Engagement Director at Busara Center for Behavioral Economics

Busara Center for Behavioral Economics is an advisory and research organization focused on advancing and applying behavioral science in the Global South, in pursuit of poverty alleviation. We work with organizations to build behaviorally-informed solutions to help scale their products, programs, and policies. Our rigorous approach to experimentation has generated impact in a broad range of fields from financial inclusion to health and early childhood development.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Engagement Director

Location: Lagos (Hybrid)
Employment Type: Full-time

About the Role

• The Engagement Directors are the primary leaders of projects at Busara, responsible for driving the planning, strategy, and trajectory of Busara’s engagements.
• They have two core responsibilities:
  • Running an active portfolio of projects, and
  • Developing partnerships for new engagements.
• Each Engagement Director leads a team of analysts and associates to execute on our projects, which entail applying rigorous research methods to identify novel, evidence-based solutions to behavioral challenges.  As such, Engagement Directors should have strong management skills, extensive experience in applied behavioral science, and the ability to translate academic research into practical interventions.
• Additionally, Engagement Directors take a significant role in supporting the growth and sustainability of Busara globally.  As you hone your industry and technical expertise, you will help build valuable relationships that generate business opportunities for Busara. Engagement Directors have a great deal of autonomy in the partnerships they build and as they help shape the strategy for the organization going forward.
• Lastly, Engagement Directors play a crucial role in the organization as members of the senior management team. They are critical to developing organizational strategy, defining expansion and growth priorities, and supporting internal processes such as hiring, recruiting, and coaching.

Responsibilities
What you’ll be responsible for:

• In this role, you’ll drive Busara’s Nigeria portfolio. Currently most of our projects in Nigeria are health-related, so having a background in health, especially in mainstreaming health interventions at the government or private-sector level will be a big advantage.  You would both build that portfolio and the team: by pursuing opportunities to apply behavioral for social good, and by ensuring that we deliver on that promise by hiring and supervising excellent people.
• We see immense opportunity to grow our portfolio across multiple sectors in Nigeria. Although we have a number of health projects, we have in the past, and see in the future, ample opportunities for projects in inclusive finance, education, fragility and social protection, to name a few.

Core Responsibilities
Develop, Delivery and Voice (out) the impacts of our projects/ portfolio:

• Lead a portfolio of projects across multiple client bases (researchers, private sector, government, etc). This includes identifying areas of interest, designing projects via proposals to funders, then delivering on successful proposals with applied behavioral science that is rigorous and thoughtful.
• Manage, motivate, and coach a team of associates and analysts to execute projects in your portfolio.  This team will be distributed across Lagos and Abuja, which creates both opportunities and challenges as a manager. You’ll need to assemble team members on specific projects to match skills and interests, and to ensure excellence throughout.
• Stay current on the latest research in qualitative and quantitative methods, behavioral science, psychology, economics, and international development to provide creative direction for projects. You’ll then use this expertise to ensure the quality of all products produced by the team, through regular feedback and direct contributions as appropriate.   
• Develop lasting relationships with clients and partners, to build long-term partnerships and promote behavioral science as a tool within their organizations.  This includes serving as the primary points of contact on large, multi-year projects, and networking throughout the field at conferences and client meetings.
• Serve as a core member of the senior management team, responsible for setting organizational strategy, holding other team members accountable, and making senior hiring decisions.
• Drive the strategy of the Projects Division by setting annual targets, managing any team building events, and ensuring clear, division harmony on priorities for the organization.  Help identify markets of interest, future service lines, and priority investments.

Requirements
To do this well, you should:

• Be an experienced leader in applied behavioral science and/or behavioral design.  You should deeply understand the behavioral research literature, and know how to contextualize and practically apply it to real products, communications and services.   
• Understand the Nigerian context through lived experience, with a particular focus on Northern Nigeria. Live, or be willing to relocate to Nigeria, with a focus on Northern Nigeria.  
• Have led at least a moderate sized team (5 to 10) of people, especially with multicultural and multinational backgrounds, and can mentor mid-level staff and young professionals.
• Know how to build and manage relationships with external partners and funders of diverse backgrounds and interests, especially within the health sector.
• Have direct experience working in one or more of the substantive areas of international development (e.g., sustainability, financial services, healthcare, gender equity, agriculture), either within development itself or in the business or non-profit sector. Ideally within the health sector in Nigeria.
• Ideally, have previous experience in a client-delivery role (e.g. management consulting, internal innovation team, etc.).
• Ideally, have previous experience running randomized controlled trials or lab experiments. Be excited about nurturing a partnership with Ahmadu Bello University to turn the newly formed lab into a world-class research facility.
• Your formal background, frankly, is not a criteria. We don’t evaluate what school you went to, who you know, or where you previously worked.  These experiences can certainly help you, but what really matters is that you have the skills, the knowledge and the passion to lead this portfolio. Show us what you can do.  
• But, if you’re looking for guidelines on whether this is the right level of seniority for you, we’ve learned that it’s useful to offer some benchmarks for comparison.

You should have approximately this level of expertise, regardless of where it comes from:

• The knowledge that comes from a Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or related fields.
• The hard-won lessons and self-awareness that usually comes from at least 5 years of  work experience.

Application Closing Date
Not Specifed.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note

• This job is open ONLY to candidates who have pre-existing LEGAL authorization to live and work in Nigeria. If you do not have that authorization, please consider other roles.
• As applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the vacancy is filled, you are encouraged to submit your application as soon as possible.