The Research Fellow will lead and support research on water resources management in Africa, with a focus on climate change and hydrological analysis, water allocation and hydrodynamic modelling, ecosystem modelling and capacity-building using SEI’s Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) tool. The role involves developing innovative projects, collaborating across disciplines, mentoring junior researchers, building stakeholder capacity and ensuring research is published in high-quality outlets while influencing decision-making. 

Main focus areas:

• Leading the development of an African Water Program to enhance the impact and visibility of SEI Africa’s work.
• Playing a central role in fundraising to grow the program’s staffing and reputation.
• Expanding the reach of SEI Africa’s water work through presentations, publications and engagement with decision-makers and the media.
• Contributing to the management and development of the SEI Africa centre.
• Mentoring and collaborating with program colleagues.

Key duties and responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership in climate change, hydrological and ecosystem modelling, and develop model-based decision-support tools.
• Lead WEAP modelling efforts, promote its use among stakeholders and support related capacity development.
• Manage projects, supervise staff, maintain client and partner relationships and deliver high-quality reports. 
• Contribute to interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners.
• Conduct policy analysis on applications of water, energy and ecosystem modelling. 
• Mentor junior researchers in project management, reporting, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Develop training materials, tutorials and technical documentation.
• Design and carry out field data collection, surveys, workshops and stakeholder consultations. 
• Identify funding opportunities, lead proposal development and secure resources from various sources.
• Collaborate with SEI Communications on outreach, teaching, presentations, dialogues and media engagement.
• Contribute to internal office management and administrative tasks.

Who you are:

We are looking for a mid-level researcher with experience managing projects in hydrology, water resources modelling, climate change and resilient ecosystems in Africa. You should bring both strong technical expertise and the skills and qualitative and quantitative research expertise to lead the climate change and water agenda in the region and create an impact on sustainable natural resource use and resilient ecosystems with a positive influence on practices, decisions and policy and SDGs at all levels. 

Formal qualifications, skills and experience       

• PhD with at least five years’ experience in climate change, water resources, energy and ecosystem modelling or related fields (e.g. WEAP, water allocation, flood and drought management, decision-support tools).
• Strong skills in hydro-meteorological data analysis and programming (e.g. R, Python).
• Experience developing training modules and leading capacity building initiatives. 
• Experience working in interdisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated success in fundraising support roles. 
• Strong communication, writing, technical and networking skills
• Established networks of professionals and researchers in relevant fields.
• Excellent fluency in spoken and written English.