Technical Writer, Public Health Research

Based in Washington, DC (or remote location)

Up to 20 % national / international travel

Reports to Head of Strategic Research and Learning

Who we are

With over 50 years of experience, working in over 50 countries, Population Services International (PSI) is the world’s leading non-profit social marketing organization. PSI is reimagining healthcare, by putting the consumer at the center, and wherever possible – bringing care to the front door. We are working to fix market failures, shape future health markets and shift policy and funding to better support consumer empowered healthcare.

There are over 7,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. We are a diverse group of entrepreneurial development professionals with a wide range of backgrounds and experience. All with unique skills that we bring to the critically important work that we do.

Join us!

The Strategy & Insights (S&I) Department champions insight-driven prioritization across PSI, ensuring we are “doing the right things” even as we work on “doing things right.” The department promotes best practice in program design, marketing discipline, research, learning, and strategy development. S&I works with other departments to systematically capture, synthesize, and share internal and external evidence, consumer and market insights, competitive market intelligence, and program experience to guide global, market level, and program level strategy. As part of S&I, the Strategic Research and Learning Team is accountable for establishing and advancing an organizational learning agenda through the framework of questions in PSI’s Strategic Evidence Agenda (SEA), ensuring the identification and exchange of learning and insights internally, and for the implementation, use and elevation of quality, ethical research.

We are looking for a Technical Writer for Public Health Research to help us produce technical communication products that distill and elevate PSI’s research and learnings. The Technical Writer will work across diverse teams to build the organization’s profile as a contributor of relevant, credible evidence regarding what works and why in achieving consumer powered healthcare.

Sound like you? Read on.

Your contribution

Support PSI’s Contributions to the Evidence Base for Scaling Consumer Powered Healthcare

Lead & Organize

• Coordinate and facilitate PSI’s Strategic Evidence Agenda (SEA) thought leadership, influence objectives, research utilization plans, and communications/media plans.
• Establish and maintain a data base of PSI research studies and strategic projects aligned with PSI’s SEA, and create a pipeline management process to streamline workflows, document outputs, track SEA communications, track utilization of research outputs, and meet targets.
• Work closely with the External Relations and Communications (ERC) and the Global Fundraising Teams to produce a pipeline of outputs that aligns with external conferences, fundraising opportunities, and external priorities.

Produce & Deliver

• Lead (or support) the production of SEA technical outputs, including peer review publications, technical learning briefs, and blog entries.
• Conduct analysis and synthesis findings across PSI’s SEA research and capture new insights for internal learning and external sharing.
• Support technical staff as a co-author or contributor by providing content guidance, copy editing, design templates, and peer-review publication support.
• Draft/Review PSI’s Evidence communications across PSI media.
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Share & Represent

• Support S&I and technical leadership to frame PSI’s contribution to external bodies of evidence.
• Represent PSI in external fora, including conferences and webinars, as needed
• Support technical teams and ERC in planning and executing successful PSI presence at conferences and convenings.
• Plan, track, execute, and document successful conference attendance; flag strategy-aligned abstracts, posters, sessions, and symposia for PSI attendance; develop succinct summaries of key conference insights and share with relevant audiences. 

Compile and Communicate the State of the Evidence Base for Consumer Powered Healthcare

• Conduct and continually update an online strategic evidence knowledge portal through literature reviews for prioritized SEA questions.
• Compose and internally circulate succinct, accurate summaries of new evidence and key reports that can be used in fundraising, program design, research design, concept note development, or for program improvement.  

Support PSI to Pitch and Win Strategically Relevant Funding

• Engage with PSI’s Global Fundraising team as a focal point on key SEA aligned concepts and proposals.
• Develop source language for funding opportunities related to strategic research objectives and methodologies, implementation research, learning agendas, research utilization, and technical approaches. 
• Identify opportunities where PSI is well positioned to build evidence and engage with senior research advisors to develop original concept notes and fundraising pitches.

What are we looking for?

The candidate we hire will embody PSI’s corporate values:

Collaboration: You can work independently, but thrive within a team.

Trust: You trust that your manager and team will have your back and care deeply about gaining that same trust from your teammates

Pragmatism: You dive in and maintain momentum even when things are ambiguous and you don’t let perfect get in the way of good enough.

Honesty: You aren’t afraid to speak up and speak your mind.

Measurement: You set clear and challenging goals and hold yourself accountable to driving measurable results.

Commitment: You’re independent and a free thinker, but you’re ready to buy in to the direction of the team and commit to its success.

The basics

• A PhD or DrPH in Public Health, Sociomedical Sciences, Health Policy, Behavioral Health, Global Health, or interdisciplinary/related field with a minimum of 2 years of relevant experience; MPH or MS in relevant field (e.g., Social Science, Medical Science, Health Science, Health Communication or Health Policy, Implementation Science, Technical & Science Communication, Information & Dissemination Science) with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience.
• Track record of publishing in peer review journals.
• Ability to shape research content for different audiences and frame findings for internal learning and external influence.
• Adept at bringing together multiple information sources clearly and succinctly, and communicating technical content in creative and engaging ways.
• Strong communication and copyediting skills.
• Familiarity with digital communications and social media content management.
• Ability to distill insights across rigorous research studies and package them in engaging ways.
• Strong track record of generating funding, influencing policy through use of evidence, and developing strategic research partnerships.
• Ability to work across teams effectively and build strong partnerships with colleagues and stakeholders.
• References will be required.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States. N.B. PSI will not consider work visa sponsorship for this position 
• The successful candidate will be required to pass a background check.

What would get us excited?

An Influencer. You have experience using Evidence to influence stakeholders and donors. You are able to communicate complex research results in effective ways to key audiences. You are able to build partnerships, spot trends and keep the PSI global headquarters informed about the state of in the evidence base for consumer powered healthcare.  

Natural fundraiser. You have experience developing concept notes, identifying opportunities, and securing funds from donors like Gates or NIH.

STATUS

• Exempt

*Due to high volume of applications, only finalists will be contacted. Curious about your status? Please log into your iCIMS account to find out.

PSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of actual or perceived race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, personal appearance, matriculation, political affiliation, family status or responsibilities, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or breastfeeding, genetic information, amnesty, veteran, special disabled veteran or uniform service member status or employment status.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTICE: If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process due to a physical or mental disability, please send an email to: newhiresupport@psi.org or call (202)785-0072.