Research Program Officer

The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute within the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) has launched a second phase of an innovative survey research program in partnership with Jhpiego, Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA), formerly PMA2020 and is seeking aResearch Program Officer. The project is designed to deliver high-quality, rapid-turnaround data to public health policymakers, program managers, and other stakeholders at frequent intervals to promote data-driven decision-making to improve the health and welfare of populations. To achieve this goal, PMA recruits women from a set of nationally or sub-nationally representative sentinel communities and trains them to collect data on a routine basis using smartphone technology. Data are collected at both households and facilities.

PMA operates in eight geographies. The core survey covers family planning (including contraceptive dynamics) and reproductive health indicators, while maintaining flexibility to add new modules in related health areas according to local data needs. It also includes a panel design that follows a cohort of reproductive age women on an annual basis and a representative set of service delivery points over a 3-year period. The panel is combined with periodic cross-sections drawn from the same sampled, sentinel communities.

The PMA Global team, based in Baltimore, is composed of faculty, staff, and masters and doctoral students. This team works closely with universities and research institutes across the constituent geographies to implement the surveys and to build capacity of those organizations to undertake this work independently. The PMA Global partner Jhpiego oversees sub-award management with country partners, and promotes platform sustainability, communications and data utilization efforts.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities:

The Research Program Officer I will support computer programming and data management activities across several project countries and in Baltimore. This position will assist with preparation and management of data for public use and will maintain tools for users of public PMA datasets. The Research Program Officer I will be tasked with improving the efficiency of PMA data collection and processing systems.

Specific tasks for which the Research Program Officer I will be responsible include:

• Assist with grant-reporting to project funders, especially any project countries for which the PO may be assigned.
• Document country-level changes to questionnaires or protocols at the PMA Global-level.
• Coordinate with relevant module and activity-specific leads within the PMA survey platform that may be organizing separate data collection activities.
• Facilitate the JHSPH IRB submission and amendment processes as needed.
• External stakeholder engagement.
• Developing and updating cleaning and analysis do-files in Stata.
• Cleaning and checking data for public release.
• Defining and producing indicators for a data visualization platform.
• Developing and managing documentation and materials for publicly released data.
• Improving efficiency of data processing systems including creating version control systems of PMA .do files, standardizing variable naming, and automating data cleaning.
• Assisting with analysis for reports, data briefs, and auxiliary publications.
• Coordinating and assisting with training of in-country partner technical staff as needed.
• The Research Program Officer I will report to PMA’s Research Program Officer for public data release and will also assist with additional data management and technical support needs that arise throughout the life of the project.

Minimum Qualifications (Mandatory):

• Master’s in public health or related field, with specialization in biostatistics, epidemiology, demographic method, or other concentration with a strong quantitative/analytical field.
• Minimum of three years of data management experience, requiring advanced skills with Stata, SPSS, SAS, or R.

Or

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, statistics, biostatistics, math, or other related discipline.
• Minimum of five years of data management experience, requiring advanced skills with Stata, SPSS, SAS, or R.2. Experience working with datasets, data analysis, and data management.
• Advanced Stata skills required.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Open Data Kit.
• Experience with version control software such as GitHub.
• Experience with conducting trainings or teaching experience.
• French language skills.

Special Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Must be a fast learner with independent problem-solving ability and strong communication skills.
• Willing to travel internationally occasionally
• Ability to self-manage tasks and timelines while working in a team environment
• Ability to manage multiple activities, deadlines, and priorities simultaneously
• Ability to execute assignments with a short turnaround time.

Classified Title: Program Officer
Working Title: Research Program Officer
Role/Level/Range: ACRP/04/MD
Starting Salary Range: $53,020 - $72,935 annually (commensurate with experience)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Exempt Status: Exempt
Location: School of Public Health
Department name: ​​​​​​​PFRH Gates Institute
Personnel area: School of Public Health

The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check.

If you are interested in applying for employment with The Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office atjhurecruitment@jhu.edu. For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711.

The following additional provisions may apply depending on which campus you will work. Your recruiter will advise accordingly.

During the Influenza ("the flu") season, as a condition of employment, The Johns Hopkins Institutions require all employees who provide ongoing services to patients or work in patient care or clinical care areas to have an annual influenza vaccination or possess an approved medical or religious exception. Failure to meet this requirement may result in termination of employment.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those employees who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.

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