POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST
- Deadline: November 4, 2026
- Senegal
The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a leading African-based, African-led international research institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with a West Africa Regional Office (WARO) in Dakar, Senegal. APHRC conducts policy-relevant research on population, health, education, urbanization and related development issues in sub-Saharan Africa.
APHRC is implementing the 36-month Carnegie-funded project, “Examining the role of non-state actors in influencing peace, health, and stability along the Sahel-Sahara Corridor in West Africa.” The project focuses on the Dakar-Agadez mobility corridor, including links to Kano/Katsina, and combines corridor diagnostics and non-state actor ecosystem mapping, participatory community case studies, and policy co-design. It applies a conflict-sensitive, mixed-methods approach and integrates health and social service access, gender, youth and vulnerability across the work.
Position purpose
The Post-Doctoral Research Scientist will be a core member of the project’s technical team, providing scientific and analytical support across Work Packages. The postholder will lead cross-cutting analysis on gender, youth, migration, displacement, vulnerability and access to health and social services and integrate quantitative, geospatial, qualitative and systems evidence into rigorous scientific and policy relevant outputs.
Key Responsibilities
• Provide advanced methodological and analytical support across the project, ensuring coherence between corridor-level diagnostics, non-state actor ecosystem mapping, community case studies and policy-oriented synthesis.
• Lead or co-lead evidence syntheses, data inventories and analytical plans covering mobility and displacement, governance, insecurity, health and social service access, and non-state actor dynamics across the Sahel-Sahara corridor.
• Support quantitative and geospatial analyses, including descriptive spatial analysis, small-area analysis and, where data quality permits, advanced spatial/Bayesian approaches; ensure transparent documentation of assumptions, uncertainty and limitations.
• Support NSA Ecosystem Mapping and Systems Analysis, including stakeholder mapping, key informant interviews, participatory actor mapping, group model-building and interpretation of causal-loop/system relationships.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of the Dakar and Niamey community case studies, including protocols, sampling/site-selection logic, qualitative and participatory tools, interview guides, focus group guides and community mapping approaches.
• Lead cross-cutting analysis of gender, youth, displacement status, disability, documentation status, vulnerability, resilience and health/service access, ensuring these dimensions are integrated into research tools, analysis and reporting.
• Triangulate quantitative, geospatial, qualitative, policy and systems evidence across work packages and contribute to comparative interpretation across corridor nodes and case-study sites.
• Support ethics submissions, research permits, data-management plans, secure data handling, anonymization and documentation; ensure research follows conflict-sensitive, safeguarding and do-no-harm principles.
• Provide scientific quality assurance for datasets, analytical code, field documentation, technical reports, case-study products and other research outputs.
• Lead and contribute to manuscripts, technical reports, donor reports, policy briefs, evidence notes, dashboards/visual products and other knowledge-translation outputs.
• Mentor the Research Officer, interns, research assistants and other early-career team members in research design, data analysis, scientific writing, reproducible workflows and research integrity.
• Work closely with country focal points and partner institutions to support harmonized methods, field preparation, data quality, interpretation and timely delivery across countries.
• Contribute to stakeholder validation, community sense-making, policy co-design and regional learning activities, ensuring that scientific evidence is translated into practical governance and service-coordination options.
• Contribute to proposal development, fundraising and the development of follow-on research aligned with APHRC’s thematic priorities; progressively build an independent research agenda and publication portfolio.
Key Expected Outputs / Performance Areas
• High-quality corridor evidence synthesis and analytical inputs to the project data inventory and diagnostic report.
• Validated analytical contributions to the NSA typology, ecosystem maps, systems analysis and service-access evidence layer.
• Technical leadership and quality assurance for case-study design, analysis and comparative synthesis.
• Cross-cutting gender, youth, vulnerability and health/service-access analyses integrated across project products.
• Peer-reviewed manuscripts, technical reports, policy-facing products and donor deliverables produced to agreed quality and timelines.
Qualifications and Experience
• A PhD awarded within the two (2) years preceding the application deadline in Demography, Population Studies, Public Health, Sociology, Geography, Development Studies, Political Science/Governance, Peace and Conflict Studies, Statistics, Data Science, Econometrics or a closely related discipline.
• No prior postdoctoral research experience is required. Relevant research skills and experience may have been gained through doctoral work or other research projects.
• Demonstrated methodological skills in at least one of the following: quantitative/geospatial analysis, mixed methods, qualitative research or systems approaches, with the ability to work across disciplines and methods.
• Proficiency in Stata, R or an equivalent statistical software package is required; experience with GIS/spatial analysis is desirable.
• Experience in qualitative research design and analysis and/or familiarity with NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA or equivalent tools is an advantage.
• Evidence of participation in research protocol development and implementation, including fieldwork, data quality assurance, ethical-review processes or field team support, gained during doctoral research or other projects.
• Strong scientific writing skills, demonstrated through published, accepted or submitted manuscripts, or other high-quality scientific work; experience writing technical reports, policy briefs or proposals is desirable.
• Experience working in West Africa, especially Francophone West Africa, and/or familiarity with mobility and fragile/conflict-affected contexts are advantages, but are not mandatory for eligibility.
• Strong interpersonal, organizational and collaborative skills; ability to work independently and support early-career colleagues in a multidisciplinary and multicultural research environment.
Language Requirements
• Excellent written and spoken command of French, as well as professional proficiency in English for working, communicating, and drafting documents, are required.
Application Process
Interested candidates are invited to submit a single application package containing: (1) a cover letter addressed to the Director of the West Africa Regional Office (WARO); (2) a detailed CV including the contact details of three referees; and (3) a 1–2-page research statement outlining their scientific interests and research objectives.
Application deadline: 4 November 2026. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.
Equal Opportunity Notice
APHRC is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. Recruitment decisions are based on qualifications and organizational needs. Reasonable accommodations may be provided upon request to applicants with disabilities to facilitate participation in the selection process.