Research Associate - PEER India - J-PAL South Asia

About J-PAL South Asia:

The was established in 2003 as a research center 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.

, based at the ) in Chennai, leads J-PAL's efforts to advance evidence-informed policymaking in the region. By conducting rigorous randomized evaluations, forging impactful strategic partnerships, and scaling effective programs, we strive to deliver better evidence to help governments design better policies so people can live better lives. Established in 2007, J-PAL South Asia is the oldest and the largest among all J-PAL offices.

About PEER India:

PEER India (Partnerships for Excellence in Economics Research) is a multi-year J-PAL South Asia initiative to build a stronger, locally grounded economics and public-policy research ecosystem in India. It works through deep partnerships with universities to co-create an environment where all scholars can thrive, with a deliberate focus on reducing long-standing barriers to women's participation and leadership. In line with J-PAL's mission, PEER India works with institutions to help scholars produce more rigorous research, build collaborative networks and shape public debate, so that their evidence and voices influence institutions and policy.

About the role:

J-PAL South Asia is looking for a Research Associate (Data) to support PEER India's work on building and maintaining its research data architecture. The Research Associate will work closely with the Research Manager to build a dataset of researchers and institutions, making sure it is clean, up to date and well documented.

They will also support the team in managing data from surveys that the team runs, track responses and follow-ups, and link responses back to the dataset where consent allows. The role also includes serving as the anchor for all programming related data.

Overall, the role sits at the heart of PEER India's evidence work. Drawing on PEER India's data architecture, the Research Associate will support analysis that informs programme design and helps identify gaps, maintain PEER's gender-disaggregated dashboard and contribute to data-led written outputs.The role suits someone who enjoys careful data work, likes being a part of a hands-on programme team and is keen to see how data can shape a growing programme.

Scope of work:

Contributing to PEER India's data architecture and use

The Research Associate will support the Research Manager in building and maintaining PEER India's data architecture: a set of linked datasets on researchers and institutions, and the data that feeds into them, to inform learning, monitoring and evaluation activities.

Datasets and workflows: Support the collection, cleaning and validation of PEER India's core datasets. Run and maintain the workflows that feed them, and update them regularly so that records stay current and link correctly across sources and over time.

Quality, documentation and reproducibility: Check data for duplicates, errors and gaps. Keep documentation and code up to date so that the data is transparent and others can rerun the workflows.

Primary data collection: Support the team with data collection activities, such as surveys and interviews where required, and with tracking responses and follow-ups. Run quality checks on incoming data and integrate it into the broader datasets, handling sensitive data securely.

Event and programme data: Manage data from PEER India's events and programmes, including registrations, participant lists, feedback and gender-disaggregated attendance, and link it to the core datasets.

Data access, dashboards and reporting: Help prepare internal and public versions of the data, maintain PEER India's gender-disaggregated dashboard, and make common indicators easy for the wider team to access.

Programme design and monitoring: Support the R&T Manager and PEER India leadership with analysis that informs programme design, tracks programme reach and identifies gaps.

Team and programme support.

Events: Support the team in delivering PEER India's events, such as workshops, conferences and panel discussions, including on-the-day support.

Literature and evidence review: Contribute to PEER India's literature and evidence review, so that programmes are well targeted and build on existing work.

Reporting and communications: Support the R&T Manager and PEER India leadership with analytical outputs, such as tables, charts and short notes. Contribute to data-led communications, such as infographics, data stories and dashboard snapshots, and to external communications that draw on PEER India's data.

Qualifications:

Required:

• A bachelor's or master's degree in economics, statistics or a related field.
• At least one year of professional or university-level research experience applying data skills.
• Strong programming skills in R, Stata or Python.
• Comfort using Git or similar tools to track and manage code changes.
• Experience cleaning, documenting and managing datasets.
• Experience presenting data clearly and creatively for both internal and external audiences, including data visualisation.
• Care and good judgement in handling sensitive and personally identifiable data.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage several workstreams at once, including event planning and delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English.
• Willingness to travel for events.

Desirable:

• Experience with web scraping, network analysis, and with survey platforms such as SurveyCTO or Qualtrics.
• Experience working in cross-functional teams and with external stakeholders.
• Understanding of gender-intentional programme design, data collection and analysis.
• Understanding of the university ecosystem, particularly in India.