Job Opportunity for Senior Research Associate (Quantitative Data) , ASER Centre at Pratham in New Delhi

About Pratham

Pratham was founded in 1995, to provide pre-school education to children in Mumbai slums. Over the last 20 years, Pratham has grown to be India’s largest NGO working to provide quality education to underprivileged youth and children in over 20 states across the country, with a range of interventions.
Pratham is a widely recognized organization, having received notable awards such as the WISE Prize for Innovation, Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the Henry R Kravis Prize in Leadership and the CNN IBN Indian of the Year for Public Service. For more details, refer to www.pratham.org

About ASER Centre

ASER Centre is the non-profit and autonomous research wing of Pratham Education Foundation. The organisation was founded with the aim of generating evidence at scale; strengthening the link between evidence and action; and strengthening the capacities of individuals and institutions to design, conduct, and understand measurement. ASER Centre designs and implements the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) surveys, the largest citizen-led household survey of children’s foundational reading and arithmetic abilities in India. The Centre has conducted numerous other research and evaluation studies, both independently as well as in collaboration with various national and international partners to explore issues in early childhood education and health, primary and secondary school education, and vocational education among others.

Roles & Responsibilities

The Research and Statistics Unit of ASER Centre is seeking applications from qualified and passionate applicants for the role of Senior Research Associate (SRA) (Quantitative Data). The SRA will be responsible for all aspects related to quantitative data collection, management and analysis. The role includes project management duties not limited to instrument design for large-scale research, developing and testing data collection processes and protocols, supervising and mentoring junior researchers, interacting with different government and non-government partners, and training enumerators.

The ideal candidate will have experience and skills in conducting quantitative research and statistical analysis (descriptive and inferential), can fit into a dynamic and diverse organizational environment, can adapt to iterative and evolving project requirements, has a self-starting attitude, the ability to plan, prioritise and execute tasks with minimal supervision.

The summary below provides candidates with a brief overview of 2 current research projects. Additional tasks will relate to analysis of existing data sets as needed.

A multi-year, multi-methods research project on Life Skills: ASER Centre is part of a network of over 15 organizations working on life skills education in India. Over three years, the Centre will conduct research using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how different stakeholders across the country understand life skills. For the first year, the project will collect survey data from 30,000 respondents across India.
A longitudinal, mixed-methods evaluation on school-community relationships and accountability: This longitudinal evaluation investigates the potential of community-school partnerships to improve children’s learning outcomes in rural India. Designed as a mixed-method evaluation, the research combines a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) with embedded case studies. The end line survey and assessment is currently ongoing for approximately 24,000 students.

Broad responsibilities of the SRA will include:

• Planning, supervising and conducting data cleaning and analysis of large-scale quantitative data.
• The candidate should be well-versed with descriptive and inferential statistical analysis methods.
• Drafting and contributing to reports, policy briefs, papers, articles and presentations, including creating appropriate visualizations for data presentation.
• Developing and testing survey instruments and research training protocols.
• Developing project timelines, budgets and operational plans.
• Designing, overseeing, and participating in pilots, field monitoring and enumerator training as and when required. Supporting implementation with internal and external teams.
• Extensive travel to rural locations in support of these activities, when conditions permit.

Qualifications and Experience

• Degree in Statistics, Economics, Mathematics or other disciplines with quantitative emphasis. Graduates from the Humanities field with relevant experience are also encouraged to apply. While candidates with advanced degrees (M.A, MPhil or Ph.D.) are preferred, those with relevant work experience will be given equal consideration.
• Strong proficiency and experience in managing and conducting quantitative analysis. The preferred software is STATA.
• A minimum of 3 years of work experience in primary research/ data analysis roles.
• Proficiency in M.S. Office (Excel, PowerPoint and Word).
• Proven ability to work in large teams and manage multiple tasks efficiently.
• Strong communication skills in English and Hindi (written and oral). Proficiency in any other Indian language will be an advantage.
• Willingness to travel extensively in rural India with basic facilities.
• Experience in mixed-method research is preferred but not mandatory.

Location

This is a central team position, based in Delhi. However, due to COVID-19, remote working options are currently available.

Remuneration and Consultancy

Remuneration for this position will range between INR 50,000-65,000 per month.

Application Process

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for 3 rounds of interviews including a short quantitative-analysis skill test that can be completed remotely. 

To apply, please send the following documents to recruitmentsasercentre@gmail.com 

1. Updated CV (Required File naming protocol: FullName_CV) 

2. Cover Letter (500 words): Describe your motivation to apply to ASER Centre, why you are a good fit for this role, and provide relevant experience and examples that align with the stated requirements (Required File naming protocol: FullName_Statement) 

Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.