Interim Research Engagement Officer (‘Real Choices, Real Lives’)

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 75 countries.

The Opportunity  

‘Real Choices, Real Lives’ is a unique research project. It follows a cohort of girls living in nine countries around the world from their birth, in 2006, until they turn 18, in 2024. The study provides rich qualitative perspectives and nuanced understanding across a significant period of time and taking account of different social, cultural, economic and institutional contexts. The evidence is important not only for informing how Plan International supports girls but also to develop wider recommendations for targeting gender inequality at policy and programme-level – and it is the ambition of the study to strengthen evidence uptake 

It is an exciting time to be joining this project and contributing to its future direction with an ultimate view to supporting greater impact through research uptake activities. As the Research Engagement Officer, you will have international reach working as part of the Research team. In this role you will undertake high quality research analysis and provide support to data quality and processing, contribute to developing communications materials and support the research manager to identify opportunities for evidence dissemination. You will also work with Plan Country Office staff to help identify key evidence priorities, findings, and opportunities.  

The Person 

This is a wonderful opportunity for someone who has demonstrable knowledge of undertaking qualitative research analysis, ideally using evidence from across multi-country contexts to produce targeted outputs. You will have knowledge and experience of coordinating qualitative research activities and the ability to communicate effectively and clearly to a variety of audiences. You will also have the ability to analyse, organise and make sense of large amounts of qualitative data. 

You will need to have a strong understanding of genders issues, and ideally an awareness of the practicalities of programming/influencing for gender transformative change.  

Please click here for the full role profile 

Location: This role will ideally be based in the UK, employed from the Global Hub for Plan International which is based in Woking, Surrey. However, other locations where Plan International has an office* that can employ on behalf of the Global Hub and you have the pre-existing right to work and live may be considered. 

Type of Role: 1 Year Fixed Term Contract 

Reports to: Research Manager (‘Real Choices, Real Lives’) 

Salary: We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that the salary and employment benefits will be set according to your location and therefore it is not possible to include full details here.  

As an indication, if this role was based in the UK, the salary would be circa £35,000 

Closing Date: Sunday 11th September 2022 

*Applicable locations include: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.