About ISDM

ISDM got seeded as an idea in early 2016 when its founders came together with a common vision to launch a first-of-its-kind educational institution that would develop and groom the next generation of professional leaders and managers for the development sector. ISDM envisions building Development Management (or Management for the Social Sectors) as a stand-alone domain and an aspirational choice for professionals in the development sector. The belief is that Development Management will significantly scale up the positive impacts on the lives of people in sustained ways.

By 2025, ISDM aims to become the go-to management institute for top professionals wanting to transform the development sector for greater impact on people’s lives.

In order to achieve this aim, ISDM has identified three broad focus areas

Continuously building the one-year long Post Graduate Program in Development Management (PGP-DM)
Creating a strong research function that will lay the foundations for Development Management and leadership as a unique domain and discipline
Launching Strategic Capacity Building Programs aimed at influencing and up- skilling middle to senior leaders in the social sector through special workshops, short-term courses, and customized convening.

Since launching its flagship (and India’s first) PGP in Development Management (equivalent of a one-year MBA) in 2017, the Institution has placed 200 young professionals on an accelerated path to build, manage and lead Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs). ISDM has successfully executed 46 short-term Open Programs across three cities inducting 142 development professionals from 49 SPOs as ISDM alumni who are now redefining what “impact at scale” means in the development sector. ISDM has created a national character for itself, attracting a diverse range of student and recruiting organisations from across the country. Over these years, ISDM has also built strong partnerships with leading philanthropists, academicians, advisors, and practitioners.

ISDM has audacious ambitions to build a world class institution, become a global fountainhead of development management knowledge, and define the domain of development management for the Social Sectors.

ISDM is entering a new phase of growth with a revamped program and renewed focus on establishing itself firmly as a preeminent institution in its domain. This requires strategic and energetic institutional leadership.

Global Knowledge Hub (GKH)

The Centres of Excellence are housed within the Global Knowledge Hub, whose role is to strengthen, from end-to-end, the knowledge and practice of Development Management. GKH does this by collating and curating global experiences and knowledge, conducting in-depth research and producing knowledge assets and resources, collaborating to design products and programs for a wide range of target segments that impact the practice of development management and disseminating knowledge as a public good through like-minded individuals and institutions globally.

The Role

We are searching for a passionate data science Senior Research Associate, with experience in applied research on data science and experience or interest in the social sector, to provide technical and management support for the research agenda for the ISDM Centre of Data Science for Social Impact, a Centre of Excellence within ISDM.

Centres of Excellence:

They are independent units, carrying out research studies, engagement, and other activities in specific domains of development management.
Their aim is to impact the practice of development management in the Social Purpose ecosystem and significantly scale up the positive impact on the lives of people in sustained ways.

They will drive cutting edge thinking and become a global authority in that domain.

Centre of Data Sciences for Social Impact:

Aims to build stronger Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) through better, more effective organisational decision making, by ensuring that the SPO ecosystem benefits from the data and knowledge it produces as well as open data that should be easily accessible, to create sustained impact at scale from the vast financial, social, and intellectual capital that is poured into it every year.
Over time, become a leading voice and a platform in the ecosystem for a rational, objective view on data sciences for social impact, connecting relevant stakeholders and driving the thinking on innovation and the future of these areas.
Create a shared vision, vocabulary, and metrics for data sciences for social impact and empower the SPO ecosystem with access to evidence-backed knowledge base and cutting-edge common access, open knowledge infrastructure.
Crucially, along with producing and disseminating knowledge, aim to create ready solutions for or consult with SPOs on their data and data sciences requirements.
If you unequivocally believe in the universal human values of justice, courage, compassion & equity, are passionate about doing your part to make the world a better place, excited about creating something new, and eager to be part of the journey of building a first-of-its-kind institution in the world, then ISDM is the place for you. In addition, you will experience working in a dynamic environment, with room for experimentation & high sense of ownership & accountability.

Key Responsibilities:

Provide technical and management support in application of data science to create social impact, through the use of big data and predictive analytics (e.g. data mining, machine learning, predictive modelling).
Contribute to the development and testing of novel methods to improve the rigor and/or efficiency of the analysis.
Lead & support the design, implementation, review , oversight and quality assurance of social sector data.
Ability to simplify the research outcomes and explain data/findings through story telling to serve a diverse set of audience.
Applying data science methods to social sector data, including data wrangling, exploratory analysis of large-scale datasets, modeling, statistical analysis, advanced data visualization, predictive analytics and knowledge of social sector programming.
Natural Language Processing (NLP), ETL ( Extract Transform, Load) pipeline for database management.
Developing Dashboards and plan & manage the entire data lifecycle.
Develop, lead and implement data strategies.
Employing AI/ML and deep learning to create social impact.
Maintaining research transparency practices and work on open data.
Write Technical proposals across one or more development sectors.

You must have:

Masters in Data Science, Statistics, economics, computer engineering or other relevant social science withy a significant quantitative analysis component.
4-7 years of experience in applying data science methods in social sector, R, python or SQL.
Experience is using version control management tools such as GitHub.
Experience in coding & working with unsupervised machine learning algorithms.
Excellent written communication skills as well as presentation skills.
Ability to work with data teams, critical and structured thinking.
Proven experience of working in complex projects involving multiple stakeholders, partners etc.
Be passionate about data science and the social sector.

ISDM is an equal opportunity organization with a particular emphasis on affirmative action. The culture of the organization is one of professionalism while also one that greatly values relationships.

To apply for this job please visit isdm.kekahire.com.