Vice President - Research Advisory & Practice

Strategy and Practice Leadership

• Define and lead Busara’s overall research, advisory & practice strategy across sectors and regions in alignment with Busara’s overall organizational strategy
  

• Ensure coherence and integration across practices, geographies, and portfolios
  

• Identify and develop new practice areas, service lines, and strategic opportunities in development and adjacent sectors.
  

• Translate research, delivery experience, and learning into scalable tools, frameworks, and approaches to strengthen institutional adoption
  

• Design and model the norms that ensure different portfolios operate as a unit towards a singular mission
  

• Ensure the overall sustainability of every practice area, measured against revenue, margin, utilization, share of practice partnerships and overall contribution to Busara's mission.
  

Commercial Leadership and Partnerships

• Own revenue growth, margin performance, utilization, and renewal targets across practice areas
  

• Oversee the full business development lifecycle, including pipeline management, forecasting, and conversion
  

• Lead or support the development of major proposals, partnerships, and contracts
  

• Build and maintain senior relationships with funders, governments, multilaterals, and implementing partners
  

• Strengthen commercial discipline, including pricing, opportunity selection, and portfolio balance
  

• Coach and support senior leaders in business development and account management
  

• Allocate resources strategically across practices.
  

Delivery Excellence and Impact

• Hold overall accountability for the quality, rigor, and impact of program delivery
  

• Strengthen and enforce quality assurance systems across all projects and portfolios
  

• Improve delivery reliability, including timelines, staffing models, and execution consistency
  

• Monitor portfolio performance and address delivery risks proactively
  

• Strengthen implementation capability across teams and geographies
  

• Build and maintain knowledge management systems to support learning and reuse
  

• Drive continuous improvement based on performance data and feedback
  

Leadership and Organizational Development

• Lead, coach, and develop senior leaders across practices and portfolios
  

• Build a strong leadership pipeline and succession plans for critical roles
  

• Clarify roles, decision-making structures, and accountability across teams
  

• Strengthen management capability, including performance management and delegation
  

• Partner with the People function on recruitment, retention, and talent development
  

• Partner with Director Voice on designing and co-creating impact strategies that are rooted in practice area relationships but can be supported with voice outputs
  

• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning
  

Experience

• 12–15+ years of experience in global development, consulting, research, or advisory environments with at least 5 years at the senior executive level
  

• Proven track record of leading strategy, business development, and delivery at scale
  

• Experience managing complex, multi-country portfolios or programs
  

• Demonstrated success in building partnerships with funders, governments, or multilaterals
  

• Experience leading and developing senior teams
  

• Deep familiarity with applied behavioral science, psychology, economics, or a related discipline.
  

• Experience working across Africa and South Asia strongly preferred; lived or worked