OTT Consulting Ltd (OTT) supports foundations, governments, international agencies, NGOs, universities, think tanks and the private sector to contribute to better-informed decision making. We do this through a range of activities including research, evaluation, strategic advice, facilitation and coaching.
OTT is a fully remote organisation. Our consultants, associates and partners come from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds and are based all around the world. We take clients on a journey to identify and then meet their needs, challenging them and providing and lasting solutions.
OTT manages On Think Tanks, a leading global source of information, ideas and support for think tanks and other members of the evidence-informed policy sector.
About the role
OTT is recruiting for a Research Officer to work with the Research Support Team. The team provides a large global foundation with a rapid research service, delivering a range of on-demand and proactive research support to staff members on issues related to international finance and development. Typical research products include scans, memos and annotated reading lists.
This is a part-time, remote consultancy role, working with a team-based across the US and Europe.
The project is 18 months, from August 2021 to January 2023. This is a continuation of the first pilot phase of the project which ran from October 2020 to July 2021. The Research Officer will join the three-person team in early 2022, providing research and administrative support.
Key roles and responsibilities
Specific tasks:
- Routine scanning for new evidence on key issue areas determined by the client, based on the agreed allocation of sources.
- Supporting the development of rapid research outputs across a variety of topics, including sovereign debt, blended finance, health finance, and ODA.
- Event identification and summaries (with a rapid turnaround).
- Maintaining a calendar of the outputs to be produced by the team.
- Scheduling meetings with the funder’s program officers, the team and key sources.
- Writing meeting minutes.
- Drafting a monthly or bi-monthly “newsletter-style” content
- Maintaining internal Google drive site, along with all team members
- Ensuring the client-facing Teams site is up to date
- Saving and categorising of resources to Diigo, an online bookmarking site.
Experience and skills
- Proactive and responsive communications: this is a fast-paced project and requires the candidate to be organised, on top of emails and Slack, ask for clarification when needed, and maintain good communications with a wider network of researchers.
- An interest in supporting Global South researchers to build relationships with the global community. Knowledge of the existing think tank landscape in Africa would be an asset.
- Good knowledge of the development policy and finance landscape, e.g., sovereign debt, blended finance, development finance institutions, vaccine finance, and regional development banks, domestic resource mobilisation.
- The ability to conduct rapid online research and assess resources for relevance.
- Demonstrable experience in writing for policy audiences (concise, succinct, to the point, clear).
- Experience using online collaborative sites (in particular Google docs and Teams).
Other useful information
The role would be remote, with team members based in the US, UK and Latin America. The team is small, agile, and in this team, everyone’s voice counts. The project is emerging from a pilot; the team is keen to make improvements where possible and welcome your ideas and suggestions.
This role will start at about 2 days a week.
Daily fee is up to GBP100 depending on experience
If you are interested in this role or would like to find out more please send an email with your CV to: [email protected]
This job will be filled as soon as the right candidate is found! Apply early!