Do you want to use your research skills to address pressing education and development issues facing children and adolescents? Are you motivated by working with practitioners to ensure that they can use data and evidence to improve their programs for children and adolescents? If yes, come join us at the University of Notre Dame's (UND) Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC). Our team collaborates with researchers and practitioners to ensure the well-being-physical, emotional, social, and cognitive-of children and adolescents in low-resource and fragile settings. The GC-DWC works with practitioners and policymakers to create environments that foster resilience and encourage children and adolescents in low-resource and adverse contexts globally to thrive. Using an innovative whole child development approach tailored to context-specific realities, GC-DWC translates research into action, creates research tools to improve program learning and policy action, and activates systems (families, schools, communities) to help children and adolescents thrive.

We are looking for a Research Technical Advisor to join our team and support the research activities that are part of the Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education (SHARE) activity. SHARE is a cooperative agreement by USAID's Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation/Center for Education (DDI/EDU) to UND that aims to advance USAID's global education learning priorities focused on foundational skills development, education in crisis and conflict, youth workforce development, and higher education. Within UND, this Activity is being led by the Pulte Institute for Global Development (Pulte) alongside the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child (GC-DWC).

SHARE conducts primary research in low-resource and fragile contexts in the majority world in partnership with research institutions based in the country where the research is being conducted. SHARE leverages the demonstrated strengths of local partners while offering partners the opportunity to strengthen research capacities through mentorship and accompaniment. It fortifies linkages between researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to ensure research is designed to meet the knowledge needs of decision-makers and promote the movement of evidence to action, creating transformational change in educational and research landscapes.

During the next phase of SHARE, the research will pivot to a focus on implementation research through multi-country, small-grant, and buy-in studies; beyond simply understanding what works, SHARE will work with current education programs to understand how and why programs are effective, for whom, at what cost, and how programs can be equitably scaled. The Research Technical Advisor will be pivotal in these efforts, expanding the SHARE team's technical expertise on applied implementation research, supporting partners to determine the mechanisms of implementation research studies, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders to align timelines and expectations to conduct this research. The Research Technical Advisor will also lead technical discussions across the SHARE management and technical teams and with USAID Missions and local partners, providing design and quality control for research opportunities. The Research Technical Advisor will report directly to the GC-DWC Director for Research and work closely with wider staff and faculty at GC-DWC and Pulte.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Technical leadership for research activities (60%)

Knowledge management and dissemination (25%)

Capacity exchange and strategic planning (15%)