Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate (CARE/AC)

Job Description

The Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) is a vibrant, multidisciplinary academic research centre in Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.  Our mission is to conduct research that policy makers can use to achieve health, social inclusion, and a high quality of life for older adults in Singapore and globally. CARE's research is situated in eight broad thematic areas: Population Health, Social and Psychological Aspects of Ageing, Family Caregiving, Productive Ageing, Falls Prevention, Community-Based Health and Social Care Services, Ageing and the Environment, and Health Communication.

We are currently seeking a full-time Research Assistant (Senior) or Research Associate who excels at qualitative research to join our team at CARE. This role offers an excellent opportunity to gain hands-on experience working on a randomized-clinical control trial aimed at optimizing health and social outcomes for frail older persons post hospital discharge.

The successful candidate will:

• Lead the qualitative component of an evaluation study, including qualitative study design, fieldwork, analysis, interpretation and dissemination.
• Develop and refine semi-structured interview guides informed by relevant theoretical and implementation frameworks.
• Develop and manage purposive sampling strategies across multiple participant groups.
• Conduct in-depth interviews with older adults, caregivers and healthcare professionals in English and Mandarin/Malay as appropriate.
• Manage qualitative data preparation, including transcription review, translation checks, anonymisation, fieldnotes, secure storage and data quality assurance.
• Develop and maintain the qualitative coding framework using deductive and inductive approaches; lead coding, framework/thematic analysis, double-coding and analytic discussions.
• Maintain an audit trail, analytic memos and documentation of methodological and analytical decisions.
• Work with the wider study team to integrate qualitative findings with study implementation and outcome findings, and contribute substantially to reports, presentations, manuscripts and other dissemination outputs.
• Liaise with study stakeholders regarding recruitment, fieldwork, interpretation and study procedures.
• Support ethics/governance submissions, protocol amendments and study documentation relating to the qualitative component.
• Train or support other research staff involved in qualitative data collection and analysis.
• Assist with CARE’s other initiatives where required.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the Principal Investigator.

Job Requirements

• Possess a Master's degree in a relevant social science, public health, health services research or related discipline is strongly preferred
• Experience in implementation research, process evaluation, health services research, programme evaluation or related applied research would be advantageous.
• Familiarity with implementation science or theory-/framework-informed qualitative research would be advantageous.
• Demonstrated spoken proficiency in the language(s) required to independently conduct qualitative interviews with older adults and caregivers, including English, Mandarin and/or Malay, as applicable to the study population.
• Demonstrate an understanding of local ageing, policy and/or health contexts.
• At least 2 years of experience in conducting semi-structured or in-depth interviews and independently analysing qualitative data.
• Experience developing coding frameworks and conducting thematic, framework or other systematic qualitative analysis.
• Have interest in conducting both evaluation and exploratory research that impact policies and programmes relevant to population ageing.
• Understand the importance of enhancing qualitative research capabilities in the age/healthcare sector.
• Possess strong interpersonal communications skills, with the ability to interact comfortably with older adults.
• Demonstrate ethical considerations, sensitivities and competencies working with older adults and/or vulnerable populations.
• Collaborative personality with strong people-skills to manage the research team, and interact with administrators, clinicians, and Principal Investigators.
• Possess strong organisational and time-management skills with the ability to manage project-related tasks and meet deadlines.
• Motivated, detail-oriented, and capable of working collaboratively in a multidisciplinary setting.
• Proficient in English with excellent writing and analytical skills.
• Experience in using NVivo qualitative analysis software or any other equivalent qualitative data software.

Applicants should provide:-
1)    Cover letter
2)    Curriculum Vitae
3)    Two reference letters
4)    Writing sample of about 3000 words

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.