Research Associate

Key Responsibilities:

• Designing survey questionnaires, conducting qualitative research, running pilot/backchecking exercises, refining study design and survey instruments
• Ensuring that the project complies with research protocols related to data collection and security
• Supervising data collection and data entry to ensure good data quality
• Work with data sets, prepare and run codes regularly for daily data cleaning and analysis in STATA
• Take ownership of daily data management trackers to ensure seamless flow of information for operational efficiency
• Ability to analyze and interpret data using statistical packages like STATA and produce output, including graphs and table.

• Maintaining relationship with partner organizations at both headquarters and field levels
• Managing teams: Recruit, 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
• Overseeing the on-ground implementation of the evaluation in accordance with the research design in association with our partner organization. Further, making sure the project is on track in terms of timelines.
• Liaising with field staff running evaluations and collaborating with them including occasional travel to research field sites; focus of work is to advise on quality control of data collection practices.

• Assisting in preparation of documents and presentations with graphs and tables for partner organization, donor reporting as well as dissemination activities
• Daily meetings with PIs to share project progress updates
• Any other task as assigned by the PIs

• A Bachelor's/Masters degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education or related fields
• Proficiency in STATA or other statistical packages (non-negotiable)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• Demonstrated ability to manage high-level relationships with partner organizations
• Have an entrepreneurial/start-up mindset: Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments. Are action oriented, self-driven and flexible
• Attentive to detail, analytical, and can work across multiple-task efficiently as required
• Team oriented: Are a reliable team player and can work with a diverse set of people on a daily basis
• Ability to work independently and in rural field locations (travel to nearby field sites as required)
• Willing to move to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

• Working proficiency in Tamil (strongly preferred)
• Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments and development research preferred
• Understanding of basic financial terms
• Experience working with rural enterprises