Research Specialist at Busara Center

Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities

Design and analyze experimental research projects in the experimental decision lab.

• Lead experimental design for lab and field studies on a variety of internal and external projects.
• Incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods, behavioral science, psychology, and economics into projects managed by Busara’s other divisions (Analysts, Labs team, Data and Programming and Operations teams).
• Design lab and field research instruments in collaboration with lab staff and Busara’s other divisions.
• Generate key research inputs, such as pre-analysis plans, experimental protocols, analysis code templates, and data check templates.
• Provide ad-hoc technical support to large scale field, lab and consulting projects with leading academics and institutions.
• Analyze data from experiments and transform data into graphs and other presentable output.

Lead the delivery of research outputs:

• Assist in producing and delivering reports and presentations of the research work for consulting clients.
• Generate blog posts in collaboration with the communications department that communicates research output to a more general audience.
• Generate high quality academic working papers and journal publications on Busara’s internal and external experimental research.
• Contribute to building out of local academic networks
• Attend and present Busara’s work at academic and practitioner conferences around the world.

Support Lab (research arm) activities and organizational learning and development.

• Support the production of research best-practice guides and tools for internal use.
• Provide ad-hoc analysis and writing support for Lab business development, such as writing concept notes, generating graphs of meta-data etc. 
• Provide structured mentorship and feedback to junior members of staff working closely with the RS on projects.
• Manage Research Officers and contribute towards their learning and growth towards Research Specialist.
• Contribute towards Busara’s internal and external training programs in experimental design and behavioral science, including designing and running workshops, conducting reading group sessions, and conducting online training. 

Requirements: Necessary

• A Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Psychology, Public Policy, Social Sciences, or related fields.
• Strong knowledge of experimental social science literature (economics, political science, psychology)
• Experience designing lab and field experiments
• Strong skills in statistics and programming (STATA, Python, R, Matlab)
• Strong analytical and writing skills
• 2+ years previous work experience in a related field
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently and a team player.
• Interest and experience working in a fast-paced working environment.
• Excellent communication and writing skills, with fluency in English.

Requirements: Preferably

• A Master’s degree or PhD in Economics, Psychology, Public Policy, Social Sciences, or related fields.
• Experience managing or mentoring staff
• Advanced statistics, research methods, or econometrics
• Familiarity with and interest in behavioral science
• Previous experience conducting research in developing countries