Job Opportunity for Research Associate- Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana at Poverty Action Lab

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) was established in 2003 as a research centre at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a first-rate team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL’s mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

 J-PAL South Asia, which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up. We have a growing number of partnerships in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Project Description

J-PAL SA supports JEEViKA, the Bihar state’s Rural Livelihoods Mission, in their implementation of the Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana (SJY) program. The SJY scheme is the first large-scale government implementation of a multi-layered livelihoods program (the “Graduation Approach”) with the objective to scale up the program to 1 Lakh ultra-poor households across Bihar. In addition to evaluating the SJY program, J-PAL SA supports JEEViKA in the scale up of the program through process evaluation research and by strengthening JEEViKA’s data management and use.  

Key Responsibilities include (but not limited to):

• Proposed and, as appropriate, implement innovations in the different stages of a project in coordination with Principal Investigators
• Designing survey questionnaires, conducting quantitative and qualitative research, refining study design and surveying instruments
• Managing teams: Train and supervise 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
• Travel to project sites to monitor and coordinate field activities for primary data collection during intervention monitoring
• Overseeing the implementation of the evaluation in accordance to the research design in association with our partner organizations
• Ensuring that the project complies with IRB and JPAL data collection and security protocols
• Engaging with and managing relationships with stakeholders.
• Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at various levels as required in the project
• Coordinating with teams across different verticals within JPAL on a variety of operational tasks
• Supervising data collection and data-entry, and ensuring data quality and productivity
• Assisting with data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, and preparation of documents and presentations for dissemination
• Reporting to supervisor and PI on all of the above-mentioned activities and any other work assigned
• Maintain compliance with all J-PAL protocols and policies.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, or related fields
• Relevant Experience of 2-3 years
• Willingness to travel
• Excellent management/ organizational skills and able to solve unexpected problems
• Excellent quantitative skills (required), qualitative skills (preferred)
• Working knowledge of Stata (required), R, SurveyCTO (preferred)
• Familiarity with RCTs
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
• Ability to deal with unstructured and dynamic environments
• Prior experience in conducting process evaluation assessments (preferred) 

Note on Work Authorizations:

• Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.