Making Cents International seeks a Youth Research Lead to work on the five-year USAID/Ukraine National Identity Through Youth (UNITY) Activity. 

Position Summary

Making Cents International seeks a Youth Research Lead to work on the five-year USAID/Ukraine National Identity Through Youth (UNITY) Activity. This activity seeks to foster vested ownership among young people in the country’s democratic, European future by further mobilizing youth leadership of a values-based conception of Ukrainian identity grounded in innovation, engagement, and pluralism. To that end, UNITY will simultaneously address the key domains identified in USAID’s Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach: building youth assets, fostering resilience, offering age-appropriate experiences for youth contribution, and strengthening the enabling environment, while intentionally and safely promoting dialogue and belonging around this pluralistic identity and incentivizing participation and leadership by historically marginalized groups.

The Youth Research Lead will coordinate and support research studies that align with USAID’s PYD Learning Agenda, which prioritizes gaps in the evidence for what works in PYD globally and provides collective guidance on how to invest in evidence-building activities related to PYD.

Responsibilities

• Promote cross-sectoral PYD approaches within the project and across all components
• Support research design and implementation by providing a PYD lens to all activities
• Support the development and tracking of PYD indicators
• Support Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) considerations in all Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) activities, including participatory data collection and analysis, learning questions, and informing adaptive feedback loops to ensure accountability of a do-no-more-harm approach across program activities
• Ensure research activities and Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) plan are innovative and creative, engage youth in leadership roles in research, and build youth and youth-serving organizations’ research capabilities
• Provide capacity building and technical support to the project team and partners in PYD approaches, frameworks, and measurement tools
• Coordinate with UNITY project staff and Making Cents’ technical staff based in the United States
• Contribute to project activity planning, reporting, data analysis, and budgets as requested
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in social sciences
• At least seven (7) years of relevant experience supporting youth development programs
• Demonstrated knowledge of PYD approaches and frameworks
• Experience leading research activities, including with partners and other stakeholders
• Experience developing and tracking project-level indicators
• Experience building the capacity of organizations and staff
• Excellent communication and organization skills
• Excellent computer skills (MS Office Suite)
• Fluency in English and Ukrainian

Our Ideal Candidates Have:

• A Master’s degree
• Experience with USAID programs

Making Cents International is a results-driven women-owned small business founded on the principles of social entrepreneurship. Since our founding in 1999, we have been fostering human potential and promoting economic opportunities for disadvantaged populations around the world. We have implemented more than 130 projects in over 60 countries to date and are a trusted partner to public- and private-sector clients who benefit from our expertise and broad industry exposure. 

Making Cents International is an equal opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, age, or other legally protected characteristics.