⇒ APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/6hWvRq2NVwgcUncN9
Key information
Location: Remote, preferably Europe or East Africa, with at least 4 hours a day overlap with Central Africa Time.
Reports to: Alexis Atlani, co-director.
Start Date: January 2027 preferred, could be discussed.
Compensation: The default arrangement for this role is freelance, with expected annual fees of approximately €50,000–€52,000 / $58,000–$60,000 USD.*
Hours: 40 hours a week, could be pro-rated to 32 hours (4 days a week).
Application deadline: Rolling basis, preference given to applications received before Monday November 16th 2026, 9 am Central Africa Time.
* For candidates based in selected European countries, an (fixed-term at first) employment contract may also be possible. In that case, the gross salary will depend on the country of employment and applicable employer costs and benefits. As an indication, we expect this to be approximately €32,000–€40,000 gross per year in France or the Netherlands.
About NOVAH
1 in 4 women worldwide has ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence from their intimate partner. Prevention is essential, and is too often expensive and hard to scale.
NOVAH (No Violence At Home) is an innovative non-profit that uses mass media to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) in a cost-effective and scalable way. We use radio dramas - serialized shows - to shift attitudes and change behaviors, an approach known as entertainment-education (‘edutainment’).
In Rwanda, we have produced two seasons of our flagship program Twubakane (‘Let’s build together’). Our second season is reaching an estimated 0.5-1M listeners, and preliminary RCT results suggest physical violence decreases by 15%.
We are a mission-driven team, with the ambition to design and scale a new, cost-effective solution, to intimate partner violence. We aim to prevent one year of intimate partner violence for less than $200 dollars (the current best bar). Our long-term vision is to reach 10 million listeners across 10 countries by 2036. We aim to start expanding to new countries by the end of 2027.
NOVAH is a registered charity in the Netherlands with ANBI status, and also holds US fiscal sponsorship through Players Philanthropy Fund. It was incubated in 2024 in the Charity Entrepreneurship program of Ambitious Impact.
About the role
The Head of Research will play an essential role in the production & evaluation of our evidence-based shows. Passionate by human behavior, you will manage the research steps to deliver clear and actionable evidence and insights.
In particular, you will lead the research that informs which messages our radio dramas should address and assess whether audiences understand and respond to those messages as intended. You will deliver clear evidence about audience beliefs, reactions, potential misunderstandings and risks so that together with our creative partners we can make informed decisions about the programmes.
This is a hands-on role: for each new season, you will personally lead several research cycles, from defining questions and developing tools to reviewing fieldwork, analysing transcripts and communicating findings. Our research process usually includes the following steps (read more about our approach):
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1. Formative research: Identify real-life habits, promising storylines and potential messages through in-depth qualitative research with community members. See an example from Season 1 in Rwanda.
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2. Message testing: Rank and select the most promising messages through focus groups and interviews with listeners of short scenes designed to illustrate each message. Read about the A/B test for Season 1 in Rwanda.
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3. Pre-airing evaluation: Assess the story's potential to change behaviour, identify necessary improvements and check for potential risks of harm through focus groups and interviews with early listeners of the full season. See an example from Season 2 in Rwanda.
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4. Post-airing audience survey: Measure how many people listened to the show, who they are and how many episodes they heard through quantitative surveys with community members. See our Season 1 audience survey.
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Qualitative research will be at the heart of your role. Local field researchers conduct interviews and focus groups in the local language (e.g. Kinyarwanda), and professionals transcribe and translate the recordings into English or French (which itself can be AI-translated to English). You will design the research and lead the analysis of the transcripts.
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Quantitative research: You will also work with Alexis to design pragmatic ways to measure our reach and impact, including audience surveys and potentially panel surveys.
You may occasionally support research for potential new countries and other evidence review/ internal strategic research.
Over time, you will help improve NOVAH's research approach by developing faster and more cost-effective feedback loops without compromising research quality or participant safety.
You will work in close collaboration with Alexis Atlani, co-director and currently in charge of M&E, and in cooperation with Ivy van Regteren Altena, co-director, and with our partner teams in Rwanda.
Key responsibilities
You will develop NOVAH’s annual research plan and ensure that each research round is:
Well-designed & relevant
- Co-define research questions to make sure i) it fits the needs of the creative team and/or ii) it helps testing our theory of change.
- Translate these questions into an appropriate research design, sampling approach, workplan and budget.
- Develop interview and focus group guides, surveys, and training materials
- Regularly read key external updates on IPV prevention, social and behaviour change, and entertainment-education.
Ethical and high-quality
- Design and make sure activities are conducted in line with ethical and safety do-no-harm guidance for IPV research (privacy, informed consent, referral pathways, etc.).
- Explain the research objectives, methodology and tools clearly to local project managers and field teams, and incorporate their contextual knowledge.
- Regularly travel to the field to co-deliver training, observe data collection and identify quality issues early.
Actionable
- Analyse qualitative data systematically, identifying recurring patterns, differences between groups, unintended interpretations and potential risks; analyse quantitative survey data where relevant.
- Write concise reports and clearly explain what the findings suggest, which questions remain unanswered and what the creative teams should consider.
As NOVAH grows, you will develop reusable procedures and templates that make future research rounds easier to deliver consistently across countries.
What success looks like
By the end of your first year, you have:
- Delivered several research rounds on time and within budget.
- Produced clear findings that we (with our creative partners) used to inform identifiable programme or script decisions.
- Built trusted working relationships with country partners.
- Established clear research, data-quality and safeguarding procedures.
- Worked with Alexis to design or launch a new quantitative measurement approach, such as an audience or panel survey.
- Introduced at least one faster or more cost-effective feedback method without compromising quality.
- Created reusable research tools and templates for future seasons and countries.
What’s it like working at NOVAH
NOVAH is a young and ambitious organization. We started 2.5 years ago through the Ambitious Impact program, and much of our work still involves doing things for the first time. We move quickly, test ideas in practice, learn from what works and what doesn’t, and expect everyone on the team to take ownership and contribute beyond a narrowly defined role.
At the same time, we work on a sensitive and complex issue, so we combine this entrepreneurial approach with strong attention to evidence, quality, and do-no-harm principles. Read more about the values that guide our work.
What we offer
- Opportunity for impact: The role is essential to ensure the shows deliver their promise.
- Room for innovation: Working at an organization eager to use new technologies or test new interventions.
- Organizational growth: You will become NOVAH’s first HQ employee, and will work directly with both co-directors.
- Strong ownership: Lead research actions and manage a ~$50k annual research budget.
- 8 weeks of PTO: As an international team we don't follow specific national holidays, everyone gets 40 days off, which you can use in the way that benefits you most.
- Community: Joining the AIM community, the possibility to co-work at their office in London, and with our co-directors in Paris and in Amsterdam.
Application process
Our recruitment process consists of the following stages:
- Online application form (~45 min)
- Short test task (~45 min)
- Introductory call with NOVAH's co-founders (~30 min)
- Longer test task (~2 hours)
- Final interview (~1 hour)
- Reference checks
Only shortlisted candidates will be invited to the next stage. We expect the full process to take approximately 3–4 weeks from application to final decision, and we aim to inform all applicants of the outcome of their application.
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