Social Science Team Lead At Médecins Sans Frontières

Hours: Full time – 37.5 hours per week

Duration: Permanent

Location: London – hybrid working, 2 days per week in the office (office in Farringdon moving to Aldgate mid-January 2025)

Salary: £74,420.37 per annum

Internal Salary Grade: 19.1

Please click here to find the complete job description and how to apply

JOB PURPOSE

The Social Science Team Lead is responsible for steering the positioning of the social sciences within MSF. This includes managing a team of Anthropologists and Mental health professionals with the integration, transversality and professionalising of their disciplines inside MSF’s humanitarian operations. The objective is to foster a productive team environment, ensuring collaboration, communication and technical expertise to support OCA and other entities in MSF to deliver timely and contextualised medical humanitarian assistance.

OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENT

The Manson Unit (MU) is a multi-disciplinary medical team within MSF UK. We aim to improve the quality of MSF’s medical programmes worldwide, so that the best possible care is delivered to patients.
The MU is a team of c40, comprised of medical doctors and specialists in infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, health information systems, epidemiology, social science, geographical information systems, medical editing, and research communication. We provide direct support to our field programmes through providing specialist advice on medical issues, implementing new ways of working and piloting new approaches, supporting and overseeing research studies, and supporting outbreak response.

DIMENSIONS

Line management of the team involves enabling, coaching and supporting the team as well as the development of the team´s strategic annual plan. Current direct management includes three anthropologists and two Mental health professionals. Along with this comes the management of resources: external consultants, academic partners and engagement, networking and budget forecasts for the team. Individual management aims to prioritise individual goals and provide practical help to manage and overcome obstacles and achieve objectives through bringing their own experience to bear; performance management and career development. Team management includes HR, communications and financial responsibilities as well as develop new projects and coordinate some of the existing ones.

CONTEXT

The Social Science team supports MSF teams to address psychological and social needs within public health problems in humanitarian settings, and uses a social sciences lens to inform the design, evaluation and adaptation of MSF’s programmes. The team supports understanding sociopolitical and psychological reactions to, for example, chronic, infectious and neglected diseases, reproductive health, vaccine hesitancy and palliative care. This is achieved through effective and relevant social data gathering, operational research, and collaboration with other MSF entities to achieve change in our humanitarian health practice.

CHALLENGE & CREATIVITY / DECISION-MAKING

• Lead the team to mutualise technical competencies, experiences in a coherent vision and support implementation of strategy.
• Confronting expectations, performance problems and managing conflicts within the team.
  Support strong selection to make the right hiring decisions.
• Support a clear path of progression for team members.
• Creating calm and reassurance while working on constant humanitarian crisis, and boost teams’ wellbeing.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Post-graduate qualification in social sciences (or equivalent experience in use of social science methods); medical or paramedical qualification desirable
• Proven experience in programmatic management of humanitarian activities.
• MSF or equivalent experience working in humanitarian contexts.
• Good understanding and knowledge of medical issues and challenges in humanitarian contexts
• Evidence of application of qualitative research skills in humanitarian settings.
• Experience in protocol development, implementation and dissemination of research.
• Team management experience including medical staff.
• Proven ability to prioritise.
• Excellent strategic planning skills.
• Proven networking and representation skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, listening and negotiation skills.
• Solid interpersonal skills with willingness and ability to communicate effectively with senior operational management, national authorities and other international organisations.
  Fluent English language ability.
• Experience in the practical use of personal IT equipment and Microsoft Office 365 suite. The ability to effectively collaborate and communicate within a hybrid working environment utilising Teams, SharePoint, One Drive and Engage.