Research Operations Manager

Jacaranda Health is dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes, leveraging data and technology to design, implement, and scale impactful programs. Their Research Design & Evaluation (RD&E) team is central to this mission, providing evidence for product development and program expansion.

The Research Operations Manager position at Jacaranda Health is a full-time role based in Nairobi, Kenya. This role is integral to the Research Design & Evaluation (RD&E) team, which is responsible for generating evidence to inform the design, implementation, scaling, and expansion of Jacaranda’s maternal health programs. The RD&E team is known for its data proficiency and technical expertise, leveraging advanced technology to create impactful solutions in maternal health. The manager will play a crucial part in ensuring the smooth and efficient operation of all research activities.

1. Maintain a consolidated overview of all active studies and projects across Product Research and Implementation and Impact Research, tracking timelines, dependencies, and team capacity.
2. Coordinate planning for Product Research sprints and fieldwork scheduling for Impact and Implementation Research, including data collection windows and logistics for enumerators and partners, while understanding different team rhythms.
3. Proactively identify and report resourcing conflicts or at-risk timelines to the Head of Department, offering potential solutions.
4. Ensure clear visibility of portfolio-level delivery status.
5. Manage the planning, tracking, and reporting of budgets for all research streams.
6. Oversee coordination of vendor and partner contracts, such as those for survey tools, enumerator rosters, and external data-sharing agreements, collaborating with Operations/Finance as needed.
7. Ensure accuracy of budgets and timely management of vendors across the entire research portfolio.
8. Manage donor reporting requirements and timelines, taking ownership of the reporting processes and outputs in collaboration with Communications and Finance teams.
9. Develop and maintain shared research operations infrastructure, including intake processes, reporting templates, documentation standards, and necessary tools for both research streams.
10. Provide administrative support for fieldwork logistics, such as scheduling facilities/partners and tracking ethics/IRB submissions, and for product-side research administration, including participant recruitment scheduling and tool access.
11. Ensure full legal and ethical compliance for data sharing and storage.
12. Guarantee that research operations are repeatable and thoroughly documented.
13. Act as the primary operational liaison between the Research department and other departments like Product, Tech, Data, and Finance/Operations regarding scheduling, budgets, and processes.
14. Prepare regular portfolio-level status reports for the Head of Department and Technical Leadership, highlighting risks and challenges early.
15. Ensure all stakeholders for both research streams are informed and coordinated.
16. Facilitate timely internal communication of research insights across the organization to improve visibility of research learnings.
17. Support the creation of external research communications to champion external visibility.

1. Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as public health, social sciences, business, or management.
2. Minimum of 5 years of experience in program/project management, research operations, or operations management, with direct experience in research operations.
3. Functional understanding of research methods and requirements, including study design, data quality, interpretation, and reporting.
4. Proven experience managing budgets, vendors, and timelines across multiple concurrent workstreams.
5. Ability to operate effectively across different delivery cadences, including fast-cycle/product-style and longer fieldwork/donor-driven cycles.
6. Strong organizational and cross-functional communication skills.
7. Experience in building or maintaining shared operational processes and tooling.
8. Desirable: Experience managing donor-funded projects and reporting, particularly within global health, maternal and newborn health, or digital health.
9. Desirable: Experience with research ethics and regulatory processes in Kenya (e.g., IRB and NACOSTI submissions) and data protection requirements.
10. Desirable: Project Management certification.