Research Operations Manager

About the role

The Research Operations Manager owns the day-to-day operational backbone of Jacaranda's Research function across both Product Research and Implementation and Impact Research workstreams including: timelines, budget, resourcing, process, and cross-functional coordination. This role ensures compliance with ethical standards, reporting requirements, and leads the quality of research dissemination products. It ensures that all research workstreams deliver on time, on budget, and in a well-coordinated way, enabling each function's technical leads to focus on methodological rigor and delivery. 

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Reports to:Head of Department, Research

Terms of Engagement : One-year contract, renewable

About Jacaranda Health

Jacaranda Health’s mission is to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in the public health system. Through innovative AI-driven technology and human-centered solutions, we partner with governments to scale impactful, data-driven interventions. These solutions include PROMPTS, an AI-enabled platform for mothers, and MENTORS, a facility-based training program equipping frontline nurses with lifesaving skills and knowledge. Our innovations and partnerships have reached over 3 million women across 1,100+ health facilities. As we expand across Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, we are looking for dynamic leaders with a passion for impact to help us transform the future of maternal health. 

Jacaranda Health is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from qualified candidates regardless of race or ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and any other protected characteristics.

About the team

The Research Design & Evaluation (RD&E) team is the heart of Jacaranda Health, providing evidence for product design, implementation, scale and expansion of Jacaranda’s programming. We pride ourselves on being data and technically adept, working with cutting edge technology to drive high value solutions for maternal health. 

What You’ll Do:

Portfolio Timeline & Resourcing Management

• Maintain a consolidated view of active studies/projects across Product Research and Implementation and ImpactResearch, tracking timelines, dependencies, and team capacity.

• Coordinate sprint-aligned planning for Product Research and fieldwork-driven scheduling (data collection windows, enumerator/partner logistics) for Impact and Implementation Research, with understanding of varying team cadences.

• Flag resourcing conflicts or at-risk timelines to the Head of Department early, with proposed options.

• Accountable for portfolio-level delivery visibility.

Budget & Stakeholder Management

• Manage budget planning, tracking, and reporting for all research streams.

• Own vendor and partner-contract coordination (survey/usability tools, enumerator rosters, external data-sharing agreements), in partnership with Operations/Finance as needed.

• Accountable for budget accuracy and timely vendor management across the research portfolio.

• Accountable for donor reporting needs and timelines- owns the reporting processes and outputs in collaboration with Comms and Finance.

Process, Tooling, Administration & Compliance

• Build and maintain shared research operations infrastructure: intake processes, reporting templates, documentation standards, and tooling that serve both streams. 

• Support administrative coordination for fieldwork logistics (facility/partner scheduling, ethics/IRB submission tracking) and for product-side research administration (participant recruitment scheduling, tooling access)

• Ensure legal and ethical compliance - manage data sharing and storage, in full compliance with all legal requirements. 

• Accountable for research operations being repeatable and well-documented.

Cross-Functional Coordination & Reporting

• Serve as the operational point of contact between Research and other departments (Product, Tech, Data, Finance/Ops) on scheduling, budget, and process. 

• Prepare routine portfolio-level status reporting for the Head of Department and Technical Leadership, flagging risks and challenges early. 

• Accountable for keeping both streams' stakeholders informed and coordinated.

• Accountable for timely internal communication of research insights organization–wide, improving the visibility of research learnings. 

• Support the development of external research communications, championing external visibility.  

  
  

Who you are:

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree required in a relevant field (for example public health, social sciences, business or management)

• 5+ years in program/project management, research operations, or operations management; direct research operations experience.

  
  

Skills and Competencies:

• Functional understanding of research methods and requirements, including study design, data quality, and interpretation and reporting 

• Demonstrated experience managing budgets, vendors, and timelines across multiple concurrent workstreams

• Comfort operating across two different delivery cadences (fast-cycle/product-style and longer fieldwork/donor-driven cycles) 

• Strong organizational and cross-functional communication skills; experience building or maintaining shared operational processes/tooling

  
  

Desirable

• Experience managing donor-funded projects and reporting, preferably within global health, maternal and newborn health, or digital health. 

• Experience with research ethics and regulatory processes in Kenya (for example IRB and NACOSTI submissions) and with data protection requirements.

• Project Management certification. 

  
  

Why Jacaranda Health?

• Mission-driven work: Impact the lives of millions of mothers and babies.

• Innovation-forward thinking: Work with cutting-edge technology in maternal and newborn health.

• High-growth organization: Be part of a rapidly scaling national and global team.

• People-centric culture: Collaborate with an ambitious, passionate, and supportive team.

To Apply:

Interested candidates should submit applications through this link – Research Operations Manager. No hard copies required or accepted.

Work permit sponsorship is not available for this role. Candidates must have the legal right to work in Kenya.

Application Deadline: 16th October 2026