Research Officer

ARK is a social enterprise, empowering local communities through the provision of agile and sustainable interventions to create greater stability, opportunity, and hope for the future.

We believe that resilient communities are the foundation of local, national, regional and international development and stability – and ultimately a safer, peaceful and more prosperous world. At ARK, we have delivered research and programmatic interventions validating this approach in over twenty countries since 2008. As a social enterprise we work in partnership with communities, our donors, and other implementers to build local capacities, generate opportunity and bring about sustainable change.

PURPOSE OF POSITION:

ARK is looking for a Research Officer to be based in our Beirut office, engaged on a full-time consultancy basis for six months. ARK’s Research Department conducts mixed-methods multi-disciplinary research and analysis. The department’s staff has a diverse range of thematic, geographic and methodological expertise and are supported by research consultants and data collection networks in multiple countries in the MENA region. The department’s staff – a highly dynamic, capable, multinational team – are empowered to work collaboratively with other members of the department, project and MEAL teams, to cross-pollinate skills, approaches and findings. The key purpose of the Beirut-based Research Officer role is to conduct mixed-methods research and lead or assist other members of the research team, depending on the specific requirements, in the production of research outputs and deliverables, under the supervision of the Head of Research and/or ARK’s Beirut-based Senior Research Consultant.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Contribute to the design of research project plans, deliverables and data collection tools, such as Focus Group Discussions, Key Informant Interviews, questionnaires, field surveys and other participatory research methods;
• Monitor social media and mainstream online media and collect, analyze and manage data from monitoring activities;
• Clean and analyze primary and secondary data and draft thematic and analytical reports;
• Proactively engage in discussions and brainstorming sessions about potential research outputs and inform implementation activities;
• Participate in the training of enumerators and assist with supervision of data collectors and field researchers and associated protocols and quality control mechanisms;
• Tabulate descriptive statistics and prepare charts and tables;
• Edit and review research outputs and deliverables produced by other members of the team;
• Review and synthesize relevant scholarly and specialist material from academic journals, policy institutes/think tanks and international organizations;
• Maintain situational awareness by keeping abreast of relevant socio-political, economic and security developments in Lebanon, which may directly or indirectly impact research, data collection and project implementation activities;
• Contribute to the preparation of project-related presentations and attend meetings and calls with research clients and/or other relevant stakeholders.

Requirements

​​SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Essential

• Right to work in Lebanon;
• Masters degree in the Social Sciences (Political Science, International Relations, Economics, Sociology, Social Work, Development, Conflict, Anthropology, Area Studies, or a related discipline);
• Minimum 3 years of experience utilising qualitative and quantitative methods;
• Strong interest and knowledge of Lebanon, with regards to themes such as politics and elections, political and organised violence, social unrest/protests, community resilience, social cohesion, refugees and IDPs, governance, development, among others;
• Professional written English and spoken and written Arabic;
• Experience writing reports for a variety of target audiences and collating and visualising data;
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyse, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy;
• Advanced computer literacy/skills;
• Commitment to the conduct of ethical research with human subjects.

Desirable

• Intermediate-to-advanced capability with statistics software such as SPSS;
• Familiarity with relevant software such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data visualisation tools;
• Interest in and knowledge of data management processes and relevant software.

MORE ABOUT OUR COMPANY:

What Makes Us Different

We pride ourselves on being the first people able to access and operate in challenging fragile and conflict-affected environments. We are expeditionary by design and our systems and structures enable flexible and agile responses while ensuring safe, effective and compliant delivery.

Working with and through teams drawn from the communities in which we operate enables us to deliver impactful interventions built on intimate local understanding. In collaboration with our global network of international and local experts, we integrate nuanced understanding of the challenges we aim to solve with best practice and field-leading innovation to deliver programming that meets short-term stabilisation objectives and builds the evidence base and knowledge needed to lay the groundwork for long-term peacebuilding and development programming.

What We Do

We enjoy sectoral experience in civil society development, good governance, protection and human rights, refugees and migration, stabilisation, gender, security and justice, as well as cross-cutting experience in programme design and learning, organisational development and management, research and analysis, needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation, communications and capacity building.

Our People

Today, our team covers a diverse range of professional backgrounds; from diplomacy, humanitarian, development and the military, to the UN, civil society groups, multilateral organisations, journalism and the private sector.

They bring sectoral expertise in civil society development, good governance, protection and human rights, refugees and migration, gender and security and justice, as well as practical experience in programme design and learning, organisational development and management, research and analysis, needs assessments, monitoring and evaluation, communications and capacity building. The multi-disciplinary and multi-national nature of our team means the research we undertake and the programmes we deliver are grounded in empirical need and deliver measurable and sustainable impact.

Where We Work

ARK Group is an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek a diverse applicant pool and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. ARK Group does not discriminate on the basis of ability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation. We welcome all kinds of diversity. ARK Group places human dignity at the centre of its development and stabilisation work and is thus committed to the protection from sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adults. All ARK Group employees and related-personnel are expected to share this commitment, and only those who also uphold these values will be recruited as part of our team. This vacancy is therefore subject to a range of due diligence checks.