Posted today · be early
Research Fellow (PhD or Postdoctoral) - LMIC Family Planning
Surgo Health
WorldwideremotePosted 1 day ago
Skill Required
Research-FellowPostdoctoral-ResearcherResearch-ScientistGlobal-Health-ResearchPublic-Health-ResearcherEpidemiology-Research-FellowdevelopingbuildingdesignandContract
Key highlights
- Level Required: PhD candidate, postdoc, or early-career researcher
- Duration: maximum 17 weeks
- Key benefit: Co-authorship and publication support
- Notable requirement: Strong experience in quantitative analysis, survey data, and/or causal inference
Role overview
This fellowship is centered on manuscript production. Fellows will collaborate closely with Surgo's research team to advance a priority research question – building on analysis and framing already underway – through to a submission-ready manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal.
Responsibilities
- Develop and lead a manuscript around an agreed priority research question, building on existing analyses and data and conducting additional analyses as needed
- Produce a submission-ready, publication-quality manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal
- Translate complex survey and causal-modeling findings into insights relevant to global health policy and program design
- Contribute to Surgo Health’s growing portfolio of family planning research and thought leadership in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts
- Develop and lead a research paper within agreed priority areas, either building on existing analyses and insights from the GF-funded multi-country family planning studies or developing a new research question using the available data, with additional analyses as needed
- Synthesize and translate existing findings and/or generate new analyses to deepen understanding of the mechanisms, risk factors, and protective factors shaping family planning behaviors and outcomes
- If applicable, utilize rigorous quantitative and/or causal inference methods appropriate to the research question
- Draft and revise a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal, incorporating feedback from Surgo’s research team
- Collaborate with Surgo’s research scientists for methodological guidance and framing
- Deliver one submission-ready manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal (primary deliverable)
- Deliver clean, documented analysis code and supporting analytic materials if appropriate
Requirements
- PhD candidate, postdoctoral researcher, or early-career researcher in a relevant field (e.g., public health, demography, economics, biostatistics, epidemiology, data science)
- Strong experience in quantitative analysis, survey data, and/or causal inference methods
- Demonstrated ability to produce rigorous, publication-quality research
- Comfort working with large-scale, multi-country survey datasets
Nice to have
- Experienced in family planning, reproductive health in LMIC contexts is strongly preferred
- Experience in behavioral science and program implementation context is a plus
- One prior peer-reviewed publication (strongly preferred), as first author or a major contributing author
Benefits
- Access to de-identified, multi-country family planning survey data under a data use agreement
- Codebooks and methodological documentation
- Regular check-ins with Surgo’s research team for methodological guidance and feedback on drafts
- Methodological and analytic support
- Guidance on funder framing and positioning
- Co-authorship and publication support
- Opportunity to present progress to the broader research team
- Fantastic, fun and collaborative colleagues; opportunity to solve tough challenges in healthcare and global health
- Ability to be entrepreneurial, with tremendous opportunities for growth
- Public Benefit Corporation with an impact and equity mission
Additional details
- Priority Papers: Couples-linked segmentation in Northern Nigeria (Kano and Kaduna) regarding attitudes toward family planning and norm-shifting interventions
- Priority Papers: Rethinking how we measure FP intention (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Pakistan/Sindh) using a multidimensional approach
- Priority Papers: Patterns of change in FP attitudes and behaviors over time in FP journeys (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria [Kano and Kaduna], Pakistan [Sindh]) using panel data
- Additional Areas of Interest: Determinants of contraceptive intention, uptake, and method choice in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria (Kano, Kaduna, Lagos), and Pakistan (Sindh)
- Additional Areas of Interest: Causal inference approaches to family planning behavior (e.g., Bayesian networks, causal forests, propensity score matching, doubly robust/DoubleML methods, G-computation)
- Additional Areas of Interest: Segmentation-informed analysis using belief- and behavior-based segments to explain heterogeneous contraceptive outcomes
- Additional Areas of Interest: Comparative, cross-country analysis of family planning drivers and structural barriers
- Additional Areas of Interest: Subgroup and geographic vulnerability (e.g., state-level variation, rural/urban differences, adolescent and youth subpopulations)
- Additional Areas of Interest: Contraceptive discontinuation and continuation dynamics
- Additional Areas of Interest: Comparative methodology, including analysis that contextualizes findings alongside established survey instruments (e.g., DHS, PMA)
- Data Available: Baseline Women's FP Survey (2024 to early 2025) covering reproductive age women (15–49) in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Pakistan (Sindh), and Nigeria (Lagos, Kano, Kaduna)
- Data Available: Baseline subset Male Partner Interviews enabling dyadic/couple-level analysis
- Data Available: Follow-up Longitudinal Women's Survey tracking changes one to two years after baseline
- Project Duration: maximum 17 weeks (~4 months)
- Earliest start date: Oct 15, 2026
- Timeline milestones: Week 1-2 Scope of work/analytic plan; Week 6 preliminary results; Week 12 draft manuscript; Week 16-17 final submission-ready manuscript
- Payment Conditions: Milestone 1 (Scope confirmed + signed data use agreement + onboarding); Milestone 2 (Preliminary results + satisfactory progress); Milestone 3 (First draft manuscript); Milestone 4 (Internal review revisions + final accepted manuscript)
- Application requirements: Written response or concept note (up to 1,000 words) covering Understanding, Approach (specific to chosen priority paper), and Framing & Evidence Needed; CV or resume; one prior peer-reviewed publication or scientific writing sample; contact information for two references
- Hiring Philosophy: Hire for passion and core competencies
- Equal Opportunity and Diversity Policy: Committed to building a diverse, inclusive staff
- Originally posted on Himalayas