Senior Research Officer, West Dakar; Link External

Senior Research Officer, for West & Central Africa, based in Dakar

We are currently looking for a Senior Research Officer to join our Research Quality Assurance Unit in Dakar, Senegal (IMPACT’s Regional Hub for West & Central Africa).

Division: HQ Programs, Communications and Research

Reporting to: Manager of HQ Research Quality Assurance Unit

Location: Dakar, Senegal

Duration: 6 months (with potential for extension)

Start date: March/April 2026

The Programmes, Communications and Research (PCR) Division at IMPACT HQ was created in 2025, following a restructuring process and subsequent merger of three previous HQ departments:
Global Programmes, Research, and Communications & Advocacy. The PCR Division was created to ensure the organisation continues to deliver high‑impact, high‑quality, research programmes through user‑centered design, establishing core standards, supporting country implementation, and amplifying impact through effective communications and advocacy. This is underpinned by robust internal systems for data, GIS and MEAL.

Within this set-up, the Research Quality Assurance (RQA) Unit acts as a “guardian” of research quality, ethics, and compliance within IMPACT. This means ensuring that all teams (global and country) have the knowledge, tools and capacities for the consistent production of rigorous, credible, and responsible evidence across different contexts; and continuously strengthening research methods, tools, and processes through a learning‑based approach.

Through these functions, the RQA Unit will contribute towards achieving Objective 2 – Pioneering Research Excellence within IMPACT’s Strategic Framework for 2025‑2030, and specifically Sub‑objective 2.1 focused on Research Quality. To help achieve this, the Senior Research Officer will play a key role in ensuring research implementation is meeting or exceeding IMPACT’s quality standards, providing country teams with technical guidance, peer review support, and learning support on different stages of the research cycles.

The Senior Research Officer will be based in Dakar, Senegal – IMPACT’s first regional hub for Western & Central Africa – and will focus their support for country operations within this regional portfolio. This could involve occasional travel to the countries, to work directly with specific teams, as and when requested.

• Act as the HQ RQA Unit focal point for the West & Central Africa region and provide day‑to‑day support and advice to country teams on different stages of research implementation, ensuring proper documentation of all key outputs.
• Support the transition to more streamlined and decentralised quality assurance processes at the country level, including the development of reviewer tools and training, and any other required capacity strengthening or mentoring support.
• [In collaboration with Global Programme teams] Provide technical guidance and support for research planning and methodology design, primarily for quantitative research.
• [In collaboration with Global Programme teams] Provide peer review support for research design, quantitative data processing and analysis, and narrative information products.
• Flag and discuss relevant risks with Unit Manager in a timely manner.
• Provide other research implementation support as needed, including temporary in‑country deployments (“surge support”) to country teams – this could represent up to 25% of the total working time under this contract.

Implement internal learning processes to continuously strengthen IMPACT’s Research Methods, Tools and Outcomes. This includes:

• Support with the development, maintenance of relevant learning solutions (e.g., guidance notes, online courses, quarterly webinars, tailored training sessions) to ensure uptake and application of the Research Toolkit across all teams, primarily within the West and Central African region.
• [In collaboration with MEAL team] Contribute to the regular review and consolidation of research‑related lessons learned and best practices, including in the implementation of regular ‘Quality Monitoring’ exercises…