Project Manager, Population Health

Project Manager – Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK)

Department: Population Health

Division: Medical College

Location:  Nairobi, Kenya

JOB SUMMARY

The Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK) is a multidisciplinary study that aims to collect data on health and economic wellbeing in later-life in Kenya. LOSHAK is a collaboration between the Aga Khan University - Nairobi and the University of Michigan - US along with collaborators across universities in the US and Kenya, The Kenya Ministry of Health, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, and the KEMRI Air Pollution Centre of Excellence. The project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will collect multimodal data (surveys, biomarkers, mobile wearables and health measures) from more than 8,000 older Kenyans, touching on nearly all aspects of physical, psychosocial, cognitive, and economic wellbeing. LOSHAK is part of large global networks of harmonized studies focused on late-life health and economic wellbeing (The Health and Retirement Studies Around the World Network and The Harmonized Cognitive Protocol Assessment Network). This study aims to inform public policy and public health planning in Kenya and neighboring countries, all of which are experiencing rapid population aging.

Working under the supervision of the Kenya LOSHAK Principal Investigator, this individual will help to advance LOSHAK's scientific aims, which include: collecting population-representative data on older adults' health and economic wellbeing, making data publicly available to the research community, and strengthening research capacity in Kenya. This individual will lead efforts to design, develop, and execute LOSHAK's aims from the outset of the project, and will therefore play a critical role on the large and multidisciplinary project team. Strong emphasis will be placed on developing tactics to ensure timely, coordinated, and high-quality workflows across the large team.

Responsibilities

• The Project Manager will work with a US-based counterpart to manage implementation of LOSHAK study aims and will have responsibility for project management across all dimensions of the study.

• Lead all the project planning and administrative functions including budgeting, work planning, field implementation, collaborator and stakeholder coordination, procurement and reporting among others.

• Convene LOSHAK collaborators/co-investigators to develop survey modules in their areas of expertise.

• Work closely with local and international LOSHAK collaborators to ensure timely data management and report generation for quality assurance.

• Interface with partners to ensure smooth implementation and identify when changes need to be made.

• Conduct project meetings, track and analyze project progress, report on progress to study leadership.

• Prepare progress reports for partners and funders as needed.

• Support dialogue and education between NGOs, academia and government offices to ensure effective and efficient policy engagement.

• Assist the Kenya-based team with planning team meetings, interviewer trainings, and study pretest and pilot activities.

• Work with grants and finance administrative staff to monitor grant spending.

• Manage PhD students and post-doc recruitment and support.

• If/as needed, willingness to engage in a flexible work schedule to attend early morning meetings and/or late meetings and events to accommodate colleagues in diverse time zones

• Other responsibilities and/or projects as assigned by the study leadership

• International travel as needed

Required Qualifications

• Master's degree in public health, public policy, business, or other related field, and five years or more of professional project management experience.

• Outstanding organizational skills and ability to effectively manage numerous projects, simultaneously and in various stages of development, with a high attention to detail.

• Ability to analyze, compare and evaluate various courses of action and make independent decisions on matters of significance, free from immediate direction within the scope of job responsibilities, ability to manage multiple and competing priorities.

• Must have strong integrity, be highly proactive, have a high degree of problem-solving skills, be highly reliable, retain a sense of ownership and accountability for workload, be flexible and resilient, provide excellent customer service, and possess expert follow-up skills.

• Possess excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to interact with and build professional relationships with all individuals at all levels; appropriately handle confidential and sensitive information.

• Proficient computer skills are essential, including demonstrated proficiency with Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Adobe PDFs, survey tools such as Qualtrics and Google Forms, and Zoom.

• Must be productive and flexible under pressure and able to meet deadlines.

Desired Qualifications

• Knowledge of University or Research Institution environments, practices, rules and regulations.

• Previous experience leading the implementation of health projects in Low- or Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).