Senior Analyst, Financial Inclusion

Inclusive finance at Busara

“We make behaviorally-informed solutions work for the people they are supposed to help.”

The above quote summarizes what is at the core of Busara’s mission. Busara’s inclusive finance portfolio pursues this mission in the spaces of formal and informal financial services. We work with partners in the private sector, philanthropy, development finance institutions and the regulatory space to figure out how to improve people’s financial wellbeing. We do this by:  

Understanding contexts - Designing and implementing research to better understand the form and function of markets, ecosystems and the contribution of actors that shape it. Further and crucially, we seek to understand nuanced perspectives on the behaviors, needs and realities of people in low-income settings. 

Developing & iterating products - Using Behavioral and Human Centered Design approaches, we work with our partners and end users to develop prototypes for bespoke financial products that add value and prioritize financial well being. 

Evaluating the impact of interventions - We design and implement research that enables us and our partners to understand the impact of product and market interventions. We conduct digital on-platform and field experiments to understand impact during and after intervention roll-out.

Informing strategy -  We leverage knowledge, insights and data to help partners determine what they can and should do to add value to low-income people, marginalized women, enterprises, households and communities.

Role Purpose Statement:

 

The Senior Analyst will be tasked with research preparation, structuring, and ultimately composing reports, deliverables, and analysis on ongoing projects, in close coordination with the Associates. S/he will also be responsible for sensitive and delicate client interactions, and final project outputs, requiring extreme attention to detail and dedication to high-quality outputs.

Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities

CORE PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Senior Analyst will work closely with Busara Project Leads, research team, and advisory clients to perform a variety of tasks including, but not limited to:

• Conduct research preparation activities including literature reviews. 
• Engage in multiple large-scale research and advisory projects at a given time.
• Manage external and internal engagements independently and with limited supervision.
• Interpret, evaluate, and clarify research requests to determine potential data sources and informational resources; identify, and discuss research needs with Associates and Engagement Directors.
• Provide customized reports, highlighting main findings and key points, and effectively communicate the results to the end-user both orally and in writing.
• Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve inquiries on external and internal research data and act as a research resource person for senior leadership, internal teams, staff, and external parties.
• Recommend data sources and make recommendations on all phases of projects. Work closely, when necessary, with the data and programming team to source, clean, and structure data.
• Design effective quantitative and qualitative survey instruments and coordinate all activities associated with survey development and data collection including, formatting, liaising with survey programming teams, analyzing, summarizing, and presenting results; write reports highlighting key findings and present results.
• Contribute to the drafting of client reports, experimental designs, literature reviews, proposals, and pitch decks.
• Contribute to project on-boarding and off-boarding for knowledge management.
• Plan and execute general logistics for project activities as it relates to content outcomes such as phasing of field activities, coordinating client meetings, etc.  Work closely with the Project Operations team and the Project Lead team to plan logistics for field operations, data collection, and data quality assurance.  Ensure that all project work is communicated with the relevant teams at Busara to ensure proper roll-out of the engagement.  This includes, but is not limited to, finance, procurement, operations, and facilities and wellness.
• Maintain and update project timelines.  Alert Associates of upcoming deadlines, deliverables, and meetings.
• Perform any other duty as may be assigned by the project supervisor.
• Maintain an understanding of the high-level engagement, the goals of the clients, partners, and teams within Busara, and continually push the project teams to realign around those goals.
• Identify generalizable lessons and ensure that project teams are working with the most relevant, up-to-date knowledge and insights.
• Work on the most sensitive or complex projects, often with minimal supervision or support.
• Execute the core project responsibilities with the highest degree with respect to creativity, rigor, relevance, detail, and timeliness. 

CORE ORGANIZATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: In addition to project responsibilities, Analysts also have the following organizational responsibilities to ensure a healthy and functioning organization.

• Work with the Analyst team to conduct goal-setting exercises, objectives and key results, and team building events.
• Contribute to skills-building workshops for Analyst teams.
• Assist with internal initiatives where necessary.
• Serve as mentors to Senior Field Officer team members, when requested.
• Serve on internal committees when necessary.
• Serve as champions for the Analyst team to manage the team and bring forward all relevant and actionable requests to the proper leadership teams.
• Maintain team morale and organizational alignment
• Serve as examples to other Analysts of how to execute project responsibilities to a high degree.
• Serve as sounding boards for initiatives that affect the Analyst team.
• Coordinate internal initiatives, committees, and exercises for the Analysts.
• Coordinate across teams to ensure healthy work relationships are maintained.  Mediate and escalate (to supervisors, HR, or wellness teams) any issues that require attention.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience: Minimum Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Social Sciences, Public Policy, or related fields.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative research, and data analytic skills.
• 1-year previous work experience in a related field
• Familiarity with basics of experimental design
• Demonstrates the ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations.
• Excellent management and organizational skills.
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player.
• Must have a growth mindset, and have interest and experience working in a fast-paced working environment.
• Fluency and excellent communication and writing skills with a mastery of English
• Extreme attention to detail while sustaining a global focus and vision for institutional planning and decision making.

Desired Qualifications

• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials preferred.
• Familiarity with behavioral science.
• Familiarity with R, STATA, Python, SAS, and/or other programming languages 
• Exposure to large-scale research and consulting projects in countries in which Busara has an office.

Data Privacy Statement