Global Developmentubator

About one in three children in low- and middle-income countries is lead poisoned, and roughly a third of that traces back to unsafe battery recycling. The Battery Index is how we figure out which recyclers are safer than others - the standard buyers, investors, and regulators use to decide who should operate. The Research & Methods Lead will build the science behind this critical tool. Organization: Partnership for Battery Action, incubated by the Global Development Incubator Location: Remote, with at least 5 hours of daily overlap with Eastern North American timezone Travel: International field travel 4-5 times per year Contract Type: Full-time equivalent; 220 days annually Reports To: Battery Index Strategy Lead Application Deadline: 17 July 2026; applications reviewed on a rolling basis Start Date: As soon as possible; 1-year contract minimum About The Partnership for Battery Action Lead poisoning affects an estimated 800 million children worldwide. Its health burden is comparable to tuberculosis or malaria, yet it receives a fraction of the attention and funding. At least one-third of lead poisoning in low-income countries traces to a single source: unsafe recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) at facilities with few or no pollution controls, releasing lead into surrounding communities, soil, water, and air (Crawfurd et al, 2026). Unsafe recycling persists not because safer alternatives are technically impossible, but because the market rewards cheap, polluting operators. The Partnership for Battery Action (Pb Action) exists to change that. Our 15-year goal is to eliminate more than 80% of unsafe ULAB recycling globally by consolidating the industry toward fewer, safer facilities - making responsible recycling financially sustainable while removing the conditions that let unsafe operators compete. Pb Action is incubated by the Global Development Incubator, Inc (GDI), a US nonprofit organization. The successful candidate will be contracted by GDI as a full-time contractor. This role will be an integral part of the Pb Action team, participating in weekly calls with the rest of the team as well as leading our technical strategy for the Battery Index. . About the Battery Index The Battery Index is the centerpiece of our strategy: it is designed to build a credible, scalable methodology and standard for assessing recycler safety globally in low-resource settings. We assess ULAB recyclers on facility standards, air and soil pollution, and blood lead levels in surrounding communities. We then translate the results into a tiered classification that gives buyers, investors, and regulators the information they need to improve the safety of ULAB recycling. We are piloting the Battery Index in Ghana in 2026. Preliminary results from facility and soil assessments indicate that this data could have transformative effects on improving the safety of communities. We are now poised to refine our methodology for air monitoring and blood lead level testing, and are ready to hire a technical leader who can help us hone our approach and scale to 4-6 additional markets in the next 12 months. While we anticipate continuous improvement and methodology refinements over the next few years, the decisions made in this period will define how recycler safety is measured and understood globally for years to come.