Vice President - Research Advisory & Practice at Busara Center

Vice President - Research Advisory & Practice at Busara Center | Iko Kazi

Who We're Looking For

We are looking for a leader who has successfully operated at scale and can lead across strategy, business development, delivery, people, and organizational development.
You will be someone who is comfortable building where there is ambiguity, creating systems without creating unnecessary bureaucracy, and bringing different teams and portfolios together around a shared mission. You will combine strong commercial and operational judgment with intellectual curiosity, a deep understanding of behavioral science, and the ability to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders.
Most importantly, we are looking for someone who can help Busara move from strong individual practices and portfolios toward an increasingly integrated, scalable, and sustainable organization.

Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities

The Vice President, Research, Advisory & Practice will provide enterprise-level leadership across Busara's practice areas, with responsibility for translating strategy into sustainable growth, high-quality delivery, strong partnerships, and organizational capability. The role will work across practices, geographies, and functions to ensure that Busara operates as an integrated organization and continues to deliver meaningful impact at scale. The key areas of responsibility include and not limited to:

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

Skills and Capabilities

Strategic thinking with operational discipline – able to hold the long arc and the near-term simultaneously.
Deep commercial acumen, including revenue growth, margins, and pipeline management
Entrepreneurial builder – comfortable creating structure where none exists, and evolving it as the organization grows.
People leadership – a coach and talent developer who builds diverse, high-trust teams.
Behavioral science fluency – able to translate rigorous methods into practical, client-facing solutions.
External presence – credible, warm, and articulate in front of the most senior stakeholders.
Cross-functional influence – able to lead with authority across People, Finance, Comms, and Project Operations.
Future-oriented: able to engage with new technologies and support implementation of our AI strategy.

What Success Looks Like

Sustained revenue growth and improved financial performance across practice areas.
High-quality, consistent delivery across practice areas, portfolios and geographies.
Strong pipeline and conversion of strategic opportunities.
Clear and scalable practice areas with increased reuse of tools and approaches.
Strengthened leadership bench and organizational capability.
Enhanced reputation and influence of Busara in the global majority development ecosystem.