Associate (Nutrition)

We are looking for a quantitatively strong Associate to join our Human Development team and contribute to applied analysis on nutrition financing, programme prioritisation, and policy design. This is a role for someone who has already done real analytical work in a professional setting and is ready to take ownership of meaningful project components.

The questions you'll work on are the ones governments and global funders actually wrestle with: How much would it cost to scale a national stunting reduction package? Where is current public spending going, and is it reaching the children it's intended for? What is the highest-return mix of interventions given a constrained budget? How should a new financing instrument be structured to crowd in domestic resources? Your job will be to turn complex, often imperfect data into answers that hold up under scrutiny — and that decision-makers can act on.

You will work alongside senior colleagues with deep sectoral and consulting experience, on engagements with national ministries (including Finance, Health, and Planning), multilateral development banks, bilateral donors, and global nutrition initiatives.

In this role, you will:

• Take ownership of analytical workstreams within projects focused on the drivers of malnutrition and the systems and financing arrangements that shape nutrition outcomes — particularly for women, children, and marginalised communities across low- and middle-income settings.
• Source, clean, and analyse complex datasets from public, administrative, and proprietary sources (DHS, MICS, IHME, World Bank, BOOST, WHO, OECD CRS, national budget and expenditure data), with the analytical rigour and transparency expected of work that informs major financing decisions.
• Deliver core analytical products — costing models, public expenditure reviews, financing gap analyses, prioritisation and investment cases, evidence syntheses — and translate them into outputs (slides, briefs, technical notes) that move client thinking.
• Engage directly with clients in working sessions, technical reviews, and presentations, building the judgement to communicate quantitative findings in policy-relevant language.
• Bring sectoral grounding — applying your understanding of nutrition, public health, and/or economics to ensure analysis reflects how decisions actually get made and implemented.
• Contribute to a team culture that takes both the technical work and the people doing it seriously.

This role offers a genuinely steep learning curve. You will sharpen technical depth and develop the judgement that comes from working on policy questions where the answers matter.

Requirements

• A Master's degree in Public Health, Public Health Nutrition, Health Economics, Economics, Development Economics, Statistics, or a closely related field from a reputable institution.
• 3–5 years of professional experience in quantitative analysis within consulting, research, government, or international development.
• Demonstrated ability to source, clean, and interpret complex datasets — including aggregated nutrition, health, and social sector data from sources such as DHS, MICS, IHME, World Bank, BOOST, WHO, OECD, and national budget systems.
• Strong proficiency in at least one statistical or analytical tool (Stata, R, Python, or equivalent), with the ability to run and interpret analyses independently.
• A working understanding of the multi-sectoral nature of nutrition and its intersections with health, education, agriculture, social protection, and WaSH.
• Familiarity with the global nutrition architecture and key initiatives (e.g., Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, Nutrition for Growth commitments, Power of Nutrition, GFF). Direct project experience is an advantage but not required.
• Sharp problem-solving instincts — the ability to structure ambiguous questions and move them toward defensible answers.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English, with the ability to distil complex findings for non-technical audiences. Working proficiency in French is an advantage given our portfolio in Francophone Africa.
• Initiative, ownership, and the early signs of leadership — the capacity to manage your own tasks well and support others as projects scale.

Preferred Locations: South Africa, Kenya, India

Or from home location if based in countries in sub-Saharan Africa