Research Director

Research Director

Prevail Fund is looking for a leader to build and lead our Research team as we scale. Research is core to what Prevail does - it drives how we assess new philanthropic opportunities, how we strengthen our existing Education Fund, and how we make decisions as we launch new funds over the coming years. We're looking for someone who can lead and develop this team to ensure we have world-class research capacity as Prevail scales.

If you're a research leader who enjoys building high-performing teams, loves diving into new sectors, and wants to use those skills to mobilize significant philanthropic capital towards some of the world's most important problems - we'd love to hear from you.

About Prevail Fund
Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to catalyzing large-scale social change by supporting private philanthropists and field implementers to pursue more ambitious and impactful goals. We work with private philanthropists to fund specific initiatives for 10-12 years. Rather than diversifying across multiple causes, we prioritize goal-driven investments in proven solutions with the potential to reshape global norms. Our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million children across 11 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers a suite of systems and talent development services designed to address common growth barriers and prepare partner organizations for accelerated scale.

In our first three years, we've:

• Made significant progress against our ambitious fundraising targets

• Partnered with 30+ organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

• Hired 35+ mission-driven team members globally

• Run dozens of execution projects to strengthen key functions for our partners

Research at Prevail

Research is central to how Prevail operates and grows. Our Research team provides the evidence and analysis that informs decisions across the organization - from strengthening work within our Education Fund, to assessing new philanthropic opportunities, to supporting the launch of new funds as Prevail expands into new areas. Importantly, our team seeks to look beyond "what works" on paper to understand the "why" and "how" - identifying implementation bottlenecks and leverage points where Prevail's support could multiply impact at scale.

About the Role

Working closely with David and Andrew, you'll lead Prevail's Research function - setting the vision and direction for the team, while remaining hands-on in the work itself. You'll work with a team of researchers conducting high-quality, actionable research that spans our Education Fund, our New Initiatives pipeline, and future funds as Prevail grows. This is not an academic role, nor a pure people-management role; you will both develop a strong research team and drive analytical work yourself, producing practical recommendations that Prevail can launch as ambitious, well-funded programs. You will:

• Set the vision and strategy for Prevail's Research function: define priorities across research workstreams, refine our assessment frameworks, derive comparable metrics across sectors, and learn from peer organizations and global experts to keep raising the bar on how Prevail generates and applies evidence.

• Lead and develop the Research team: Owning how the research function is structured and operates across Prevail - including how researchers embedded in individual funds are supported and connected - directly managing some researchers, thinking ahead about the skillsets and profiles the team needs to scale, leading hiring as the function grows, and building the structures to help the team operate at speed and rigor as Prevail launches new funds.

• Drive Prevail's strategy for assessing new philanthropic opportunities – set priorities, refine our assessment frameworks, derive comparable metrics across sectors, and learn from peer organizations and global experts to keep raising the bar on how Prevail decides where to deploy capital next.

• Build and own complex quantitative and qualitative models – dive into complex opportunity analysis, building cost-effectiveness models, reach and fund-sizing estimates, durability syntheses, and other deep-dive work that anchors Prevail's investment decisions.

• Identify, diligence, and evaluate high-impact interventions through desk reviews, expert interviews, quantitative modeling, and likely some in-person visits to real-world programs.

• Synthesize and translate evidence into crisp, transparent outputs that can speak to diverse audiences – ranging from slide decks and investment memos to interactive models and visualizations.

• Answer operational and programmatic questions when evaluating new opportunities, proposing evidence-based, creative solutions that can move Prevail and its partners from ideas to large-scale action.

About you
You're a research leader, skilled in managing complex, multi-workstream research agendas. You are excited to run a leading research team while remaining hands-on in the analysis. You love deep-diving into new sectors and topics to creatively synthesize punchy, data-driven recommendations, and you’re comfortable owning the conclusion in a room of senior decision-makers. You move easily between quantitative and qualitative insights, and between strategic framing and granular evidence review. You communicate complex ideas clearly to donors, implementers, and academics alike, and you thrive in a fast-paced environment. More specifically, you bring:

• Research experience: You have 9+ years experience in conducting research to drive decision-making. Experience with implementing organizations in global development is a strong asset, but not required.

• Leadership experience: You have 4+ years leading, mentoring, and managing other researchers. You give clear, kind, specific feedback, and you’ve helped build the structures that let a small team punch above its weight.

• Action orientation: You conduct goal-oriented research, structure the most efficient analytical path, and ensure all outputs drive to the decision or actions being considered.

• Transparent thinking: You clearly track and outline how you came to key conclusions throughout the research process. You are keen to share both analytical uncertainties and strategies for resolving them.

• Synthesis skills: You integrate quantitative and qualitative data from diverse fields, like econometrics and political science. You love to synthesize complex ideas into clear frameworks, models, and recommendations. You are a creative communicator, able to develop outputs that can motivate diverse audiences.

What we offer

• Full time, permanent contract.

• Drive real impact. Your work will directly mobilize philanthropic capital that will impact millions of lives.

• Flexibility: Work remotely from anywhere in a timezone between -6 UTC (US Central Time) and +3 UTC (EAT), with opportunities to travel and connect in person with the team 3-4 times per year.

• Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location. We share salary ranges with candidates before the first interview. Final offers are based on interview performance.

• Meaningful benefits. Health insurance and wellness benefits, home workspace or co-working stipend, plus a generous learning and development budget.

• Growth opportunities. We deeply care about investing in our team’s professional development. You’ll receive strong manager support, targeted feedback, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.

• Flexible leave policy. Including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.

Location & start date: This is a fully remote position. For timezone purposes, candidates must be based within -6 UTC (US Central Time) and +3 UTC (East Africa Time). We’re not normally able to sponsor visas. Preferred start date: as soon as possible.

Application process: Our hiring process is thorough, because there are very specific skills required for this role. Successful candidates will go through:

• An initial conversation with the people team (45-60 minutes)

• Hiring manager interview (45-60 minutes)

• Paid take-home exercise (5-6 hours)

• Panel interview (90 minutes) and 1:1 conversations with the rest of the team, including an in-person meeting.

Through the process, we’ll share feedback on the assessments, and invite candidates to incorporate it. This mirrors how we work day to day: collaboratively, with openness to feedback and iteration.

To apply: If you’re excited to help us scale, please apply using the application form. We are taking applications on a rolling basis and will respond to all applications within three weeks.

For more information. For more information on Prevail in general, check out this deck. For info on how we hire at Prevail, check here.

*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you can provide their express permission. If this applies to you, please ask them to confirm this with us. Thank you!