Senior Policy Manager

About the role

The Senior Policy Manager leads IPA Rwanda's policy impact strategy, creating and managing high-impact opportunities for policymakers to generate and use evidence in decision-making. The role leads a portfolio of poverty graduation, social protection and education policy projects within the Embedded Evidence Lab, working closely with government partners such as the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Education. It sets the long-term policy, research and impact strategy, represents IPA in high-level policy discussions, supervises the policy team and collaborates substantially with the research team.

Key responsibilities

• Contribute to the Policy team's strategy in Rwanda, including new engagements and new research and policy opportunities
• Lead the strategy and implementation of IPA Labs, such as the Graduation Embedded Lab and the MEL for government projects lab
• Lead the strategy and implementation of IPA scaling efforts to develop, evaluate and scale evidence-based policies
• Represent IPA to high-level external stakeholders, including government officials, donors, researchers and partner organizations
• Build strategic partnerships to advance the Embedded Labs and scaling program, with support from the Global Policy team
• Directly supervise the Policy team, build its capacity in research, MEL and policy work, and develop annual work plans
• Oversight and management of the scope of work, strategy, delivery and finances of the Embedded Evidence Labs and scaling program
• In consultation with the Country Lead and Global Policy team, identify and secure new funding opportunities, develop concept notes and pursue business development opportunities

Required profile

• Master's degree in economics, development, international relations, public administration, public policy or a closely related field
• 7+ years of relevant experience in public policy or applied research in the development sector
• Experience working across multiple countries or in a regional/global role
• Demonstrated success managing teams and complex stakeholder relationships, especially with senior government officials and donors
• Proven experience in strategy design and implementation, particularly in government or multilateral settings
• Ability and willingness to travel to various project sites

Required skills

• Quantitative and qualitative research, including rigorous research methods and impact evaluations
• Evidence-to-policy translation, embedded technical assistance or institutional capacity building (preferred)
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and AI knowledge (preferred)
• Project management, budgeting and organizational skills