Social Research Manager - Abu Dhabi
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Research Manager with expertise in areas such as Social, Education, Health, Wellness, or socio-economic topics. This is an exciting role within a well-known Government organisation where you will play a huge part in leading the research centre.
Candidates must have experience as a research centre head or manager, having worked on designing research on social topics from scratch.
Responsibilities Overview
- Define and lead entity's research vision, priorities , and annual roadmap aligned with national and sectoral strategies
- Ensure research outputs contribute to policy development, foresight, and social innovation.
- Oversee flagship studies and thematic research programs addressing critical social challenges.
- Build and sustain partnerships with universities, think tanks, and global research institutions.
- Develop and manage collaboration agreements (MoUs, NDAs, data-sharing protocols) with international organizations such as OECD, UN agencies, and the World Bank.
- Develop and implement innovative funding strategies to sustain and expand research initiatives.
- Explore opportunities to establish named research chairs, joint research funds, and academic partnerships for long-term financial sustainability.
- Lead proposal development for external funding opportunities (EU Horizon, UNDP, World Bank, etc.).
- Introduce performance-based funding and partnership models that reward impactful and policy-relevant research.
- Establish research governance frameworks, ethical standards, and peer review systems.
- Ensure scientific rigor, transparency, and reproducibility across all studies.
- Supervise publication pipelines, including policy briefs, working papers, and journal articles.
- Project and team management experience
Requirements
- Master's in research, economics, policy analysis, mathematics, quantitative research/studies, (PHD is preferable)
- 10-15+ full-time years of experience in research, quantitative analysis and advanced statistics
- Experience in quick delivery for studies, projects, and strategies
- 10-15+ full-time years of experience in research, quantitative analysis and advanced statistics
- Peer-reviewed publication related to the social sector or similar fields
- UAEN with family-book or Arabic speaker is mandatory, as candidates must be able to read, write, speak, and translate official documents in Arabic
- Experience leading a research centre as the Manager or Research Center Head. Leading research centers for a think tank, or consulting firm with focus on public sector and social research would be advantageous
- Peer reviewed publication related to the social sector or similar fields
