Associate Scientist

ASSOCIATE SCIENTIST

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW

Possible is a collaboration that develops and tests innovations to improve health in Nepal by directly responding to local concerns, while drawing from and contributing to the broader disciplines of global health research, practice, and policy. Our partnership is between an independent Nepal-based nongovernmental organization and a US-based non-profit. Possible envisions a world where everyone, everywhere has access to high-quality healthcare rooted in evidence, inclusion, and equity. As such, we engage in rigorous and collaborative research and innovation to address evidence, implementation, and policy gaps in the equity, quality, and accessibility of healthcare. Our research endeavors and partnerships aim to address challenges in context and from stated or established needs. Our first commitment is to develop and deploy interventions that improve health (rather than prioritize academic outputs that may be novel and methodologically sound but do not directly improve healthcare). We partner with community-based organizations, public and private sector academic institutions and research organizations to leverage research and evidence to inform and implement innovative solutions to healthcare challenges in Nepal. For the last 16 years, we have been a leader in healthcare innovation in Nepal, conducting implementation research with partnerships spanning several international institutions such as Harvard Medical School, University of California San Francisco, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and University of Washington.  

POSITION DESCRIPTION 

Possible, a non-governmental organization registered in Nepal, is actively seeking an Associate Scientist to play a pivotal role in providing organizational leadership, leading behavioral health (BH) interventions, developing new areas of research, and disseminating our work and impact. This leadership position (senior role) encompasses envisioning strategic directions, fostering partnerships, working with our collaborators in Nepal and abroad to develop research grant applications that are responsive to local concerns, and managing teams to ensure both programmatic and operational success. Within the BH portfolio, responsibilities include designing and adapting behavioral health interventions, providing technical support to partners to enhance service quality, and generating knowledge with global relevance. In the dissemination realm, the Associate Scientist will mentor our team to effectively communicate our work's impact to diverse audiences and collaborate on research grant writing. They will hold significant responsibility for envisioning innovative solutions tailored to local needs, securing external funding for research endeavors (such as research grants), and executing projects in collaboration with national and international partners. This is an ideal position for someone who wants to take their research skills and apply it to address local concerns that are often overlooked by traditional research funders. 

Reports to: Executive Director

Direct Reports: Research managers  

Works closely with: Possible staff, Advisors, and Partners 

Location: Kathmandu with 20-30% travel to the partner and research sites  

Compensation and benefit: highly competitive salary

AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY 

The Associate Scientist will be chiefly responsible for the following areas of work:

1. Contribute to Possible's strategic vision, partnership, and team management aimed at driving research and innovation initiatives, and ensuring programmatic and operational excellence. 
2. Lead the development, rollout, and evaluation of behavioral health and implementation research protocols. 
3. Lead research and innovation grant writing and the dissemination of Possible’s work, including evidence-to-policy initiatives for the implementation and potential scale-up of BH innovations.

Must Haves:

Below are the qualifications that are necessary for someone to be considered for the position: 

1. Commitment to Possible’s Values, Mission, & Vision; 
2. Passionate about research with focus on behavioral interventions in response to local needs and challenges; 
3. A strong exposure to implementation science and behavioral health intervention research, and ability to independently conduct mixed-methods quantitative research; 
4. An experienced and strongly motivated individual with a background in mentoring and capacity building for early career-researchers; 
5. Qualifications: A PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree such as DrPH) with a focus on behavioral intervention or a relevant field (e.g., psychology, health education, implementation research, public health, applied sociology), along with a minimum of two years of research experience. This experience should encompass research in behavioral health or implementation research, grant writing, conducting training and/or supervision for behavioral and mental health interventions, and team management or mentorship. The candidate should have authored at least 2-4 peer-reviewed publications as a first author. Proficiency in both written and spoken Nepali and English is essential. This position is exclusively available to Nepali citizens residing in Nepal or those willing to relocate.

APPLICATION PROCESS 

Email CV and cover letter to recruitment@possiblehealth.org. When applying please include name and position in the subject line. Applications will be accepted until June 30, 2024. If we believe that you and Possible are good potential fit, we will contact you to advance the application process. Please note that due to a large volume of applications, we may not individually respond to your application.

You can get a detailed overview of the job description by visiting our website here.