Partnership for Battery Action, Research and Methods Lead

Global Development Incubator • Washington, DC

1d • Remote

About The Position

The Partnership for Battery Action (Pb Action) is seeking a Research & Methods Lead to build the scientific basis for the Battery Index, a critical tool for assessing the safety of used lead-acid battery (ULAB) recyclers. This role is integral to Pb Action's mission to eliminate unsafe ULAB recycling globally by consolidating the industry towards fewer, safer facilities. The Battery Index uses a methodology to assess recyclers on facility standards, pollution levels (air, soil), and community blood lead levels, translating these into a tiered classification. The successful candidate will design and standardize this methodology, ensuring its reliability and scalability across different contexts and under scrutiny. This position is incubated by the Global Development Incubator (GDI) and will be a full-time contractor role. The role involves refining protocols for air monitoring, blood lead level testing, and developing a classification system, with a pilot in Ghana and expansion to 4-6 additional markets planned. This is a unique opportunity for a research-minded expert passionate about real-world results that can protect children and families from lead poisoning.

Requirements

• 5+ years of post-graduate experience
• Exceptional researcher with a leadership role in the lead poisoning elimination landscape
• Deep understanding of what high-quality, reliable environmental research requires, ideally including exposure assessment or environmental sampling
• A graduate degree in environmental engineering, environmental science, environmental chemistry, epidemiology, public health, or a related field, or equivalent applied experience
• A track record of executing research in low-resource environments, and the judgment to adapt protocols to field reality without compromising the data
• Comfort analyzing environmental and health datasets with tools like R, Python, or Stata, and designing data collection that supports rigorous analysis
• Strong project management skills: ability to keep things moving, manage simultaneous workstreams across countries, and follow through with excellence
• Ability to clearly communicate research objectives, protocols, and findings to field teams, implementers, regulators, funders, and the research community
• Comfortable in a startup environment, working well with a team and taking initiative
• Self-starter, constantly looking for ways to improve process, substance and learning for the team without being prodded to do so
• Team player, who enjoys collaborating with and learning from diverse groups of people with different skillsets
• Examples of working in settings where you rolled up your sleeves to achieve a collective goal

Nice To Haves

• Experience with heavy-metal exposure or lead specifically
• Familiarity with human subjects research and IRB processes
• Work experience in West Africa, South Asia, or Southeast Asia

Responsibilities

• Refine Pb Action's existing air and soil sampling protocols to balance data reliability with feasible field application, including sample sizes, sampling technology, and QA/QC.
• Determine how to partner with local civil society organizations and government entities to support their capacity-building and mutual learning about ULAB facilities’ lead poisoning.
• Define the Battery Index approach to worker and community blood lead sampling, including data reliability, ethical review and informed consent, and community engagement.
• Build a rigorous, standardized process for evaluating sample data and converting multiple data streams into a recommended recycler classification, with final decisions made together with Pb Action leadership.
• Manage in-country execution of soil, air, and blood sampling in multiple geographies.
• Train and oversee enumerators and field consultants, coordinate laboratory analysis, and support execution on the ground.
• Maintain clean, auditable datasets and clearly documented protocols so the methodology replicates consistently as the Index scales across markets.
• Work with the lead pollution research community to identify collaborations, draw in relevant research and technology, and help build the evidence base in a nascent field.

Benefits

• As an independent contractor of GDI the successful candidate will not receive health or other benefits from GDI and will be responsible for their own taxes.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior