Location: London - hybrid working, 2 days per week in the office (office in Farringdon moving to Aldgate mid-January 2025)

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JOB PURPOSE

The Social Science Team Lead is responsible for steering the positioning of the social sciences within MSF. This includes managing a team of Anthropologists and Mental health professionals with the integration, transversality and professionalising of their disciplines inside MSF's humanitarian operations. The objective is to foster a productive team environment, ensuring collaboration, communication and technical expertise to support OCA and other entities in MSF to deliver timely and contextualised medical humanitarian assistance.

OVERVIEW OF DEPARTMENT

The Manson Unit (MU) is a multi-disciplinary medical team within MSF UK. We aim to improve the quality of MSF's medical programmes worldwide, so that the best possible care is delivered to patients.

The MU is a team of c40, comprised of medical doctors and specialists in infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, health information systems, epidemiology, social science, geographical information systems, medical editing, and research communication. We provide direct support to our field programmes through providing specialist advice on medical issues, implementing new ways of working and piloting new approaches, supporting and overseeing research studies, and supporting outbreak response.

DIMENSIONS

Line management of the team involves enabling, coaching and supporting the team as well as the development of the team´s strategic annual plan. Current direct management includes three anthropologists and two Mental health professionals. Along with this comes the management of resources: external consultants, academic partners and engagement, networking and budget forecasts for the team. Individual management aims to prioritise individual goals and provide practical help to manage and overcome obstacles and achieve objectives through bringing their own experience to bear; performance management and career development. Team management includes HR, communications and financial responsibilities as well as develop new projects and coordinate some of the existing ones.

CONTEXT

The Social Science team supports MSF teams to address psychological and social needs within public health problems in humanitarian settings, and uses a social sciences lens to inform the design, evaluation and adaptation of MSF's programmes. The team supports understanding sociopolitical and psychological reactions to, for example, chronic, infectious and neglected diseases, reproductive health, vaccine hesitancy and palliative care. This is achieved through effective and relevant social data gathering, operational research, and collaboration with other MSF entities to achieve change in our humanitarian health practice.