Embedded Lab Manager

About this role

The Embedded Lab Manager role in IPA Nigeria, based in Abuja, involves working with government partners to strengthen MEL systems and data infrastructures. The position aims to help partners generate and use evidence to inform policy and programme decisions, translating findings into briefs and presentations. The role leads a team supporting government partners in building data capacity and reports to the Associate Director, Policy, with dotted-line oversight from IPA’s Global Policy team and the Financial Inclusion Program. The job requires willingness to travel within Nigeria up to 10%.

What you would do

• Co-develop and manage a partner work plan aligned with project goals and oversee progress, finances, and reporting.
• Build and sustain relationships with high-level decision makers to secure ongoing project buy-in.
• Coordinate activities with partner technical staff using a learning-by-doing approach.
• Promote lab awareness and collaborative engagement for collective impact.
• Lead co-creation of policy-driven research agendas and guide rigorous data-driven projects.
• Facilitate engagement with local and international experts to strengthen research agendas.
• Identify opportunities to use large administrative datasets for policy research and prepare data access and preparation plans.
• Manage research projects end-to-end including design, data collection, analysis, and quality control.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in data collection, cleaning, integration, and analysis using reproducible workflows.
• Design and deliver workshops on data engineering and analytics; develop dashboards and visual tools using Power BI, Tableau, Stata, R, or Python.

What they are asking for

• Master's degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 5+ years of relevant experience analysing and communicating complex research results, with at least 1 year with government or large NGO partners in an LMIC context.
• Knowledge of Nigerian policy-making processes or ability to quickly acquire such knowledge.
• Experience using rigorous evidence for international development policy.
• Strong quantitative skills and ability to interpret academic studies and research bodies.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills, including ability to present non-technical content clearly.
• Proven ability to multitask and meet tight deadlines with limited supervision.
• Experience supervising staff and managing multiple engagements.
• Ability to coordinate effectively with senior IPA staff and researchers.
• Professional working proficiency in English.

Listing details are summarised from the source. Always confirm the role and the employer on the original posting before applying, and never pay to apply for a job.