escalate (to supervisors, people or wellness teams) any issues that require attention
Communicate across organizational teams to ensure a healthy and functioning organization
Contribute to the design, execution, and dissemination of Busara internal research projects and initiatives
Perform any other duty as may be assigned by the Engagement Director or equivalent
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience: Minimum Requirements
A Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or related fields.
Good understanding of the Agribusiness landscape in Kenya and Tanzania
Knowledge of the donor and stakeholder landscape across Africa.
Proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including strong data analytic skills
Proven project management abilities, with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness
2-3 years’ previous work experience preferably in Insurance
Strong academic behavioral science background
Extensive experience managing large-scale projects in developing countries
Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
Experience in experimental design and strong quantitative skills including knowledge of and experience working with data analysis software
Excellent management and organizational skills
Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
Interest and experience working in a fast-paced working environment
Fluency and excellent communication and writing skills with a mastery of English
Ability to execute projects while sustaining a global focus and vision for institutional planning and decision making
Desired qualifications:
A Master’s degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or related fields is strongly preferred
Experience managing or mentoring staff
Technical understanding and practical experience of qualitative research and human centered design techniques
Technical understanding and practical experience of randomized controlled trials and/or quasi-experimental designs
Experience in applying behavioral science to real-world problems
Proficiency in Stata, R, or Python
Apply via :
jobs.lever.co
