Research Lead

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FSD Uganda is hiring a Research Lead that serves as the chief advocate for research within FSD Uganda and among its external stakeholders, promoting a strong data-driven culture across the organisation. The role is responsible for steering FSD Uganda’s research agenda by developing and implementing its research strategy and execution plan, while addressing research challenges for internal teams and external partners.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Technical Guidance

The Research Lead provides direction and technical expertise in the design and delivery of research initiatives. Responsibilities include conceptualising research assignments, developing terms of reference, overseeing procurement, ensuring quality assurance, and supporting publication and dissemination.

Fostering a Research Culture

This role drives evidence-based decision-making across FSD Uganda and its network, promoting a systematic approach to results measurement and organisational learning.

KRA 1: Strategy

• Translate organisational and market challenges into clear research problems and questions.

• Collaborate with internal teams and external stakeholders to shape these challenges into a practical research agenda supported by a comprehensive research strategy and action plan.

• Design and execute research initiatives that advance organisational goals in areas such as market intelligence, business analytics, and ecosystem research.

• Translate the organisation-wide research agenda into annual and quarterly delivery plans with milestones, budgets, and resource needs.

• Facilitate collaboration with external stakeholders including industry partners, academia, and funders to secure project support and enhance outcomes.

• Contribute to sustainability by identifying fee-for-service opportunities and co-funded research with donors, government, think tanks, and the private sector.

• Develop and maintain a database of market and business intelligence to support the research agenda and organisational strategy.

KRA 2: Research Delivery & Quality Assurance

• Set and enforce technical standards.

• Lead the end-to-end design and management of research assignments including surveys, experimental or quasi-experimental evaluations, diagnostic studies, qualitative work, and big-data or administrative data analytics.

• Establish and enforce robust data collection, analysis, and storage protocols to protect integrity and confidentiality.

• Create and maintain a Research Quality Assurance (RQA) framework incorporating peer review, replication checks, codebooks, version control, and data dictionaries.

• Oversee procurement of vendors and consultants, including ToRs, selection, contracting, oversight, deliverables review, and acceptance.

KRA 3: Thought Leadership

• Translate research evidence into actionable recommendations for internal programme design, industry practice, and policy influence.

• Produce or supervise high-quality outputs including working papers, policy briefs, insight notes, blogs, toolkits, slide decks, and data visualisations.

• Simplify complex evidence for targeted audiences and decision-makers.

• Work with the Communications Lead to co-create influence pathways and uptake strategies for flagship research, including audience targeting, messaging, channels, and timing.

KRA 4: Risk, Ethics & Data Governance

• Safeguard research participants by securing ethics approvals, implementing proper consent procedures, and ensuring compliance with Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act and donor requirements.

• Implement risk-management strategies to identify