Research Manager

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME works to achieve our mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Costs and Cost Effectiveness; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

IHME has an outstanding opportunity for a Research Manager to contribute to driving progress from start to finish on complex endeavors centered in a research portfolio.

POSITION PURPOSE

The individual helps drive effective resource allocation, team building, and coordination that result in the production of estimates and interim deliverables. The individual must be agile in managing complexities and demonstrate the ability to look across competing intellectual and practical considerations to assess trade-offs. The incumbent has multifaceted knowledge of multiple research areas and their methods and analytic machinery needs and brings intellectual agility and deft strategic planning skills to properly sequence and meet interdependent, high-pressure deadlines and research deliverables. The Research Manager is a key driver in the performance, quality, and efficiency required to routinely produce high-quality, policy-relevant health indicators.

This position is contingent on project funding availability and is currently funded through at least the end of June 2026.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Research Command

• Develop thorough understanding of the intellectual material and main goals of the position’s research portfolio, and the data, methods, and analytic approaches that achieve them. The Research Manager exhibits an astute understanding of the material presented in journal articles, policy reports, and presentations that result from the projects on which they work.
• Demonstrate a complete understanding of how methods and analytic techniques map to interdependent project deliverables, and be agile in navigating and overcoming the challenges that can occur in development and production of the intellectual enterprise.

Project Management

• Guide, advise on, and monitor cross-cutting strategic priorities that are developed as part of the research portfolio, which requires teams across the organization to accomplish.
• Help to interpret and translate cross-cutting goals into concrete resource needs and actionable work plans.
• Manage workflow, achievement of milestones, and resolution of roadblocks across functional and research teams to maximize attainment of goals related to the research portfolio.
• Manage communication, hand-offs, and prioritization among key components including data identification, transformation, storage, analysis, diagnostics, critique, and presentation in visualizations and publications.
• Monitor progress across teams, ensure clean and clear reporting of progress across research teams and key functional areas, and identify risks and solutions.
• Make strategic planning recommendations regarding the allocation of people, time, financial, and intellectual resources. Track resource use and needs across projects and make future projections. Facilitate project-specific scoping against available resources.
• Produce and review study materials including project training materials, presentations, and scientific progress reports in consultation with senior researchers and others as needed.
• Cultivate strong relationships and facilitate communication with a wide range of staff across research and functional teams to ensure efficient completion of deliverables. Expertly carry out communications, relationship building, and project management with faculty and senior leaders from governmental, nonprofit, research, academic, and donor organizations.
• Organize and support project-wide management meetings to coordinate deadlines and address challenges.

Supervisory/Management

• Supervise employees, to include hiring and training, leading workflow, priority setting, reviewing work and establishing quality standards, conducting regular performance assessments, providing mentorship and professional development for employees, and making recommendations for disciplinary action as needed.
• Mentor junior staff by providing guidance in the development of professional skills and helping them to understand how analytic and methodological undertakings link to project deliverables.
• Identify training needs and opportunities for team members to grow their skills and advance their careers.  Ensure that the team has the necessary resources to complete their tasks effectively.
• Promote positive morale and positive progress towards objectives across all teams; lead effective and efficient team meetings that are structured, inclusive of consultation and constructive feedback, and result in identifiable next steps for team members.
• Uphold strong principles of two-way communication, respectful debate, and engagement with the team and colleagues as a whole to ensure clear communication and common understanding of priorities and the rationale behind them.
• Keep team members motivated and engaged, recognizing their achievements, and addressing any issues that may affect morale.
• Monitor individual and team performance, providing feedback and helping to resolve any performance issues; assist the team in overcoming obstacles, making decisions, and resolving conflicts.
• Ensure the team adheres to company policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Attend required trainings about team leadership, management, and related topics as designated by ODT and the IHME Director.

Perform additional duties as assigned that fall within the reasonable scope of the position.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Master’s degree in public health, business administration, public administration, data sciences, or related field plus 4-5 years of related project management experience in a highly complex scientific environment, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS 

• Previous project management and relationship management experience.
• Experience supervising and developing employees who are high-performing, collaborative, and mission- and goal-oriented.
• Organized and detail-oriented, with an ability to work both independently and collaboratively to achieve objectives.
• Must exhibit strong desire and ability to learn intellectual content to facilitate highly complex scientific projects.
• Demonstrated record of oral and written communication skills with multiple audiences required.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; a cooperative team player, energetic, able to develop productive relationships with IHME colleagues and external collaborators.
• Exceptional listening skills and ability to relate to, influence, and coach employees of all levels in the organization.
• Experience in one or more of the following: coordinating computational and analytic processes; designing and giving training in the social sciences; coordinating systematic reviews and other research-related tasks; facilitating research production activities; organizing and assessing data and results on a large scale.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and collaborative environment to manage multiple priorities while coordinating resources needed to meet deadlines.
• A commitment to working alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive. See IHME’s DEI statement here: https://www.healthdata.org/about/dei

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated outstanding intellectual capability and knowledge of global health and development issues.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT  

• Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
• This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the U.S.
• Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US; work schedule required to overlap 50% of IHME office hours, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time as agreed upon between employee and supervisor.
• Working internationally is only allowed for IHME sponsored research projects that require in -country participation.

Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.

The University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.

To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu.

Please see Benefits summary: https://hr.uw.edu/benefits/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/02/benefits-professional-staff-librarians-academic-contract-covered-exempt-20240419-a11y.pdf

Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law.