Research Associate - Social Networks - J-PAL South Asia

Start Date: January 6th , 2025

Language Requirement:  Hindi or Kannada

Length of Commitment: 1-2 years

Joining Location: Bangalore

Sector/Theme: Social Networks

No. of open positions: 2

About the Organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of 194 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL South Asia, based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, leads J-PAL’s work in the South Asia region. J-PAL South Asia conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Over more than ten years of existence, J-PAL South Asia has conducted 193 ongoing and completed randomized evaluations. J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Research Associates and/or Senior Research Associates to lead lab-in-the-field experiments and RCTs in India.

Social Networks Suite

The social networks suite of projects study the role of networks in developing economies and improve the understanding of the impact of networks on economic interactions. The projects within the suite have cross-cutting focus areas like social learning, information diffusion and aggregation, network structure and interaction, informal institutions, etc. You will get an opportunity to work with researchers like Arun Chandrasekhar, Emily Breza etc.

The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand experience in the design and implementation of experiments as well as data collection, management and analysis, in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The Research Associate will join a team of world class researchers from leading universities in the world. Research Associates work closely with Research Managers & Principal Investigators who guide and supervise them in their various tasks.

Key Responsibilities

Research Associates work closely with academic researchers and other field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

1. Designing and conducting pilot experiments, refining study design and survey instruments
2. Managing teams: Recruiting, training, and supervising both field-based and data operations teams consisting of project assistants, field managers, field-based surveyors, data entry operators and other field and office staff
3. Supervising all aspects of data collection and data entry to ensure high quality data across the project lifecycle
4. Overseeing the implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research and experimental design in association with our partner organization
5. Ensuring that the project complies with ethical and research guidelines with the support of the Research Manager
6. Assisting with data cleaning and preliminary data analysis
7. Assisting in preparation of documents and presentations for donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
8. Reporting to PIs on all of the above mentioned activities
9. Co-ordinating with the Administrative and Finance team on a variety of tasks related to field staff contracting and payments
10. Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
11. Any other task as assigned by the Research Manager, AD Research or ED

Desired Qualifications

1. A Bachelor's/Master’s degree in economics, quantitative economics, social sciences, data sciences, computer science, or related fields
2. Strong understanding of experimental methods, design and application
3. Excellent quantitative skills with strong management and organizational skills
4. Fluency and excellent communication skills in English. Some conversational-level skills in regional languages such as Hindi, Kannada, Odia etc.
5. Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
6. Demonstrated knowledge and experience of Stata, R, Python or other data analysis software is required
7. Ability to adapt to dynamic environment
8. Previous experience in development research preferred
9. Ability to work independently and in rural field locations
10. Willingness to quickly acquire new technical skills as per project requirements, such as web scraping, dashboard creation etc

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.