Deputy Director of Design Research
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Job Description
Deputy Director leading YLabs’ youth-focused design research for health and economic opportunity. Directing ethnographic fieldwork, IRB compliance, research systems, and executive insight synthesis.
Responsibilities:
- Lead YLabs’ Deep Listening function and shape the organization-wide vision, methodology, and operational approach to user and ethnographic field research
- Lead projects from research ideation and ground-level field execution through insight synthesis and strategic presentations for C-suite executives and senior stakeholders
- Establish institutional systems and develop frameworks across multiple teams
- Manage Institutional Review Board submissions, protocol adaptations, and ethics compliance
- Oversee development of research protocols, including literature reviews, sampling strategies, and consent mechanisms
- Recruit and oversee local Principal Investigators to navigate regional regulatory frameworks, cultural nuances, and site approvals
- Ensure adherence to Human Subjects standards, global safeguarding policies, and data protection protocols
- Design and lead rapid-cycle field research sprints using immersive observation, semi-structured one-on-one interviews, and participatory focus group discussions
- Build and manage pipelines for recruiting and training local community researchers and youth field listeners
- Oversee daily field debriefs, implement reflexivity and positionality checks, and mitigate researcher bias
- Adapt research plans to unexpected field obstacles, security considerations, and shifting group dynamics
- Translate qualitative field data into analytical frameworks such as root-cause analyses, ecosystem maps, personas, and user journey maps
- Co-create insight narratives through participatory sense-making with field teams and community partners
- Package findings into executive summaries, strategic reports, and presentations for donors, C-suite executives, and senior leaders
- Translate youth-driven insights into actionable opportunity areas and strategic recommendations
Requirements:
- Minimum of 7 years of professional experience in design research, user research, qualitative field research, or ethnographic research
- Demonstrated track record of leading end-to-end design research initiatives, from field immersion and protocol design to executive-level presentation
- Proven experience preparing and managing IRB applications and working directly with local PIs, ethics committees, or research approval boards
- Experience building research systems, toolkits, or operational frameworks used across multiple teams or departments
- Substantial experience supervising, training, and mentoring researchers and cross-functional project staff
- Exceptional verbal, written, and visual communication skills
- Portfolio showcasing complex research synthesis translated into clear, actionable frameworks
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 50% of the time to field sites across Sub-Saharan Africa
- Proficiency with collaborative research synthesis tools, including Miro, Mural, Figma, Dedoose, and NVivo
- Candidates must be within the GMT+0 to GMT+4 time zone on the African continent
- Master’s or PhD in Anthropology, Design Research, Human-Centered Design, Sociology, UX Research, or a related field (nice to have)
- Experience living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly East Africa (nice to have)
- Experience working with vulnerable or marginalized youth populations (nice to have)
- Satisfactory background check and criminal record clearances required as a condition of employment
Benefits:
- Full-time salary paid in the local currency of the staff member’s permanent work location
- Possibility of contract extension after the initial 12-month term
- Confidential handling of application information according to EEO guidelines
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