Head of Research Projects

About the role

Millar Cameron, in partnership with Jacaranda Health, is recruiting a Head of Research Projects based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jacaranda Health is a Kenyan-founded organisation that works with governments to improve maternal and newborn health through scalable, technology-enabled public health solutions. The Head of Research Projects leads the research portfolio, ensuring high-quality evidence informs product development, programme design, strategy and policy engagement.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and lead Jacaranda's research strategy, identifying priorities that strengthen programmes, support product innovation and position the organisation as a thought leader.
• Provide technical oversight of qualitative and quantitative research, including study design, product and UX research, analysis and dissemination, ensuring quality, ethics and scientific rigor.
• Translate evidence into actionable insights and work with Product, Technology, Programme and Data teams on evidence-driven decisions.
• Lead, mentor and develop a research team, foster a collaborative culture and build research capacity.
• Oversee research outputs such as reports, publications and policy briefs, and represent Jacaranda with donors, governments, academic partners and global health stakeholders.
• Manage relationships with donors and research partners, and oversee departmental budgets, resources and project delivery across multiple concurrent studies.

Required profile

• Master's degree in public health, epidemiology, statistics, social sciences or a related field.
• Experience leading departmental strategy and leading relationships with donors, government and academic partners.
• Experience leading research project budgeting and resource management.
• Commitment to data and research ethics.

Required skills

• Proficiency in one or more data analysis tools such as Stata, R, SPSS, SAS, NVivo or Atlas.
• Technical expertise in research methods, design and ethical standards.
• Deep understanding of product (UX/UI) research and product lifecycles, including user research, experimentation and A/B testing.