Research and Training Associate - J-PAL Global

Research and Training Associate - J-PAL Global

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 more than 1,100 top researchers at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts innovative research and builds powerful partnerships to solve the world’s greatest challenges. J-PAL was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2003 and is directed by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, along with Ben Olken.

It has over 500 research, policy, scale, training, and operations staff across Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. For more information visit povertyactionlab.org.

J-PAL is recruiting a Research and Training Associate to contribute to its mission of promoting evidence-informed policy. This position is based at the J-PAL Global office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Visa sponsorship is not available. Only applications following all instructions at the bottom of this page will be considered.

This position is part of J-PAL’s Research, Education, and Training (RET) team - a diverse and integrated group that works together in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with the goal of equipping policymakers, researchers, and staff with the necessary knowledge and tools to conduct rigorous impact evaluations.

J-PAL encourages diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work, and we value the diverse perspectives our staff bring to their roles and to the broader J-PAL community. We encourage people from all backgrounds, especially those underrepresented in the field of economics, to apply to this role. In your cover letter, you are welcome to share how your background and lived experiences have influenced your desire to work at J-PAL (this is entirely optional, just an opportunity for us to get to know you a bit better).

Contribute to building AI tools to help J-PAL staff and researchers conduct their work/research more efficiently; develop new teaching and reference materials; and help with the planning and delivery of J-PAL’s course offerings to train policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and research staff to engage with randomized evaluations. You will work closely with our regional offices and J-PAL’s partner organizations, and you will have the opportunity to travel domestically and internationally to liaise with these partners and support or participate in training courses.

You will also be exposed to the latest research in economics and work directly with affiliated researchers as they publish their research data or hire research assistants for their teams.

Your responsibilities may include:

• Contributing to greater research transparency and open data efforts by documenting and preparing research datasets for publication and building tools that streamline and facilitate these tasks for our research partners
• Building dashboards and other reporting infrastructure around J-PAL’s internal data
• Developing new, AI-based tools for J-PAL staff and research projects
• Researching and designing new teaching modules and preparing presentations, case studies, and manuals to train policymakers, researchers, and research staff on randomized evaluation methods
• Assisting in planning, organizing, and conducting training courses and workshops for key partners in governments, NGOs, and foundations around the world
• Supporting J-PAL’s online course portfolio, including MIT’s Data, Economics, and Design of Policy Micro Masters program, by serving as a Teaching Assistant for advanced courses, assisting students with assignments, and coordinating with others at MIT to successfully run each course
• Maintaining our tracking, monitoring, and evaluation systems for J-PAL training courses and conducting data analysis to assess learning and engagement in in-person and online courses
• Other assignments as needed as the position grows.

• Education: A bachelor’s degree in…