STOOS Consulting is an international research, evaluation, and advisory firm with registrations and operational presence across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and fragile and conflict-affected contexts, including Afghanistan. STOOS delivers high-quality services across monitoring and evaluation (M&E), applied research, assessments, learning, and technical advisory, covering sectors such as livelihoods and food security, education, health and nutrition, protection, gender and social inclusion, climate resilience, governance, and humanitarian response. Our work is grounded in evidence-based analysis, participatory methodologies, conflict sensitivity, safeguarding, and ethical research standards, supporting NGOs, UN agencies, donors, and international partners.

As part of our growing portfolio of research and evaluation assignments in Afghanistan, STOOS Consulting is seeking a Field Manager to lead and coordinate field-level implementation of data collection activities. The Field Manager will play a critical operational and quality assurance role, ensuring that fieldwork is conducted safely, ethically, and to the highest technical standards in complex, access-constrained, and security-sensitive environments.

Position: Field Manager (Afghanistan-based)

Key Responsibilities:

Field Operations and Coordination

• Lead the planning, coordination, and day-to-day management of fieldwork activities across assigned provinces and districts in Afghanistan, ensuring alignment with approved methodologies, workplans, and timelines.

• Develop detailed field implementation plans, including team deployment, logistics, access coordination, and contingency arrangements in response to security or access constraints.

• Coordinate closely with STOOS’s central technical team to ensure field activities are aligned with research objectives, sampling frameworks, and quality standards.

Team Management and Supervision

• Recruit, supervise, and mentor enumerators, supervisors, and other field staff, ensuring clear task allocation, performance monitoring, and adherence to ethical standards.

• Conduct enumerator briefings, refresher trainings, and on-the-job coaching to ensure accurate tool administration, cultural sensitivity, and safeguarding compliance.

• Foster a professional, inclusive, and respectful working environment, with attention to gender dynamics and duty of care.

Community Engagement and Access

• Lead community entry and stakeholder engagement in coordination with local authorities, community elders, religious leaders, and relevant civil society actors, ensuring culturally appropriate and context-sensitive engagement.

• Support participant mobilization while ensuring voluntary participation, informed consent, and confidentiality.

• Navigate local norms, power dynamics, and sensitivities to support safe and respectful data collection.

Data Quality, Ethics, and Safeguarding

• Oversee the ethical implementation of all data collection activities, ensuring strict compliance with Do-No-Harm principles, safeguarding policies, and data protection protocols.

• Conduct routine field monitoring, spot checks, and data verification to ensure completeness, accuracy, and consistency of collected data.
  • Identify and address data quality issues in real time, coordinating corrective actions with enumerators and the central team.

Security, Risk Management, and Problem Solving

• Monitor field-level security, access, and logistical risks, adapting plans as needed to ensure staff safety and continuity of operations.

• Troubleshoot operational challenges related to mobility, connectivity, weather, permissions, or community concerns.

• Escalate risks and incidents promptly and contribute to risk mitigation strategies.

Reporting and Coordination

• Provide regular written and verbal field updates to the STOOS central team, including progress against targets, challenges, contextual developments, and emerging insights.

• Contribute contextual analysis to support data interpretation, preliminary findings, and reporting processes.

• Support handover of clean, well-documented datasets and field notes to the analysis team.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Public Health, Education, Economics, Political Science, or a related field.

• Minimum of 3–5 years of experience managing fieldwork for research, assessments, evaluations, or M&E assignments in Afghanistan or similarly fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

• Proven experience supervising field teams and implementing ethical, community-based, and conflict-sensitive research approaches.

• Fluency in Dari and/or Pashto is required; working proficiency in English is a strong asset.
  • Hands-on experience using digital data collection platforms such as KoboToolbox, ODK, or SurveyCTO, including basic troubleshooting in low-connectivity environments.

• Strong organizational, coordination, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to operate effectively under security, access, and logistical constraints.

• Demonstrated commitment to safeguarding, gender sensitivity, and ethical research conduct.

How to apply

Application Instructions:

Interested candidates are invited to apply through the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdSz4T30zA1rZ6njvS9JaorVUzdI7quioQt4jLkh49VvNvcxQ/viewform?pli=1

Qualified candidates who are motivated to contribute to high-quality, evidence-based research and evaluation in Afghanistan, supporting learning and accountability across humanitarian and development programming, are strongly encouraged to apply.