Assistant Project Manager

Position: Assistant Project Manager

Deadline to Apply: December 5, 2013

Start Date: January 6th, 2014

Location: Nairobi

Eligibility: Position open to local Kenyan hires only

Required Number: One

About Innovations for Poverty Action: Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a non-profit research organization that creates and evaluates approaches to solving development problems. IPA disseminates the results of its evaluations to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors around the world.

About the project

The project will study toilet usage in the Mukuru slum in Nairobi. Our goal is to design experiments aimed at instilling a clean toilet habit among Nairobi slum residents. 

Our partner organization, Sanergy, builds community toilets known as Fresh Life Toilets (FLTs) and franchises them to local entrepreneurs in the slum area. 

The entrepreneurs charge pay-per-us fees to cover costs and generate profits. We will be testing strategies to break the habit of using flying toilets and replacing it with a new habit of using FLTs.

The Assistant Project Manager will play a central role in the study’s success and will gain valuable experience in leadership in the field, data collection and representing the study to various partners. 

The Assistant Project Manager will oversee a team of field officers and supervise data collection; will work closely with the Project Coordinator to improve his/her own skills and those of his/her colleagues; will be responsible for daily logistics; and will represent the project in meetings with local chiefs, community elders and other partners. 

The Assistant Project Manager will be based in Nairobi and will manage project activities in the Mukuru slum. 

The Assistant Project Manager will be expected to work Monday through Friday and occasionally on weekends.

Tasks, Duties and Responsibilities:

General

• Arrive to work promptly and reliably, always setting an example for one’s colleagues.
• Interact with community members with the highest level of integrity and understanding.
• Collaborate with teammates to improve own skills and those of teammates.
• Relay field costs to field coordinator for reimbursement.

Intervention

• Assist in logistics for enumerators and for those who track toilet usage
• Manage different payments for the toilet operators
• Coordinate with Sanergy staff and local officials for registration of sample users and collecting surveys 

Census and Data Collection

• Assist in training field officers to conduct census of toilet usage
• Supervise field officers conducting census mapping and provide feedback to field officers and field coordinator 
• Assist in the development and translation of questionnaires
• Coordinating with field officers for scheduling of respondents for data collection activities
• Assist in the management of data collection activities: collecting data from field officers on a daily basis, and turning over data to field coordinator
• Supervise field officers responsible for survey backchecks, including selection of backcheck respondents and scheduling of backcheck surveys

Qualifications:

Required

• Comfortable with working in a slum area
• Bachelor’s degree or college diploma/certificate
• Survey data collection experience
• Two years supervisory and management experience related to field work and data collection
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English
• Experience in training staff to improve data collection efforts and their accuracy
• History of providing feedback to teammates and examples of this feedback improving teammates’ work
• Has, at least, basic computer skills
• Fluent in Swahili

Desired

• Experience with conducting census mapping and interviews

To apply:  

Please send a cover letter and detailed CV, 3 references, daytime phone number(s), and email address. 

Your CV should include you scores or grades and other measures of academic achievement, and details about any relevant work experience.

Applications can be submitted to any of our branch offices, 

or by email to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org ,

or by post office using P.O Box 373, Busia area code 50400 Kenya. 

If you submit by email, please ensure that the subject line reads: “Assistant Project Manager.”REF NO: USI-2013-11-01. 

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted by email for an interview. 

Applicants are encouraged to apply early, as applications will be reviewed on a ROLLING BASIS.

Disclaimer: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by the Assistant Project Manager. The statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. 

Please note that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant. Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization. Please direct questions to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org.