Policy Associate (Operations) - ADEPT - J-PAL Europe

Summary of the Organisation:

The (ADEPT) seeks to hire an Operations Associate based at J-PAL Europe (Paris School of Economics) to support its mission of expanding training and education in evidence-informed policymaking around the world.

Launched in 2024, ADEPT is part of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a global research centre working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence, and anchored by a network of 2,100+ researchers at universities around the world. Within J-PAL, ADEPT carries a vision of training the next generation of researchers and decision makers in rigorous policy design, evaluation, and analysis. The ADEPT core team develops university partnerships around the world, leveraging the MITx MicroMasters program in (DEDP) to launch new programs targeting civil servants, students, development professionals, and faculty. We are a small, dynamic team that works with a high number of external university partners and J-PAL offices worldwide.

Summary of the Role:

We are looking to hire someone who combines a passion for ADEPT's mission with strong operational skills to support our work. The Operations Associate will be at the heart of providing crucial operational support to our university partnerships throughout implementation and communications. The ideal candidate will be proactive and a fast learner who enjoys creating structures and processes to increase team efficiency and help us scale university partnerships worldwide.

Responsibilities:

Operational Partnership Support (75%)

The Operations Associate provides critical support to help ensure that our programs run smoothly, effectively and professionally.

• Course Management: In collaboration with the DEDP team at MIT and ADEPT partner universities, set up course instances (including translate material with the help of AI and set up proctored exams within the course instance, etc.), support faculty onboarding, manage student enrollment processes, set up and monitor performance dashboards, and liaise with partners to ensure a smooth implementation of our training offers.
• Primary point of contact for select ADEPT partnerships leveraging DEDP coursework in admissions or to grant credit towards on-campus programs, and in awarding DEDP MicroMasters scholarships to learners worldwide
• Systems & documentation: Create new systems and processes to increase operational efficiency as ADEPT continues to scale worldwide. Update processes, guides, and useful documentation (both internal and external) accordingly.

Communications (15%)

• Website: Maintain the ADEPT website including by drafting partner pages, updating news sections and liaising with the J-PAL Web Team for broader changes.
• Reporting: Support the team with reporting on partnership statistics and performance, and preparing reports to donors, partners or offices within the J-PAL network.
• External communications: Support drafting of social media announcements, blog posts, or other communications materials to advance ADEPT's visibility.

Team Operations, Logistics & Event planning (10%)

• General operational support to the ADEPT team, including supporting staff recruitment, drafting team HR policies, and agreements between ADEPT and partner universities
• Provide logistical support to occasional external events (conferences, trainings, meetings, etc.), such as flight and accommodation booking and coordinating with external providers (catering, translation, etc.)

Qualifications:

• Education: You hold at least a bachelor's degree in economics, public policy, management or in related fields preferred.
• Experience: Minimum 1 year of experience in a related field
• Language: Excellent command of English is required: written expression must be precise, and oral expression clear and confident (internal meetings, discussions with partners). Working knowledge of another European language is an asset.
• Experience with AI: You are familiar with AI and know how to use it to improve workflows. You have the ability to build dashboards and semi-automated workflows with the help of Claude Code or similar, and to determine where and how AI tool use is responsible and ethical in your own work. Having working knowledge of a coding language sufficient to be able to describe a project to an LLM, execute the generated code, and iteratively de-bug with the AI tool's help is a plus.
• Software: High level of accuracy and organisational skills, familiarity with office tools and modern communication tools (e.g., Excel, Google sheets, Zoom, Slack)
• Interpersonal: Strong interpersonal skills, attentive listener, ability to work in a multilingual, multicultural and multipartner environment pragmatism and a constructive mindset, focused on finding applicable solutions
• Dynamism, team spirit, and motivation to contribute to J-PAL and ADEPT's mission.
• Authorized to work in the European Union.